It: Welcome to Derry Season 1 Episode 7 Review: The Black Spot

If It: Welcome to Derry Season 1 has been somewhat of a slow burn, though that isn’t to say that it hasn’t provided some really scary moments. Fortunately, for Season 1 Episode 7, the series finally reels us back in with some incredibly catastrophic moments.

Much like the first episode, this episode’s strong focus on bringing to life what was only mentioned in King’s book intertwines all of these aspects of fear int0 a single moment. What comes out of this episode brings heartbreak, pain, and more trouble (in a narratively positive way.)

This truly shows in the most traumatic moment of the episode, which happens nearly 20 minutes in. Of course, that would be what happens at the iconic Black Spot, the bar joint that was being constructed since Season 1 Episode 2.

In King’s book, what happened at the Black Spot was only mentioned in a subtle, yet brooding manner. However, what happens when Bowers and his “gang” decide to intervene on the situation leads to perhaps the most heated moment in the entirety of It: Welcome to Derry.

After Bowers caught word from Ingrid that Ronnie’s dad, Hank, was hiding out at the Black Spot, he decides to gather a hate mob to the locale. However, their confrontation with Hallorann’s friends almost leads to an all-out gun fight until the situation dies down.

Unfortunately, if you know the books, then you know what happens next: Bowers’ lynch mob goes all out on burning down the Black Spot. As the locale is engulfed in flames, it leads to some pretty devastating scenes as shots ring out and those inside succumb to the fire.

The way that Season 1 has been tackling the idea of social paranoia and racial prejudice has been toned down until now. We saw this primarily through the storyline involving Hank and Charlotte getting pushback from both Leroy and Derry’s community. However, this scene is on a whole different level.

In fact, it does a good job trying to tug on your emotions as what was meant to be a place of peace being destroyed. When you only hear about it, you don’t necessarily feel the pain that you would when you actually see it. The series is able to not only take advantage of this because of its setting, but also because of its thematic approach.

Of course, not everyone would feel fully comfortable watching such events play out like this. Given the narrative circumstances of It: Welcome to Derry, some parts of this sequences would be somewhat hard to watch. However, there’s one part of this entire act that stands out: Rich’s sacrifice.

For most of Season 1, Rich was one of those charming characters you could get behind thanks to his brief innocence in all of this. Sure, we didn’t know much about his background before the series, but his blossoming relationship with Marge did provide a bit of lightheartedness.

When Rich ultimately decides to sacrifice his life to protect Marge, it just adds on to the emotional toil that Season 1 wants to put on its viewers. The last conversation Rich shares with Marge about admitting his love and generally relating to her captures his character’s arc just perfectly.

Rich was this bright light in everyone’s life that could always shine through the bleakness of the reality of the Losers Club. The impact that’s felt by everyone, particularly with Marge and Ronnie, carries an incredible amount of weight that shows how much of a bond he was for the Club.

This isn’t particularly felt from Lilly’s perspective until Marge and Ronnie head back to her house to share the bad news. Even though we don’t spend as much time with Lilly on this episode, it’s still almost satisfying to see how united this version of the Club is starting to feel.

This episode’s events wouldn’t happen without the involvement of Ingrid, who wanted to be like her father when she was younger. In those flashbacks, it’s also revealed that Ingrid’s mother passed away and the only way Ingrid and her dad could cope was by becoming clowns.

Due to the inspirational impression that her father left on her, Ingrid’s been constantly wanting to reconnect with her father. However, she still believed that “IT” was, in some way, her dad’s spirit until “IT” decided to go away and back to its den.

Personally, what I’ve felt so far from Ingrid’s reveal was particularly weak. Although she did turn out to be the catalyst for nearly everything important, including Matty’s disappearance, the payoff to this false reunion-of-sorts feels short-lived.

Did I want more of “IT” and Ingrid working together? In some ways, yes, but the flashbacks we got of Ingrid’s previous life did satiate that need, at least until this episode.

As for what happens with Leroy this episode, he finally decides to takes things into his own hands. After Pennywise decides to return to hibernation, Shaw decides to take advantage of the situation by ordering his troops to reclaim another pillar, something that alerts Leroy.

What we get from Leroy’s turn here is also a great change of pace considering how he treated his son, Will, following Season 1 Episode 6. It felt like he had turned a blind eye to what was really happening until he had that post-incident conversation with Hallorann.

However, when Leroy decides to go back to Shaw, it feels gratifying to see that he’s becoming much more “in-tune” with what’s going on.

When he confronts Shaw about the risks, Shaw makes his motivations clear that even the “international conflict” plan was also a cover-up for what he really wanted to do: control American society. While this does naturally fit into that idea of racial prejudice, I’ll admit that it came as a last-minute surprise to hear.

However, given how the overarching narrative of Season 1 has been to explore the integration of this theme with the supernatural aesthetic of King, it works for the most part. I just wish that we saw a bit more of that motivation showing through Shaw’s interactions with Rose.

It: Welcome to Derry Season 1 Episode 7 is a devastating, yet great, penultimate episode that puts us back on track for a big ensemble confrontation with Pennywise. Though some aspects of it, like the said twists, could have been improved, it generally does a good job pushing the dramatic tension higher once again.

Stray Thoughts:

• I feel like that one shot from the title card involving Pennywise and Derry’s citizens shooting at each other was alluding to this very moment.
• Although I’m surprised they’d go ahead and show Rich’s body after the fire, I’d say that it definitely had more impact than the Season 1 Episode 5 corpse reveals.
• When Ingrid’s dad did that entire performance about her mom’s spirit being with them, it did make me a bit sad. However, then again, this entire episode was supposed to be tonally dismal.

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New episodes of It: Welcome to Derry release on Sundays, 9:00 PM EST, on HBO and HBO Max.

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