Welcome to Derry Episode 5 Unleashes Its Most Terrifying Twist Yet
Pennywise finally emerges as the season’s darkest secret shatters the children’s trust and transforms the series into full-blown horror
IT: Welcome to Derry Episode 5 hits with quiet dread that builds into one of the most chilling revelations of the season. Titled “29 Neibolt Street,” the episode marks a turning point—where the series shifts from eerie tension to full-fledged horror, pulling its young characters into the core of Derry’s malevolence.
The episode opens on a fragile sense of relief. The children, fractured by fear, are stunned when Matty Clements, believed dead for days, suddenly reappears. His calm explanation of surviving underground beneath Neibolt Street gives the group a renewed sense of hope. But in Derry, hope is often just bait.
Their decision to follow Matty back to 29 Neibolt Street sets the tone for what becomes an unrelenting descent into terror. The abandoned house, long a haunting symbol in the show’s mythology, grows into an ominous presence. Every dark hallway, every unnatural sound signals that something inside is watching—and waiting.
The narrative’s spine-chilling twist arrives when Matty’s composure fractures. In a horrifying reveal, both the kids and the audience learn that Matty never escaped. He never came back. The person guiding them was Pennywise, wearing the boy’s form like a disguise. The moment not only shocks but redefines earlier scenes—revealing how the entity doesn’t merely feed on fear, but preys on hope itself, twisting it into a weapon.
With this revelation, Pennywise emerges fully—no longer a whisper or fleeting shadow, but a monstrous presence unleashed in the tunnels beneath Derry. The episode uses darkness, cramped spaces, and psychological tension to deliver some of the most memorable and frightening visuals of the season.
Running parallel to the children’s nightmare, the subplot of Dick Hallorann deepens the narrative’s ties to Stephen King’s wider universe. His struggle to unlock a psychic “lockbox” of traumatic memories hints at the cost of the Shining—and suggests that his past may be far more intertwined with Derry’s evil than previously understood.
By the end, Episode 5 leaves the town irrevocably shaken. Innocence is gone, trust is fractured, and Pennywise has declared himself. What began as a story of children searching for truth now becomes a battle for survival against something ancient, manipulative, and merciless.
Episode 5 doesn’t just advance the plot—it detonates it. With the monster revealed and the group stripped of security, IT: Welcome to Derry plunges into its darkest and most gripping phase yet. The question is no longer whether the kids can stop the horror—but whether they can survive it.
This article is authored by Sakshi, an intern from ST Joseph's Degree and PG College