IT: Welcome to Derry Episode 4 subtly revealed Pennywise's biggest fear, and it's not something you expect. HBO Max's prequel series set in the world of IT continued its exploration of the ancient evil that terrorized the lowly town of Derry, Maine in 1962 (27 years before the events of 2017's IT: Chapter One in 1989). As a cosmic being, Pennywise feeds on the fear of its victims, with the entity taking many forms to weaponize those feelings before eventually brutally consuming them.
Welcome to Derry showed more of Pennywise's violent antics during one of its cycles, with the creature showcasing its cruelest trick against Matty Clements in Episode 1 and using the proto Losers' Club's fears against them to further weaken their morale and make them ripe for the taking. With the prequel being billed as an origin story for Pennywise, Episode 4 pulled back the curtain on the entity's arrival, its first encounter with humans, and the revelation that a certain object is its biggest fear.
IT: Welcome to Derry Reveals What Is Pennywise Really Afraid Of
While Pennywise is an agent of chaos, Stephen King's 1986 novel explained that the ancient entity is more than just a killing machine. Instead, IT is an evil predator that has the Deadlights as its true and incomprehensible form, with the entity coming from a dimension called the Macroverse (a place before the universe even existed).
Although the movies didn't thoroughly explore the origins of Pennywise, the films and the book share one commonality: this creature that preys on fear also has a weakness that can be exploited.
IT: Welcome to Derry confirmed that Pennywise (who is named as The Galloo in the flashbacks) can be contained, and it is largely due to his biggest fear. As it turns out, Derry's native people (called the Children of Mathurin) found the cave where the ancient evil landed, and they used the "shards of its bindings" (described as the "only thing" the Galloo feared) as a way to cage Pennywise so that it never leaves the confines of Derry.
“They found the cave and broke off shards of the ancient star The Galloo had arrived in. A plan was formed. Not to kill it, but to cage it. They would use the shards of its old bindings, the only thing the Galloo feared, to keep our people safe again. The children circled the Western Wood, which had been the monster’s hunting ground for so long. And they buried 13 sacred shards deep into the Earth. Over each stone, they lit a fire to mark its place, a line the Galloo could not cross."
The shards of its bindings being Pennywise's greatest fear in the IT franchise is surprising, yet understandable. The natives described the shards as the creature's "cage," which makes sense because the star from which it came managed to contain such an evil entity as Pennywise before its arrival on Earth.
Moreover, IT: Welcome to Derry Episode 4's confirmation that the shards are the only things that Pennywise fears essentially gives the protagonists a physical weapon against the ancient evil, meaning that they have a solid chance of defeating IT if the kids or the adults manage to grab at least one shard.
The 'IT' Movies Revealed Pennywise's Other Weakness
While it is unknown how Welcome to Derry will explain why the shards could not be used in IT: Chapter One and IT: Chapter Two, the Losers' Club in the movies found a way to defeat Pennywise by simply having the belief and the courage not to acknowledge the fact that the ancient evil is scary, leading to his first-ever defeat at the hands of the kids in the 2017 movie.
Based on IT: Chapter One's ending, having the courage to stand up against Pennywise actually made him realize the true meaning of fear. It is sort of a "tables have turned" moment for the killer clown since the Losers' Club managed to force the entity into an early hibernation by temporarily defeating IT.
Although Pennywise returned after 27 years in 2016 in IT: Chapter Two, it was clear that the ancient evil was well aware of the Losers' Club's capability of defeating IT. This is why the creature tried so hard to scare and kill the Losers (as adults), knowing that this same set of friends was his weakness.
While Mike Hanlon of the Losers' Club (read more about the Hanlon family tree here) asked for help from the Derry natives to vanquish Pennywise with the Ritual of Chüd, it ultimately failed because this ritual is not successful to begin with.
Despite that, the Losers' Club still defeated Pennywise by turning to the strategy that worked the first time: not being afraid. Insulting and belittling Pennywise literally shrank the creature, and the Losers' Club found an opening to crush the entity's heart in their hands, defeating the ancient evil for good.
The only problem here is that the protagonists in IT: Welcome to Derry are not aware that not being afraid is Pennywise's weakness, and their only chance of defeating him (for the meantime) is the shards of its bindings when it came to Earth.
