IT: Welcome to Derry Episode 5 Recap & Ending Explained: Clowning Around in the Sewers

IT: Welcome to Derry Episode 5 Ending Explained: Hide your trauma. Hide your kids. And definitely don’t lock them away in the little box in your mind, because that’s hardly a safe space when you’re dealing with Pennywise. The fifth episode of IT: Welcome to Derry delivers on its long-teased promise, finally bringing Bill Skarsgård’s Dancing Clown into the flesh for a terrifying, multi-pronged assault on Derry. As the town’s fragile sanity crumbles, our characters are drawn into the sewers for a confrontation that will leave lives shattered and mysteries deepened. This episode, “The Lifeboat and the Anchor,” is a masterclass in escalating dread. Let’s break down the key events, tragic twists, and that explosive ending. As we all know, thanks to the book and movies of “It”, nothing good ever happens in the sewers where the monster lives. And, said and done, that’s just what happened in chapter 5 of “Welcome to Derry”. However, beyond the losses and discoveries, there are a couple of things that happened in the episode that you may need an explanation for. If that is your case, here we tell you what happened in the story, specifically, in the end.

IT: Welcome to Derry Episode 5 Recap

The episode starts with the young characters completely lost on what to do next. The tension grows when Matty appears out of nowhere, ensuring that Phil could still be alive. It is precisely that hope that leads Lilly to convince her friends to enter the sewers, without imagining that they are falling straight into the plan. At the same time, the army refines its strategy to capture the monster and eventually turn it into a weapon. Already in the tunnels, each character faces the consequences of getting too close to the cosmic being that lives down there. Leroy makes a fatal mistake, and Hallorann breaks down when Pennywise forces him to face a horror he had hidden since he was a child.

Everything gets darker when the boys discover the bodies of previous victims, including Phil and Matty, confirming that they never managed to escape. In an unexpected twist, Taniel ends up being key without even knowing it. A fragment of the fallen star, the same one that showed Pennywise’s origin in episode four, falls next to Lilly the moment she almost becomes the next victim. The monster immediately retreats, revealing that the fragment is his greatest weakness. With that, Lilly not only survives, but she now has a real weapon in her hands to face the future.

IT: Welcome to Derry Episode 5 Recap & Ending Explained: The Return of Matty: A Pennywise Ploy

The episode opens with a small but significant act of courage. Marge, fully aware of the supernatural force that manipulated her into hurting her own eye, protects Lilly by fabricating a story about her glasses breaking. This act of solidarity strengthens their friendship but also confirms Marge’s terrifying knowledge: something ancient and evil is hunting them.

This makes the subsequent reappearance of the missing Matty all the more shocking. The kids find him camping in a symbolically yellow tent (a clear callback to Georgie’s raincoat), but his story is a harrowing one. He claims to have escaped the sewers where a clown named Pennywise keeps children as “pets,” feeding on their fear. Most importantly, he reveals that Phil is still alive down there.

This information is a catalyst. Unable to trust the authorities and with Matty refusing to go home to his abusive father, the kids feel they have no choice but to act. In a moment of misguided inspiration, Lilly runs to her only trusted adult confidante, Mrs. Kersh.

Mrs. Kersh’s Cunning Manipulation

In a seemingly benign scene, Mrs. Kersh listens to Lilly’s frantic story. However, her advice is a classic piece of reverse psychology. By explicitly warning Lilly not to go into the sewers, she plants the very idea she claims to be discouraging. Lilly’s eyes light up with the “solution,” and she uses her father’s “lifeboat and anchor” metaphor to convince her terrified friends.

In a disastrous decision, the kids, hopped up on Valium pilfered from Lilly’s mother, follow “Matty” into the labyrinthine sewers. The horrifying truth is revealed all too late: it was never Matty. Pennywise himself took his form to lure them into his lair. The gruesome sight of Teddy, Susie, and Phil’s floating corpses is their rude awakening. As Pennywise sheds the disguise, the kids scatter, and in the panic, Lilly is left behind.

The Hanlon Family Tragedy: A Father’s Worst Fear

Above ground, the adults are orchestrating their own descent into the underworld. Major Leroy Hanlon, now fully aware of the threat to his family, has moved Charlotte and Will to the safety of the air base outside Derry’s town lines. His mission, under the unhinged command of Colonel Shaw, is to escort Taniel and a team of soldiers into the sewers to find the mystical pillars that contain Pennywise.

Leroy, a man surgically stripped of fear, believes he is the perfect weapon against a creature that feeds on it. But Pennywise is adaptable. The clown attempts to scare him by taking Charlotte’s form, but Leroy coolly dispatches the illusion. The real horror comes when his path crosses with his son, Will, who has followed his friends into the sewers.

Believing the boy to be another of IT’s illusions, Leroy raises his gun. His loyal friend, Pauly Russo, who can see Will is real, makes the ultimate sacrifice. Pauly throws himself in front of Leroy’s line of fire, taking the fatal bullet meant for Will. It’s a devastating moment that proves fear isn’t Pennywise’s only tool; he expertly weaponizes love, duty, and tragic misunderstanding.

Did Pennywise Attack The Prison Bus?

The question on everyone’s mind is answered with a resounding, chaotic yes. As Hank is transported to Shawshank, the atmosphere is volatile. A crowd, including a man believed to be Phil and Susie’s father, gathers to harass him. The situation seems hopeless until the prison bus crashes under mysterious and violent circumstances.

Hank, the only survivor to escape, finds his way to Mrs. Kersh. In a shocking reveal, we learn that Mrs. Kersh is not just Hank’s alibi; she is his secret lover. Their passionate reunion confirms their relationship, but Hank’s description of the crash is telling. He says “something” attacked the bus, and it all happened too fast to comprehend. Given Pennywise’s creepy smile directed at Charlotte just before Hank boarded, the evidence is overwhelming: the clown orchestrated the crash to unleash more chaos and fear upon Derry.

The Open Box: Dick Hallorann’s Psychological Undoing

Meanwhile, Dick Hallorann’s psychic foray into the sewers takes a dark turn. Separated from the group, he falls through a crack in reality and into a memory from his childhood bathroom. Here, Pennywise manifests as Hallorann’s abusive grandfather, forcing him to confront the “mental lockbox” his grandmother taught him to build.

This box is a crucial piece of Stephen King lore, featured in The Shining and Doctor Sleep as a tool for psychics to contain traumatic memories and hostile spirits. In the heart of Pennywise’s domain, where IT’s power is absolute, the box is forced open.

The episode’s final moments are ambiguous and chilling. We see Hallorann emerge from the sewers into the woods, but he is followed by the ghost of Leroy Hanlon. This suggests that Hallorann may not have physically escaped. He could be trapped within the landscape of his own opened mind, where every ghost and trauma he ever locked away is now free to torment him.

What Does the Box Mean and What Happened to Dick Hallorann?

The Hallorann sequence is undoubtedly the heart of the episode. Pennywise takes over his mind until he takes him to a vision that mixes his childhood trauma with the terror he feels towards his own powers. That’s where the famous “box” comes in: a concept that fans of “Doctor Sleep” will recognize instantly. The series does not explain exactly what it contains, but it does make it clear that it is a visual representation of the “lockbox”, a mental ability that some people have with “shining” to enclose evil entities. Dan Torrance uses it in “Doctor Sleep,” and now we know Hallorann does too.

The problem is that Pennywise manages to manipulate it enough to open that box… and what comes out of it strengthens the monster, and it releases other presences that should never have crossed into the human world. Confirmation comes when Hallorann sees Pauly’s ghost. Not only does he recognize him by his completely whitened eyes, but he also understands that something he kept sealed is already loose. The border between the living and the dead was compromised, and Pennywise is the great beneficiary.

Ending Explained: A Sacred Weapon and a Divided Town

The episode concludes with a glimmer of hope for our young heroes. As Pennywise corners a terrified Lilly in the sewers, he is suddenly repelled. The reason? The sacred spear—crafted from a fallen star and given to Taniel by his aunt, Rose—has washed up in the water between them. Lilly now possesses a weapon that can genuinely harm the ancient creature.

However, this hope is tempered by stark reality:

• Lilly is safe for now, armed but unaware of the dagger’s significance.
• The Losers’ Club is fractured, with Will, Marge, Rich, and Ronnie having fled, believing Lilly was lost.
• Derry is descending into anarchy, with Hank on the run and the prison bus crash fueling more paranoia.
• The adults are in disarray, with Pauly dead, Leroy shattered, Hallorann possibly lost, and Shaw’s dangerous ambition unchecked.

Episode 5 proves that the real horror isn’t just a clown in the sewers; it’s how his influence poisons every relationship, every institution, and every mind in Derry. The cage is rattling, and the Augury is coming.