The seventh episode of IT: Welcome to Derry, titled “The Black Spot,” brings one of Derry’s most infamous historical horrors to life. In a devastating hour of television, a racist act of violence provides a feast for the dormant evil beneath the town, leading to immense loss and a shocking origin story for Pennywise himself. The episode delivers on the show’s building tension with its most powerful and emotionally charged installment yet.
The Human Face Behind the Clown
The episode opens with a lengthy flashback to 1908, revealing the man who would become the face of Derry’s nightmare. We meet Bob Gray, a struggling, melancholic circus performer portrayed by Bill Skarsgård. Unlike the malevolent entity we know, this Pennywise is a human clown with a touching, genuine relationship with his young daughter, Ingrid.
Bob performs a sad pantomime about the death of his wife, who performed as Periwinkle the Clown. His act, a mix of tragedy and strange comedy, captivates the local children. After the show, Bob encourages Ingrid to take her mother’s stage name, sharing a heartfelt moment that shows his love for her. This peaceful life is shattered when a mysterious boy with glowing eyes approaches Bob in the woods. The boy lures the clown away, and Bob Gray is never seen again, leaving only a bloody handkerchief for his daughter. This scene confirms that the entity known as It did not create the Pennywise persona but stole it from a real man, attracted by his connection to children.
The Burning of The Black Spot
The action returns to 1962, picking up from the previous episode’s cliffhanger. Clint Bowers, Derry’s racist police chief, leads a masked mob to The Black Spot, the town’s only Black-owned bar, demanding the fugitive Hank Grogan. A tense standoff ensues when the bar’s patrons—Black airmen stationed nearby—refuse to hand Hank over. The mob retreats, only to barricade the doors from the outside and throw Molotov cocktails through the windows, setting the building ablaze with dozens trapped inside.
The ensuing chaos is harrowing. As patrons are shot trying to escape the flames, the children are caught in the inferno. Dick Hallorann, overwhelmed by ghosts, breaks his own rule and directly communicates with the spirit of a Shokopiwah warrior, Sesqui. Guided by her, Dick helps create an escape route, saving Hank, his daughter Ronnie, and Will Hanlon.
However, Rich Santos and Marge Truman become trapped by falling debris. In the episode’s most heartbreaking moment, Rich finds a large cooler. He tells Marge there is room for both, but when she gets in, he closes the lid and uses his body to hold it shut, protecting her from the collapsing roof and smoke.
“You saw me staring and you said, ‘Take a picture, it’ll last longer.’ I wish I could,” Rich tells Marge through the door in their final moments together.
The next morning, firefighters pull a alive Marge from the cooler, but Rich has died from smoke inhalation. His heroic sacrifice leaves his friends, especially Marge, devastated.
Pennywise’s Feast and a Daughter’s Betrayal
The explosion of fear and violence acts as a beacon for Pennywise. The clown emerges within the burning bar to feed, horrifically devouring victims amidst the flames. Outside, the mob flees, but Stanley Kersh finds his car stalled. He is confronted by his wife, Ingrid, now in full Periwinkle clown makeup. As Stanley threatens her, Pennywise appears and kills him with a meat cleaver.
Ingrid, who has spent decades believing the entity was her father’s spirit, approaches Pennywise with tears of joy. She reveals a horrifying truth: she intentionally tipped off Bowers to Hank’s location, engineering the massacre at The Black Spot to create enough bloodshed to lure “Papa” out. She believed the violent spectacle would finally reunite them.
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Her delusion shatters when Pennywise, bored, announces he is full and going back to sleep for another 27 years. Ingrid finally sees the monster for what it is.
“You’re not him,” Ingrid says.
“Oh. I ate him,” Pennywise replies before laughing.
Enraged, It then hits Ingrid with the Deadlights—the blinding, orange manifestation of its true cosmic form. The attack leaves her in a catatonic state, though a final, eerie glance at the children suggests she may not be completely powerless.
A Dangerous Plan and a New Threat
In the aftermath, the town’s cover-up begins instantly. Official reports blame an “electrical fire” at an “illegal colored speakeasy,” absolving the white mob of any responsibility. Charlotte Hanlon is the sole voice of clear-eyed rage, telling her son Will, “It wasn’t that thing that lit the fire last night. This town is the monster”.
Meanwhile, the military subplot reaches a critical point. Using information Dick gathered from the spirits, General Francis Shaw’s team locates and extracts one of the ancient pillars that help cage the entity. Leroy Hanlon is horrified to learn they plan not to reinforce the cage, but to experiment on the pillar. He pulls a gun to stop them, leading to a confrontation with Shaw.
The General reveals his true, twisted motive: he wants to unleash Pennywise not on foreign enemies, but on the American public.
“You see what’s happening out there, Leroy? Americans are at each other’s throats… the one thing that makes people listen is fear,” Shaw explains.
Leroy is forced to stand down. Shaw then orders the pillar shard destroyed in a furnace. Its destruction has an immediate, catastrophic effect. Deep in the Derry sewers, Pennywise—who had just begun his long hibernation—is violently reawakened. The episode’s final moments show the fully alert clown, now adorned with what appears to be Indigenous war paint, setting his sights on a new target: young Will Hanlon. As Will looks on in terror, Pennywise attacks, and the screen floods with the blinding orange light of the Deadlights.
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