Recently, I rewatched some of my favorite horror films, IT Chapter 1 and 2! When I last watched Chapter 2, I thought about how stupid Pennywise (Bill Skarsgård) was to let the Losers collect the tokens they needed for the Ritual Of Chüd, a ritual seemingly capable of getting rid of him once and for all. He willingly gave Bill (James McAvoy) Georgie’s (Jackson Robert Scott) boat, he let Beverly (Jessica Chastain) enter her old apartment to grab her poem. Of course, he did all of this because he knew the ritual wasn’t going to work, so he wanted to have some fun with the Losers. Lately, I started thinking about why the ritual didn’t work this time around. Instead of looking it up like a normal person, I decided to come up with some of my own theories. I hope you enjoy! (SPOILER ALERT!!!)

Theory 1: The Losers Had The Wrong Token/Tokens

The ritual required a sacrifice from the Losers: a token from each one’s past that had to be burned. Everyone dug deep into their pasts to find their token with some success. However, because Stanley (Andy Bean) was gone, they had to pick his token for him. Now, how could they possibly know what Stanley’s token would be? Sure, it was an item that was picked on the first day they were all united, but the token was supposed to be personal to each Loser. Stanley’s token could’ve been something else entirely, they’d never know.

Theory 2: They Had All Of The Tokens But Not All Of The People

This was my first theory. Pennywise knew from the very beginning that because Stanley was dead, the ritual would never work. The Losers collected everything they needed, but their circle wasn’t completed without Stanley. They needed to all be together like they were before. It also made me wonder if they just left Stanley’s token out, then maybe they had a better chance at succeeding.

Theory 3: One Of The Losers Didn’t Actually Believe The Ritual Would Work

Ok, so Mike (Isaiah Mustafa) believed that the ritual had the best chance at succeeding if all of the Losers simply believed it would work. He purposefully left out the part where the ritual failed once before with disastrous results. I think it’s possible that because he did this and he knew it failed before, he had some doubt in his mind and that doubt ended up causing the ritual’s failure. He didn’t believe hard enough. I would also not be surprised if Richie (Bill Hader) didn’t completely believe it, I don’t know why.

Theory 4: Pennywise Was Too Powerful

This was probably the most obvious option. Pennywise was just too powerful for the ritual to work and his abilities were highly underestimated by both the Shokopiwah natives and the Losers.