"The Black Spot" is the seventh episode of the American supernatural horror television series It: Welcome to Derry. The episode was co-written by series developer Jason Fuchs and co-showrunner Brad Caleb Kane, and directed by executive producer Andy Muschietti. It was first broadcast on HBO in the United States on December 7, 2025, and also was available on HBO Max on the same date.
The season is set in Derry, Maine in 1962. After the disappearance of a boy, three high school friends get involved in trying to find him, while two Air Force members arrive at the town to command a B-52. In the episode, Clint Bowers and his gang burn down The Black Spot, unleashing a catastrophic event for the patrons, while Bob Gray's past is explored.
The episode received generally positive reviews, with critics praising the Black Spot fire sequence, Muschietti's direction, emotional depth, and acting, although some questioned the logic behind the military plan.
Plot
In 1908, Bob Gray performs as "Pennywise the Dancing Clown" at a carnival. His daughter, Ingrid, aspires to become a clown, so Bob grants her her mother's stage name, "Periwinkle." That night, a child in the woods approaches Bob asking for help to find his parents. Bob reluctantly accompanies him, but he never returns.
In 1962, Clint Bowers and his mob confront the guests at the Black Spot, demanding the surrender of Hank. Although Hank offers to give himself up, the presence of armed patrons forces the gang to retreat. In retaliation, the gang torches the club, shooting at those attempting to flee the inferno.
Amidst the chaos, Dick Hallorann uses his abilities to commune with the spirit of a tribal chief, revealing a secret escape route. He guides Hank, Will, and Ronnie to safety, narrowly evading Pennywise, who is already feeding on the dying patrons. Others are less fortunate: unable to escape, Rich locks Marge in a refrigerator to shield her from the flames, confessing their love moments before he succumbs to the fire. Meanwhile, Stan Kersh—Ingrid’s husband and a member of the mob—is stranded when his car breaks down. Ingrid arrives in costume, believing she has found her father, but Pennywise appears and beheads Stan. The entity taunts Ingrid, revealing it is not her father, before opening its jaws to expose her to the deadlights. Sated, Pennywise departs to slumber.
By dawn, the massacre is covered up as an "electrical fire" and blamed on the patrons. As firefighters and paramedics tend to the survivors, Charlotte helps a presumed-dead Hank arrange new identity papers. Local indigenous elders confirm that the entity has consumed enough souls to begin its hibernation, destined to return in 27 years.
Simultaneously, the military seizes control of the investigation. Hallorann, now haunted by the ghosts, reveals to Leroy and Fuller that although he lost track of Pennywise, he has located a ritual pillar. The military recovers the artifact. Fuller announces a sudden protocol shift—with the entity dormant, they are ordered to study this pillar to locate the remaining twelve, rather than attempting an immediate extraction .
At the base, the deception unravels. Leroy discovers the pillar is being prepped for the incinerator—a direct violation of the study orders. He draws his weapon to halt the destruction, but Shaw intervenes, exposing the operation’s true nature. The plan was never to weaponize the entity against foreign enemies, but to destroy the pillars and break the containment. Shaw intends to unleash Pennywise onto the wider United States, believing the ensuing nationwide terror will shock the country into forced unity. Overpowered, Leroy watches the pillar burn as Shaw orders his detention to prevent him from leaving the base.
The horror is not fully over for the survivors. Will receives a call from a grieving Ronnie, but the voice distorts into Pennywise’s growl. Will defiantly declares he is not afraid, but Pennywise appears instantly, engulfing him in the deadlights.
Production
Development
The episode was written by co-showrunners Jason Fuchs and co-showrunner Brad Caleb Kane, and directed by executive producer Andy Muschietti. It marked Fuchs' third writing credit, Kane's third writing credit, and Muschiett's third directorial credit.[1]
Writing
The episode delves into Pennywise's past, including seeing the human version of Bob Gray in 1908. Fuchs said that the writers asked themselves "Why is It drawn to this form of Pennywise the Dancing Clown, and what is the real story of Bob Gray?", and Stephen King's approval motivated them to properly explore that aspect.[2] Muschietti said, "It is one of those things in the book where you want to open the drawer and see what's inside. That was a big attraction for us. Bill Skarsgård obviously read the book too, and he was very curious about who Bob Gray was, and It's motivation to take this shape. It appears to them as a clown because that's the way he has to basically bait kids, right?"[3]
Filming
The episode includes the fire of The Black Spot, an event referenced in the novel and films. Muschietti said it was important to adapt the event, "Apart from a dramatic low point, it is a guideline that leads our characters towards a catastrophic conclusion, or, if not a conclusion, a big pivotal point in the story."[4] The writers "knew somebody had to go", and decided to have Rich die in the fire. Muschietti said, "Rich is like this character that is so pure and innocent and so full of life. It's the tragic element, you know, of great love stories, like Titanic (1997), or Romeo and Juliet (1597) or Doctor Zhivago (1965), where this beautiful love story just doesn't have a great end... Everybody loves him. So it's hard, but the kid had to go."[5]
As the sequence begins, it is filmed as a long take for a few minutes. Muschietti said that he did this to build more tension, "There was a lot of thought put behind it. I really wanted to create an immersive experience of the horror of being inside the Black Spot. That's why the camera, for a long part of the sequence, doesn't come out of it. We are there with the characters."[6]Chris Chalk said that the sequence and the presence of the spirits unnerve Dick Hallorann, "It's interesting [that Pennywise] is not the scariest thing in Dick Hallorann's life — not even close. Dick can see every dead thing on earth, and if it looks at him, it talks to him. He can commune with different realities and he doesn't have control over that. You could go insane in a microbeat."[7]
Reception
Viewers
Critical reviews
"The Black Spot" earned generally positive reviews from critics. Tom Jorgensen of IGN gave the episode a "good" 7 out of 10 rating and wrote in his verdict, "“The Black Spot” sees Andy Muschietti take off flying with a stellar prologue full of intriguing Pennywise backstory, but as the Augery brings It's cycle of death to a harrowing close, the dummies over on the Air Force base can't help stumbling into one more mission in next week's finale, no matter the cost to common sense. Though the narrative's clunky, excellent performances from Bill Skarsgård, Arian S. Cartaya, Matilda Lawler, and Chris Chalk are enough to keep Welcome to Derry's penultimate episode focused on the show's greatest strength: examining human drama through the lens of the greatest horrors imaginable."[8]
William Hughes of The A.V. Club gave the episode a "C–" grade and wrote, "Welcome To Derry has been so focused on the cheap scares of the actual creature in its midst that it's done almost nothing to bolster the metaphorical one. With its characters so isolated into sequestered scenes, and its supporting cast a loose assemblage of mean girls, bad husbands, and drunk-hick cops all pulled directly from central casting, the show has failed to make Derry feel like anywhere — let alone cultivate the vibe of fearful cruelty Shaw is trying to invoke here. There's a version of this idea that works, where we've spent seven episodes watching dread narcotize a town's population into fitful order, only to reveal that it's been the master plan all along. But it's simply not what this team has been able to put up on the screen."[9]
Louis Peitzman of Vulture gave the episode a 3 star rating out of 5 and wrote, "This close to the end of the season, I've come to accept that It: Welcome to Derry is a show I'm going to struggle with. But as frustrating as the storytelling can be, I can't deny there are individual elements that really work. That's certainly the case in “The Black Spot,” an obvious improvement over last week's installment but an episode that left me with some burning questions."[10] Eric Francisco of Esquire wrote, "IT: Welcome to Derry episode 7, "The Black Spot," plays out an inevitability: The burning of Derry's only Black-owned bar. What was just a few sentences in Stephen King's novel and described in retrospect is now fleshed out with all the necessary horror and rage it demands. The tragedy of a community in peril is that no matter who its perpetrators are, violence follows them. You can also say that about everyone in Derry."[11]
Zach Dionne of Decider wrote, "The entity is indeed resting, as the clown, in a pool of blood and bodies and organs. Did it forget it doesn't need a costume anymore? Composer Benjamin Wallfisch does one of his creepiest moves here, a cacophony of singsongy voices crescendoing to screams as we settle on Pennywise's face. It's eyes open; the work's not done."[12] Shawn Van Horn of Collider gave the episode a 9 out of 10 rating and wrote, "HBO Max's IT: Welcome to Derry has been filled with many twists and turns so far in its first season. Andy Muschietti, who directed the two IT feature films, has taken the smaller moments from Stephen King's novel and made them the focus."[13]
Sean T. Collins of The New York Times wrote, "To its credit, Welcome to Derry is an upsetting show, from the giddy way in which its supernatural entity torments Its victims to the all-too-believable fashion in which racism and militarism quite literally feed It. I both anticipate and dread what Pennywise will do for Its final trick of the season."[14] Ben Sherlock of Screen Rant wrote, "In its final moments, as the military makes a groundbreaking discovery, this penultimate episode of 'It: Welcome to Derry' gets a bit MacGuffin-y. But that's a minor gripe. The Black Spot fire is a staggering set-piece and Rich's sacrifice is a devastating twist. He might've been my favorite character in the show — Arian S. Cartaya has charm and star power beyond his years — and his untimely death was appropriately heartbreaking. Next week's season finale has a lot to live up to."[15]
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