Since its October debut, IT: Welcome to Derry has naturally featured references to Stephen King‘s IT alongside canonically accurate nods to The Shining and The Shawshank Redemption. But does that mean that the HBO show somehow connects with every single Stephen King book?

SPOILER ALERT: This story includes details of the Season 1 finale of HBO/HBO Max’s IT: Welcome to Derry.

The Stephen King adaptation wrapped up its first season on HBO last night with plenty of mayhem and a few plot contortions.

Welcome to Derry" leaves behind more questions than answers, deepening the mythology of Stephen King’s haunted town. It: Welcome to Derry closed its first season by digging deep into the town’s fractured history,

HBO Max's prequel series is the first Stephen King TV series adaptation with a 4K Blu-ray edition in the US.

Titled “Winter Fire” (which is itself a reference to the poem that Ben Hanscom writes for Bev Marsh in IT ), the last episode of IT: Welcome To Derry has aired, and there are a great number of special details to notice. I’ve done my best to catalogue them all as they appear, and I’ll start with one that arrives in the very first scene…

The HBO prequel horror-drama ended its season 1 finale with a few special guests. A flash-forward takes us 26 years after Pennywise was put to rest, so just one year before the events of the first It movie. We find a now-elderly Ingrid Kersh, portrayed by It Chapter Two actress Joan Gregson.

Because Stephen King was involved with IT: Welcome to Derry, the writers could build this link between Bob Gray’s stage life and IT’s favorite monster form, and know it still fit the world he created. Fuchs talked about asking if a choice was “ too bold to swing ” or if King would approve.