- After the Flood (1957)
- After the Carnival (1984)
- Six Phone Calls (1985)
- Derry: The First Interlude
- Ben Hanscom Takes a Fall
- Bill Denbrough Beats the Devil (I)
- One of the Missing: A Tale From the Summer of '58
- The Dam In the Barrens
- Georgie's Room and the House On Neibolt Street
- Cleaning Up
- Derry: The Second Interlude
- The Reunion
- Walking Tours
- Three Uninvited Guests
- Derry: The Third Interlude
- The Apocalyptic Rockfight
- The Album
- The Smoke-Hole
- Eddie's Bad Break
- Another One of the Missing: The Death of Patrick Hockstetter
- The Bullseye
- Derry: The Fourth Interlude
- In the Watches of the Night
- The Circle Closes
- Under the City
- The Ritual of Chud
- Out
- Derry: The Final Interlude
- Epilogue: Bill Denbrough Beats the Devil (II)
Under the City
This is it; the final bit of rising action before all is settled. As Pennywise unleashes all of Its remaining horrors, we come to see the hidden Derry. As our heroes make their way "underneath" Derry, we uncover what is beneath the artifice of a simple, wholesome town: slime, muck, and rotting debris.
In 1958, we enter Its mind for the first time; we learn how It sees Itself in relation to the Turtle. It has become aware of the Losers as a threat, and theorizes that some Other is helping them. It realizes that while humans, especially children, are able to provide It with imagination, they are also able to control that imagination against It.
Meanwhile, the seven children crawl through a narrow, infested, stinking labyrinth of pipes, discovering the carcasses of various animals and of Patrick Hockstetter. King makes no effort sanitize this section at all: there is filth and shit everywhere. Our heroes walk over and onto corpses in the course of their adventures, which have been very cruel (keep in mind that Beverly is still covered in trash from her earlier adventure when being chased by her father, and has been bloodied up). They soon run into the Crawling Eye, a creature from another movie that Richie has seen. The giant eyeball with tentacles attacks them and captures Beverly by the ear, but the others, led by Eddie, fight back and rescue her. They are next attacked by the giant bird of Mike's memory, but Stan is able to lead the others; by controlling their fear, they are able to ward off It.
Meanwhile, Henry, Belch, and Victor continue to chase them. King never directly reveals what happens to them, but it has been hinted at throughout, specifically by Henry's flashback during the "In the Watches of the Night" chapter. It appears to them as the Frankenstein monster and attacks, decapitating Victor Criss in the process. A cowardly Henry runs away, leaving Belch Huggins to his doom. Henry goes on to spend hours running through the pipes, lost in the dark. It is interesting that It chose to attack the bullies, presumably because they have by now fulfilled their purpose of chasing our heroes into Its lair. Victor and Belch end up making a nice snack, but It lets Henry get away. After all, Henry has been such a good dogsbody so far, and It has already decided to make him the patsy for Its murders.
In 1985, It reflects on how the Losers have once more come into sewers. Both of these sequences seen from Its perspective do a good job of redefining the character of this Creature. To the reader, It now ceases to be personified as Pennywise or as any of the subsequent B-movie monsters, but is now redefined as a disembodied force, a non-physical projection from Outside of the Universe. It is particularly gleeful that It has caught Audra and driven her into a catatonic state: Tom Rogan has delivered her only to then drop dead at the sight of Its true form. It is also revealed here that Mike's fear of a giant bird stems from an actual encounter with a crow when he was still a baby, the memory of which has never left his subconscious, but is reflected off Its exterior, a mirror of one's psyche.
The five adults make their way through the same labyrinth, encountering the skeletons of Victor, Belch, and Patrick, a sign that they are in an abandoned area of the sewer system. No one has been here in decades..except for It. Bill also finds Audra's wedding ring there, a sign they are on the right path. Finding it here in all places seems like a bizarre allusion to Lord of the Rings. A vision of the 6 year-old George Denbrough appears, still in his yellow rain slicker, and taunts Bill about letting him die. However, the others cheer Bill on and he is able to stand up to the apparition, saying the "He thrusts his fists" line without stuttering, which sends George away.
Meanwhile, something is very wrong in the outside world. As our heroes are closing in on It, Derry is being destroyed. It begins to rain a vicious storm and the citizens become aware that something's wrong, as if awakening from a long spell. This section also begins tying up all the various plot strands of the novel as all the characters are revisited: Norbert Keene of the third interlude, the old timer of the fourth interlude, Dave and Harold Gardener of the first two chapters, and even the Kitchner Ironworks are all mentioned. Mike awakens in the hospital and manages to realize just in time that he is about to be murdered by a nurse sent by It (of course, in true Derry fashion, the nurse isn't just anybody, but the brother of one of Its victims from the previous cycle). The five Losers all suddenly feel a premonition that Mike needs their help and join hands to send whatever power they have to him. It works and Mike is able to knock out the would-be assassin and get the other nurses in the room just in time.
The chapter ends with both our child heroes and adult heroes coming upon a strange area of the sewers that seems to open up into infinity before coming to a flat wall with a little door, three feet high. There is an odd mark on the door that appears as something different to each of the Losers. The apparition of this little door truly blurs the line between Its fairy-tale nature vs. scientific origin. The door also feels like the final level of a video game: our heroes have descended into Hell, crawled through the shit of the city, and now come to this little door at the end of space and time. They cross this final threshold and leave the sane universe where they discover...
...that Its true form, or at least the closest representation that the human mind can perceive of It, is a Spider. Because, as Al Marsh commented earlier, everyone is scared of spiders.
And It is female.
And It is pregnant.
In 1958, we enter Its mind for the first time; we learn how It sees Itself in relation to the Turtle. It has become aware of the Losers as a threat, and theorizes that some Other is helping them. It realizes that while humans, especially children, are able to provide It with imagination, they are also able to control that imagination against It.
Meanwhile, the seven children crawl through a narrow, infested, stinking labyrinth of pipes, discovering the carcasses of various animals and of Patrick Hockstetter. King makes no effort sanitize this section at all: there is filth and shit everywhere. Our heroes walk over and onto corpses in the course of their adventures, which have been very cruel (keep in mind that Beverly is still covered in trash from her earlier adventure when being chased by her father, and has been bloodied up). They soon run into the Crawling Eye, a creature from another movie that Richie has seen. The giant eyeball with tentacles attacks them and captures Beverly by the ear, but the others, led by Eddie, fight back and rescue her. They are next attacked by the giant bird of Mike's memory, but Stan is able to lead the others; by controlling their fear, they are able to ward off It.
Meanwhile, Henry, Belch, and Victor continue to chase them. King never directly reveals what happens to them, but it has been hinted at throughout, specifically by Henry's flashback during the "In the Watches of the Night" chapter. It appears to them as the Frankenstein monster and attacks, decapitating Victor Criss in the process. A cowardly Henry runs away, leaving Belch Huggins to his doom. Henry goes on to spend hours running through the pipes, lost in the dark. It is interesting that It chose to attack the bullies, presumably because they have by now fulfilled their purpose of chasing our heroes into Its lair. Victor and Belch end up making a nice snack, but It lets Henry get away. After all, Henry has been such a good dogsbody so far, and It has already decided to make him the patsy for Its murders.
In 1985, It reflects on how the Losers have once more come into sewers. Both of these sequences seen from Its perspective do a good job of redefining the character of this Creature. To the reader, It now ceases to be personified as Pennywise or as any of the subsequent B-movie monsters, but is now redefined as a disembodied force, a non-physical projection from Outside of the Universe. It is particularly gleeful that It has caught Audra and driven her into a catatonic state: Tom Rogan has delivered her only to then drop dead at the sight of Its true form. It is also revealed here that Mike's fear of a giant bird stems from an actual encounter with a crow when he was still a baby, the memory of which has never left his subconscious, but is reflected off Its exterior, a mirror of one's psyche.
The five adults make their way through the same labyrinth, encountering the skeletons of Victor, Belch, and Patrick, a sign that they are in an abandoned area of the sewer system. No one has been here in decades..except for It. Bill also finds Audra's wedding ring there, a sign they are on the right path. Finding it here in all places seems like a bizarre allusion to Lord of the Rings. A vision of the 6 year-old George Denbrough appears, still in his yellow rain slicker, and taunts Bill about letting him die. However, the others cheer Bill on and he is able to stand up to the apparition, saying the "He thrusts his fists" line without stuttering, which sends George away.
Meanwhile, something is very wrong in the outside world. As our heroes are closing in on It, Derry is being destroyed. It begins to rain a vicious storm and the citizens become aware that something's wrong, as if awakening from a long spell. This section also begins tying up all the various plot strands of the novel as all the characters are revisited: Norbert Keene of the third interlude, the old timer of the fourth interlude, Dave and Harold Gardener of the first two chapters, and even the Kitchner Ironworks are all mentioned. Mike awakens in the hospital and manages to realize just in time that he is about to be murdered by a nurse sent by It (of course, in true Derry fashion, the nurse isn't just anybody, but the brother of one of Its victims from the previous cycle). The five Losers all suddenly feel a premonition that Mike needs their help and join hands to send whatever power they have to him. It works and Mike is able to knock out the would-be assassin and get the other nurses in the room just in time.
The chapter ends with both our child heroes and adult heroes coming upon a strange area of the sewers that seems to open up into infinity before coming to a flat wall with a little door, three feet high. There is an odd mark on the door that appears as something different to each of the Losers. The apparition of this little door truly blurs the line between Its fairy-tale nature vs. scientific origin. The door also feels like the final level of a video game: our heroes have descended into Hell, crawled through the shit of the city, and now come to this little door at the end of space and time. They cross this final threshold and leave the sane universe where they discover...
...that Its true form, or at least the closest representation that the human mind can perceive of It, is a Spider. Because, as Al Marsh commented earlier, everyone is scared of spiders.
And It is female.
And It is pregnant.