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Death is a familiar game in the It universe, but It: Welcome To Derry makes it feel closer, crueler, and far more personal. Season 1 treats death as a slow, accumulating trauma that shapes the town and the audience alike. From Matty Clements vanishing in the very first scene, to the brutal theatre massacre that shatters the illusion of a new Losers Club, and finally tan audience favorite character sacrificing himself in an act of quiet, devastating love, the series builds a hierarchy of loss that refuses to let you look away.
These three deaths are not just horrifying because of how they happen, but because of when they happen, who they take, and what they destroy in their wake. Here are the three most tragic deaths in It: Welcome To Derry, and how it shapes the plot of the episodes that came after it.
The death of Matthew Clements in the premiere of It: Welcome to Derry
Matty or Matthew Clements’ death in It: Welcome To Derry is the emotional and psychological fault line a major plot of the entire series fractures around. It is the first death we see on screen that shows us the brutality that awaits us. By placing Matty’s fate in the very first scene, the series makes a brutal promise that this story will not wait to earn your trust before destroying it.
It: Welcome to Derry opens with Matty alone and already vulnerable. He is a boy trying to run away from the and hitchhikes with a seemingly normal family offering a ride to Portland. Then the horror arrives without warning as the family turns uncanny. The road loops back toward Derry, and the pregnant woman gives birth to a winged, monstrous creature inside the car. The attack on Matty happens largely off-screen, and we don't know yet if he has died, which creates the ambiguity that creates another plot a few episodes later.
His disappearance becomes the emotional engine of the season. Months later, his friends hears Matty’s voice whispering through the pipes in her bathtub. In chasing the hope of him being alive, more of his friends fafe Pennywise's wrath.
Episode 5, 29 Neibolt Street, delivers the cruelest twist when Matty returns, alive, frightened, and desperate and claims he survived in the sewers. He then lures children into the sewers and the reveal that Matty is actually Pennywise in disguise is devastating not just because it is terrifying, but because it reframes everything. Pennywise can imitate a child perfectly. He can live among them for weeks. He can manipulate multiple people in broad daylight. The rules you thought you understood are obliterated.
By making Matty the first victim and the season’s central illusion, It: Welcome To Derry ensures that his death never stops hurting. It is tragic because it happens immediately, but it is unforgettable because it keeps happening, over and over, in different forms, until Derry itself feels complicit.
The death of Phil, Teddy and Susie
The very first episode of It: Welcome To Derry throws you straight into the deep end with another tragic incident unfolding in the very first episode.
It all starts when Lilly hears Matty singing an eerie version of Ya Got Trouble from The Music Man through her shower pipes. Ronnie connects the dots and realises The Music Man was the movie Matty snuck into the night he disappeared. The kids gather at the Derry movie theatre, hoping to uncover the truth together. For a moment, the show invites you to believe you are watching the birth of a new Losers Club. A group of awkward, endearing kids banding together against something sinister, until the screen brings the horror out.
As The Music Man plays, Matty appears inside the film itself, smiling with a Pennywise grin and holding a swaddled baby and what follows is merciless. Teddy is ripped apart in front of everyone. Phil is dragged screaming toward the ceiling by the flying creature. Susie’s arm is torn off, and is killed soon after. The violence is fast, chaotic, and deliberately cruel.
The trauma hits harder because this happens in episode one. Most genre shows build trust before breaking it. It: Welcome To Derry does the opposite. It teaches you immediately that no one is safe, not even children, not even the characters who feel like leads. By killing Teddy, Phil, and Susie so early, It: Welcome to Derry shatters any illusion of narrative comfort. From this point on, every scene carries dread and every bond feels temporary.
The death of Rich Santos
The saddest death in It: Welcome to Derry isn't at the hands of Pennywise, but at Clint Bowers, the racist police chief who was responsible for the Black Spot massacre. The season's seventh episode shows the ending of Rich Santos, a funny, awkward kid who thrives on living loudly. His feelings for Marge Truman make up a core characteristic of his arc, and also, unfortunately leads to his eventual death.
That is what makes the Black Spot massacre unbearable. The episode places Rich and Marge on the edge of happiness. They are dancing, laughing, and almost ready to admit their affectionate feelings for each other. Then violence crashes in, not through Pennywise alone, but through human hatred. The racist attack on the Black Spot grounds the horror in reality, making the threat feel inescapable.
When the fire traps them, Rich makes a choice that defines his entire character. He finds a freezer that can only save one of them. Without hesitation, he locks Marge inside and uses his own body to shield her from the flames. They share a moment of confession as he relives his happy memories with her, sacrificing himself for the girl he loved.
Rich’s death hurts because he does not die fighting Pennywise directly. He dies protecting someone he loves, in silence, in the dark, with no witnesses. The tragedy deepens when his ghost later returns to help his friends, and when Dick Hallorann comforts Rich’s parents by telling them their son is still with them. Even in death, Rich stays.
In a story filled with deaths at the hand of a monster, Rich Santos proves that the cruelest losses come from love interrupted. His death is unfinished, unfair, and unforgettable, and definitely the most tragic moment in a show full of tragedy.
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It: Welcome to Derry is streaming on HBO Max.
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