When the topic of It arises, a terrifying image of a dancing clown inevitably springs to mind. However, the latest instalment of Welcome to Derry serves as a stark reminder that Pennywise is but a mere facet of Derry's horrific realities. There's something deeply unsettling about a cosmic monster that preys on children, but what often goes unnoticed is that Pennywise thrives on fear itself. It's the terror that tends to the fire, and in "The Black Spot," Episode 7, we are brutally reminded that the fear and pain that feed Pennywise have no magical, inexplicable origin. They are deeply human.
The 1908 prologue, which fleshes out the dynamic between Ingrid and her father, doesn't immediately reveal Pennywise as an evil child-eating monster. Instead, he's portrayed as a morose performing clown, Bill Skarsgard once again in the role, whose star has waned and who has exchanged big circus shows for backroad pop-ups. Despite this, the children adore him, or at least his act, which is why Pennywise is drawn to him. His performances manipulate their emotions, eliciting laughter and tears.
"The Entity," a young boy with glowing eyes who recurs throughout this episode and the season as a whole, asks Pennywise for help in finding his mother, luring him into the woods from which he never emerges. Ingrid, eager to take up her late mother's role as Pennywise's assistant clown, loses her father for seemingly no reason at all. "The Entity" is simply evil, and Derry and its people are its victims.
In the present day, the dynamics have shifted. Derry and its people, including Ingrid, seem to deserve everything that's coming to them. As predicted, it was Ingrid who led the bloodthirsty white racists to The Black Spot, knowing they would cause untold carnage in their search for Hank. She knew the suffering would attract Pennywise, whom she still mistakenly believes to be her father. When she shows up outside the burning juke joint in full clown regalia, she expects a tearful reunion. Instead, she is blinded by the Deadlights, rendered paralyzed and comatose. She isn't dead—we see her eyes move towards the end of the episode—but her idyllic vision of her father is shattered. She has condemned all these people to death for nothing.
The burning of The Black Spot is the central event of It: Welcome to Derry Episode 7, and it's awful. Most shows would have implied what went on here or perhaps shown it from the outside, but this isn't most shows. When it seems like the initial stand-off has reached a semi-peaceful resolution, the departing racists lock the building from the outside and set it ablaze, leaving all of the soldiers and children—everyone except Lilly—to burn to death. And most of them do. Pennywise roams through the carnage, feasting on a buffet of terrified victims. By the time he emerges, he is more than ready for his 27-year nap.
But at least he emerges, amidst what is undoubtedly the most poignant moment in the series thus far – and that's saying something given the introductory gambit that wiped out half of the child cast. Rich sacrifices himself to save Marge, choosing to suffocate from smoke inhalation to keep her safe, becoming one of the many who didn't make it out. Even though Dick is able to save most of the key players by communing with the ghosts, at a cost to his own sanity. Hank, the original target, miraculously survives and is spirited away by Charlotte to Rose's place, where they plan to smuggle him over the Canadian border.
Through all that death and suffering, the racists failed to kill the one person they were trying to target. It's no wonder Pennywise is always hungry. Dick was always reluctant to communicate with the ghosts, and in "The Black Spot," he is led by the spirit of a Shokopiwah war chief to one of the pillars that form the boundary of Pennywise's prison. Despite all available evidence suggesting it's a deeply terrible idea, the U.S. military removes the shard keeping the barrier intact, so they can experiment on it while Pennywise is napping, under the logic that they can use it to better understand its nature and thus find the other shards more easily.
Leroy is just about the only person who realizes this is a stupid move. So convinced is he of this fact that he later pulls a gun on the personnel carrying out the experiments, causing General Shaw to summon him to his office to reveal the military's real ulterior motive. Harnessing Pennywise's power has nothing to do with the Cold War; Shaw plans to use it to terrify a fracturing American society into submission. With race riots and women's rights marches and other politically contentious battles happening in the open, he's worried about another Civil War and is determined not to let that happen.
But all of this has consequences. Leroy standing against Shaw's plan puts him in the firing line, even though he feigns agreement after hearing the full explanation. And the episode ends with Pennywise waking up way ahead of schedule. The respite that Derry's citizens thought they were getting is going to be very short-lived indeed. It's more than most of them deserve, but I still don't fancy the kids' chances either.
