Headscratchers / It: Chapter Two

As a Headscratchers subpage, all spoilers are unmarked as per policy. You Have Been Warned.

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Why doesn't IT frame them?

• It is perfectly willing to use human servants like Bowers to kill them indirectly. With IT's powers, framing the Losers for murder would be virtually effortless. Once they are in separate cages, killing them either directly or by influencing a guard or fellow prisoner would be incredibly easy.
  • IT has a massive personal grudge against them and wants to do them in directly with personal fears. They could get framed but it wouldn't be something that they've feared for decades. It needs that personal fear, as it makes them extra tasty, apparently.
  • Who says that Henry was even supposed to kill them all? IT sends him after them in the book because The Power of Friendship made the Losers too strong to fight. Henry is supposed to divide them and scare them, which would give IT back the advantage.

How did Henry Bowers survive the fall?

• There's no way that it's possible after that long way down the well went.
  • Clearly, Bowers is Made of Iron considering he took a knife to the chest and still walks away fine. Either that or IT really wants to use Bowers as a puppet in the future.
• Related, how did Bowers end up in the sewers when the well went down way past where the sewers intersected with its shaft?
  • The sewer is clearly an Eldritch Location considering IT's lair is down there, and there are times when it doesn't obey the laws of physics or reality. IT was powerful enough to keep Henry alive and flush him out of the sewers to be the fall guy for all the murders and disappearances.
    • He floated, of course!

Regarding Eddie and placebos...

Throughout the movie, the Losers Club is remembering their time together in Derry. But after regaining their memories, Eddie is still seen as a hypochondriac that still picks up prescription medication, despite it being established that they're placebos. Why does he still act like he needs the medicine?

• The power of belief is a strong thing. Eddie instinctively goes to his inhaler when he's panicking or anxious because he's latched onto the idea that it will help. It's also implied that being back in Derry makes the Losers slip back into their old habits - it's said in the book that Bill doesn't stutter in adulthood, but it starts again as soon as Mike calls.
• Eddie was also picking up the inhaler as his memento for the Ritual of Chüd.

Why don't the Losers question the Ritual of Chüd on the basis that It is still there?

• Mike hides from the others that the ritual didn't work, but if the ritual had worked, It would have already been defeated. He thought that the ritual would work for the Losers because they believed, but he gave no explanation to the others as to why It still existed even after the first ritual. Why did none of the group question this, as it's a compelling reason not to try it at all?
  • In the book, the Losers use the Ritual of Chüd to defeat IT both times, and they obviously don't manage to kill IT the first time. So the ritual CAN kill IT, but it’s not guaranteed to. The movie changed the way the ritual works and made it completely useless, but the Losers weren’t aware of this until they actually tried it.
  • But from the point of view of the Losers (excluding Mike), why believe the ritual can kill It when the Native Americans who first tried the ritual must have failed, as It was still around after?
  • Because It still being around didn't necessarily mean the ritual failed to do any damage and the Native Americans all died horribly. They could have just badly injured It, like the Losers did when they were kids.
  • Maybe it failed because one or more of them were questioning it on some level, just not out loud.
    • IT literally gave Bill the paper boat he made for Georgie. IT knew the ritual didn't work for the Shokopiwah tribe and wouldn't work for the Losers' Club because why would IT deliberately help Bill if IT was confident IT would survive the ritual?

Where's the staff of Derry Inn?

The hotel seems to be completely abandoned except for the visiting protagonists, in fact. Beverly has to fix her own drink at the bar, there's no one to answer the bell our hand out the keys, and absolutely no one raises a fuss about a knife fight on the premises. People in Derry are supposed to be apathetic, but the place being totally bereft of life felt like a plot point that never went anywhere.

• Because it's not necessary to the plot.

Killing It in Its sleep?

What would happen if someone (say, Mike) went down into It's lair during Its 27 year hibernation intending to kill It? Mike had a photo of the hatch leading from the cistern to the impact crater, so he knew where to go. Would he have found the three deadlights swirling around catching Zs, or would he have found Spiderwise sleeping on a web somewhere? And could It have woken up early to defend Itself?

• It's very likely that It would have woken up. If It can sense Bill's doubt in the Neibolt House's illusions, then there's no reason It can't sense when its in actual danger.

Belief in Superpowers

Why don't the Losers just believe that they have superpowers, like Super-Strength, Invulnerability and immunity to the effects of the Deadlights? The first would come in handy for countering IT's strength, the second would've helped Eddie and anyone who IT would've tried to bite, and the third would've greatly helped Ritchie. Seriously, I don't understand why the Losers don't just believe themselves into superhumanity and subsequently beat the shit out of IT.

• Only It is affected by the power of belief, which is basically just a version of Shapeshifter Mode Lock. The Losers are still just regular humans who can't magically wish themselves into being superpowered. Besides, they only realized that belief affected It moments before they killed It.
  • Okay, so then why not do the converse and believe that Pennywise is made out of glass bones and paper skin, and is so physically frail that his teeth would shatter just from trying to bite them?
    • As the above said, they only know IT was affected by the belief only during climax. They also kind of rely on information relayed by Eddie about making IT smaller. They likely stick to what's already proven to happen just to be safe.

Couldn't Richie have just...

...apologize to Dean at the Chinese restaurant? Explain to him that he was going through emotional problems/stress and that he didn't mean to lash out at him, or that he was being stalked and just got worried when Dean walked up to him? Instead, he just smiles sheepishly and asks if he wants a picture, pretending like he didn't just curse out the kid moments before, thus ruining his chances of salvaging any respect from him. Even if it wouldn't have automatically fixed things, he could have at least try to prove he wasn't a Jerkass who hates his fans.

• Richie isn't the smartest person.
• Plus, Dean was clearly freaked out, and his parents didn't seem to keen on letting Richie near him after that outburst. He wouldn't have gotten the chance.
• Richie doesn't seem like the type of person to have that sort of rational thinking. Maybe the thought hit him sometime later when it was no longer useful.

Why did Pennywise use his Deadlights so sparingly?

Why didn’t he use the Deadlights on ALL of the Losers at once and then kill them?

• As explained in the book, the Deadlights couldn't really exist in our universe. They were the manifestation of an Outer God that existed outside of time and space, and the Spider (and Pennywise) was merely their avatar in our universe. Best guess is that the version swirling around in It's lair had to be channeled through the the Spider to work, and their effect was much weaker than if the Losers had gazed upon the Deadlights' true form in Its own dimension. Remember, they merely stunned Beverly; in the book, Tom Rogan got the full power of the Deadlights and went so insane as to become completely catatonic. During the Ritual of Chüd, the book's adult Losers got the merest glimpse of the Deadlights in Its home dimension and very nearly went mad.

When did the Arcade Scene take place in Chapter One?

When does the scene in the arcade fit in with the Chapter One timeline? You'd think that after being humiliated like that at his safe place Richie would avoid it. Though, it's the place Bill finds him when they go to rescue Beverly. Does it happen when the Losers are estranged? It obviously can't take place after since Pennywise attacks him after via the Paul Bunyan statue after.

• Mike and Bill said to find tokens while remembering the time the Losers Club were split up after the fight between Bill and Richie. By that logic, it should happen during that time. This is either Richie's persistence to keep playing regardless of Henry humiliating him or other kids in the arcade ostracizing him from that incident (no one playing with him when Bill found him after Beverly was kidnapped may or may not support this theory), children in Derry being as apathetic as the adults, or a case of the director/screenwriters not planning the timeline properly so the confusion happens.

Beverly realizing that Ben sent the poem

After Ben and Bev escape from their personal hells during the Ritual of Chud, Bev realizes that Ben was the one who sent her the poem. But didn't she realize that already in Chapter One after Ben kissed her to free her from the spell of the deadlights?

• Maybe she did realise it then but forgot about it, as what happens with the rest of the Losers over the years.