IT: Welcome to Derry Episode 7: The Black Spot Unleashes Derry’s Darkest Secrets — Full Spoiler Recap and Review

Tonight the show finally tackles the story everyone knows from It lore: the burning of the Black Spot. Real-world hate collides with a hungry thing under Derry, and the fallout is meant to reshape the season. It is brutal, chaotic, and sometimes weird in ways the show doesn’t always have a handle on.

First, a misdirect in greasepaint

We open at an old-time carnival where Bill Skarsgard shows up not as Pennywise, but as a human: Ingrid’s father, a performer who wants to carry on Mom’s legacy for his daughter. A creepy kid lures him toward a girl’s screams, and that’s the end of him while Ingrid watches, devastated. It’s a clever bit of casting symmetry that also sets up why Ingrid sees clowns as a connection to her dad in the first place.

Then Derry lights the match

Back in the present, the same racist mob from last week storms the Black Spot wearing cheap plastic masks, supposedly hunting Hank Grogan (Stephen Rider). They come armed with guns and Molotovs. The club turns into a killing floor within seconds. In the middle of the blaze, Pennywise (Bill Skarsgard again, this time as the real deal) shows up to eat.

A fridge, a choice, and a gut punch

Marge (Matilda Lawler) and Rich get cornered by the fire. They find a refrigerator that will only fit one person. Rich shoves Marge inside and stays behind. It’s the classic trope, but it lands because we actually like these kids. Rich burns. Marge lives because he made sure of it.

Periwinkle meets the monster

Ingrid (Madeleine Stowe) paints up as Periwinkle, her clown persona, trying to draw the creature out like it’s still connected to her father. She watches Pennywise split a racist’s head in two, realizes this is not Dad in any universe, and gets a full look at what he is as his face peels open and he lifts her off the ground. She survives the encounter, but comes out of it catatonic.

Who makes it out, who doesn’t, and who is lying about it

• Firefighters drag Marge out of the fridge; she gets one last, heartbreaking hand-hold with Rich’s charred body before he’s taken away.
• Ingrid is stretchered out alive, but mentally gone.
• Hank Grogan is declared dead. He isn’t. He slips out amid the chaos.
• Over with the Hanlons, Will’s parents are frantic and Dick Hallorann (Chris Chalk) is unraveling. The voices in his head are grinding him down, but he refuses to quit, even as the Native elders throw in the towel. Dick is still hunting a talisman he believes can kill the thing.
• General Shaw (James Remar) and the military scoop up a weird egg-like artifact that contains one of those talismans. Shaw finally shows Leroy (Jovan Adepo) his cards: he’s been using them. He plans to burn the relic and turn the creature’s fear into a tool for top-down order, civilian casualties be damned.
• Will (Blake Cameron James) picks up a phone call from Ronnie (Amanda Christine). Her voice drops into that gravelly Pennywise register, and the clown jumps from the shadows. The attack ends with Will possessed, and the screen cuts to black.

'As soldiers, we accept collateral damage.'

So... was it any good?

The episode swings for a Red Wedding vibe and mostly lands as a grisly pileup. Credit where it’s due: the gore is top-tier and the head-slice gag is a crowd-pleaser if you like your horror loud. But the club assault is staged like a generic cable drama wandered into a Stephen King story. The social commentary is so blunt it turns into a plot wrench instead of a point.

The emotion works better. Rich’s sacrifice for Marge is simple and effective, and it raises the stakes for the kids who are still standing. The adult storylines do not fare as well. The military plot remains the show’s weakest link. Shaw’s master plan is boilerplate villain stuff, and talking about burning relics and weaponizing fear drains the mystique out of Pennywise’s cosmic horror. This is a monster that works best when the government has no idea what to do with it, not when it’s the centerpiece of a lab brainstorm.

The ending helps a lot. The phone call with Will is stripped-down, specific, and mean in exactly the right way. It’s a strong, creepy cliffhanger heading into the finale.

Bottom line: visually impressive, narratively messy. Plenty of scares and carnage, not enough coherence, and that military subplot is still dead weight.

'IT: Welcome to Derry' premiered Friday, October 26 on HBO. 'The Black Spot' aired December 7.