It: Chapter 21 Summary & Analysis

Before the universe, there were only two things: It and the Turtle. It arrived long after the Turtle withdrew into its shell. Derry had been Its “killing-pen,” and the people of Derry were like sheep, until these children came along. When It burst into the house on Neibolt Street, It had meant to kill all of them, but something happened that caused It pain and fear. Now, they are coming again, entering Its domain under the city. It listens to their approach, awaiting them.

In 1958, the Losers’ Club enters the tunnels at 2:15 PM. Beverly and Richie have ten matches between them, but Bill won’t let them use them. The water is deeper now and a few dead animals pass by. Bill surveys the three pipes. One is venting nearly clear water but with leaves, sticks, and trash flowing through it. Bill asks Eddie which one they should take, but he says it depends on where they want to go. His response annoys Bill, though Bill also knows that Eddie is right. He trusts Eddie because he has a natural compass. They all also agree with Richie’s assessment that It is in the middle of town, near the Canal.

Eddie indicates that they need to go through the third pipe—the shit pipe. Bill leads them through, grimacing. They go twenty feet and the air becomes rancid. Bill hears water or sewage running in controlled bursts over their heads. He is not aware that he has reached the end of the pipe until he falls out of it and staggers forward. He falls to his belly into a semi-solid mass and something squeaks past his hand. He tries to stand up and hits his head on the new pipe’s low ceiling. Bill warns the others to be careful. Suddenly, the others come tumbling out of the pipe. Bill asks Beverly if any of the matches are still good. She says that she has kept them in her armpit to keep them dry. Bill lights one and sees a dead body on his right.

Bill lights another match so that everyone can see “the green, swelled thing that had been Patrick Hocksetter.” Suddenly, Henry Bowers bellows through the pipes, saying that he will get the Losers’ Club. Then, “a shriek of such mad fear and pain [comes] through the pipe that the guttering match fell from Bill's fingers and went out.” Mike thinks that something has gotten hold of one of them. Bill asks Eddie which way they should go. Eddie suggests the Canal—to the right and past Patrick. They crawl further into the darkness.

In 1985, the “writer’s woman” is with It. She is alive but not quite alive. She is in Its “deadlights.” The glamours are amusing to It. For instance, Mike does not consciously remember the large crow that pecked at him when he was in his carriage at six-months old. A part of this memory has lingered with Mike, however; so, when It came to him, It came as a giant bird. Tom Rogan, who became Its “dogsbody,” looked at It once and dropped dead of shock. Audra Phillips glanced at It and realized, with horror, that It is female. It has since prepared her physical remains for later feeding. She hangs now, crisscrossed in silk, with her head lolling on her shoulders.

It has always fed well on children, but on some adults over the years. Adults have their own fears, but they are usually complex. The fears of children are so much simpler and more powerful. If bait were needed, It could always assume the visage of a clown. In the end, It escaped and they had chosen to believe it dead or dying. Now, It will call them and kill them.

At 4:30 AM in 1985, the adult group enters the tunnels. Richie calls out to find Eddie and Bill. Eddie responds and says that Bill is up ahead. Bill looks “haggard and almost used-up” as he waits for them in the sewer-shaft where the three pipes are lined. He points to the skeleton of “Belch” Huggins and the headless remains of Victor Criss. This section of the system has fallen into disuse. Bill says in a mechanical voice that Audra is dead. Beverly tries to help him snap out of it so that he can help them. Bill then asks Eddie which pipe they need. Eddie points to the small one.

At 4:55 AM, Bill crawls through the pipe and reminds himself of the drop-off at the end, though it still surprises him. He asks Richie for matches, but Beverly offers some. Bill strikes a match and sees his wife’s wedding ring on the ground. In the darkness, he puts the ring on.

At 2:20 PM in 1958, the kids wonder how long they have been wandering through the tunnels since they left the place where Patrick Hocksetter’s body was. Bill remembers how his father said that one could wander in the pipes for weeks. Some of the pipes are so big that Bill cannot even reach across them by stretching. The only thing that Bill knows is that they have reached the disused portion of the sewage system. Ben thinks that the place smells like the mummy, while Eddie thinks that it smells like the leper. When they reach the end of the narrow pipe, they slither down like eels. Richie asks Eddie how deep they are. Eddie figures that they are a quarter of a mile down.

A scream floats down to them. It is the voice of Henry Bowers. Richie says that some people are too stupid to quit. They start walking down the pipe. Suddenly, Richie stops, claiming to see the crawling eye from the horror movie. A gigantic eye fills the tunnel. The white of Its eye is bulgy and membranous, laced with red veins that pulse steadily. The eye stares at them. Bill cannot move, and he senses that It approaches. Beverly feels one of Its tentacles slip around her ear, and tells Ben that It has her. He pulls her away from the tentacle and Beverly screams with pain when it tears through her ear. The tentacle then scrapes over Ben’s shirt and twists around his shoulder.

Bill puts his hand out and plunges it into the eye up to his forearm. Eddie suddenly thinks that he should run home to his mother. Then, after hearing Bill scream, he is overcome by the need to save “Big Bill.” He emits a scream that sounds like a Norse warrior. He raises his aspirator and imagines that it is acid. Eddie feels tentacles touch him. Bill’s strength returns. Eddie screams deliriously that it is just an eye. Richie stumbles forward and delivers a single, weak punch. He feels his fist sink into the eye. Bill strikes another match and they all see thick, cloudy goo running from his arm. Beverly notices that the eye has eaten Eddie’s shoe. Bill says they are getting close to It, and Ben suggests that they keep moving.

They are approaching “Derry’s dark and ruined heart.” Mike and Beverly are able to feel that evil power. They crane their necks back to look at the ceiling, where the complexity of the pipe network resembles a cathedral. Suddenly, they hear a “loud, braying cry.” The giant bird that Stan once saw in the Standpipe is back. It heads for Eddie. Mike rushes forward and digs a Buck knife out of his pocket. He cuts one of the bird’s talons. The bird then flies up on the tunnel. The group helps Eddie onto his feet and examines his cuts, which are not deep.

From behind them, they can hear Henry Bowers screaming. The group continues on, holding hands. Beverly notices a blank wall ahead, broken by a single door. There is a mark on the door and a heap of small bones at its base. They have come to the place of It. Bill imagines the mark as a paper boat. Henry, coming behind them, sees it as the moon—"full, ripe…and black.”

Ben says that he is scared. Bill pushes the door tentatively with his fingers. A flood of “sick-yellow green light” comes out along with a zoo smell. They pass through the fairy-tale door to the land of It.

At 4:59 AM, the aged Losers’ Club comes to the place where they had once seen the Eye. Beverly begins to ask Bill how his wife knew to come. Bill says that he mentioned the name of the town. Beverly realizes that Tom Rogan also knew where she was going, and she  confesses that, in a way, she married her father. Bill suddenly prompts everyone to move around him, and  they get in a circle. Beverly then remembers that they fought It with Chüd. Ben calls to Bill. He hears something coming, and Bill thinks that it may be Audra. He strikes a match.

The first wrong thing happens on that day in 1985 two minutes before sunrise. The clock in the white spire of the Grace Baptist Church does not chime at 5:00 AM. This is a clock that has always chimed at each hour and each half-hour. This sets off a sense of disquiet in the old-timers. Then, thunder rolls in the sky.

In 1985, Bill holds up a match and sees the body of his brother, George, whose face is as white as cheese. His eyes are silver. George’s teeth gnash together as he comes toward Bill, saying how his death is Bill’s fault and he is going to kill him. Richie tells Bill to fight his guilt. He wonders what his friends are doing beside him, given his earlier feeling that they had left him. Eddie shouts for him to kill the phantom because it is not his brother. George cuts his eyes at Eddie, causing Eddie to reel back and strike the wall, as though he were pushed. Bill stands mesmerized, watching his brother come toward him. He has a balloon face and his body consists of rotted leaves. Beverly shrieks.

George tells Bill that they can look for his paper boat together. George says that it is still “down here” and they all float in that place. George’s “fishbelly” hand closes around Bill’s neck, and Bill cries out the rhyme that he learned in speech school. His voice is deeper and hardly his own. Richie remembers that Bill only stuttered in his own voice. The George-thing recoils and hisses. Bill tells It that George knows that Bill did not mean for him to die and that his parents were wrong. Bill continues to say the rhyme, and leaps at It. The rainslicker no longer feels like a slicker; it feels like warm taffy in his fingers.

Bill feels something grow in his chest, something as painful as fiery nettles. A “wavering moan” escapes from him. He cries out again that he is sorry about what happened to George. His friends surround him to comfort him.

By 5:30 AM in 1985, it is raining hard. Water runs down Up-Mile Hill in streams and roars in stormdrains and sewers. At 5:45 AM, a transformer explodes beside the abandoned Tracker Brothers’ Truck Depot. The Derry Fire Department arrives at the scene at 6:09 AM. Calvin Clark is the first to step off of the fire truck and he is electrocuted almost instantly. Something like an underground explosion causes plates to rattle and fall off of shelves. A woman is killed when a violent reversal of sewage causes her toilet to explode. At 6:19 AM, a bolt of lightning strikes the Kissing Bridge. The wind picks up. Mike Hanlon awakes in his room at 6:46 AM.

Mike looks up and sees bottles hanging overhead. One has clear liquid and the other is full of blood. Mike tries to move his legs. One moves freely but the other does not move at all and has nearly no feeling, and is tightly bandaged. He remembers the notebook and the return of Henry Bowers. He tries to think of where Henry could be and if he went after the others. Mike gropes for the call bell and his nurse, Mark Lamonica, comes in. Mike wants to talk to him, but Mark tells Mike to hush, walking toward him with a syringe to put Mike to sleep.

Back under the city, Richie strikes a light. Bill senses that something is wrong—something related to Mike. Bill tells everyone to grab his hands, as he wants to send Mike their power. In his hospital bed, Mike feels the power wash over him. His right hand goes to a night table where there is a pitcher of water. He smashes the glass into Mark Lamonica’s face. The power then leaves him as quickly as it comes.

Bill then has the sensation that Mike is fine. They continue into the tunnel, with Richie or Bill periodically lighting matches. The chamber they are walking through is getting larger and larger. It is no longer a tunnel. Their footfalls echo. Beverly whispers that they are approaching the door that they first came to twenty-seven years before. Bright greenish-yellow light floods out from under the door, just like before. Again, they each see something different on the door. Beverly sees Tom’s face. Bill sees Audra’s severed head, and its eyes staring at him “in dreadful accusation.” Bill reminds them that the door is not locked and that places like this never are locked.

The adult Beverly shrieks and clings to Bill while a nightmarish spider “from beyond time and space” scurries down a web within It's lair. Bill coldly thinks that It is not really a spider either, but this is the closest that their minds can come to whatever It really is. It is about fifteen feet high and as black as a moonless night. Its jagged mandibles open and close, dripping ribbons of foam. Ben notices that the foam is alive and slithers away like protozoa. The creature is “squealing and mewling.” Ben sees Its belly bulging and think that this is Its egg sac. It is pregnant, and Stanley Uris understood this. Bill steps forward to meet It.

Bill tells the others to stay back, and curses It for killing his brother, George. It rears up over Bill and buries him in Its shadow. Ben looks into Its “timeless, evil red eyes.” For an instant, he sees the shape behind the shape currently in front of them. He sees lights and “an endless crawling hairy thing” made of orange light. It is the dead light that mocks life. The ritual begins for a second time.