'IT: Welcome to Derry' Episode 7 Recap & Ending Explained: Is Will Dead?

Yup. Heartbreaks galore. And we’re gonna groan to our hearts’ content even though we knew what we were signing up for when we started IT: Welcome to Derry. Because if they’re fine with going all Titanic on us with the death of one of the sweetest kids, in the immortal words of Andy Bernard, “we could so just sit here and cry.” But not before I give you all the gory details of everything that’s wrong with Derry, and America, and racist White men, so basically just the world? Huh, I wonder why almost all the current TV hits are trying to say the same thing over and over again! It may just be because we’ve got enough human demons to make this world an unsafe place for everything good. Or at least that’s what I gather from all the awful things that happen in the 7th episode of IT: Welcome to Derry.

Spoiler Alert

What happened to the real Pennywise the Dancing Clown?

The entire sequence that we see from 1908 is shot in a way that’s bound to make you wait with bated breath. Wait for what? For that smile on Pennywise the Dancing Clown’s face to get creepy, and I mean IT creepy. And more importantly, to see certain signs on the real clown, Ingrid Kersh’s father, the signs that can explain why him. But the tragedy is that while Bill Skarsgard is an absolute menace on stage, getting loads of laughs and claps from the kids, there’s nothing about him other than his appearance that can invoke the man-eating alien. I mean, other than the fact that his life’s absolutely tragic, of course, a true sad clown background complete with a dead wife and everything. Buckle in, because this is just starting to get sad. So as I was saying, there doesn’t seem to be any sign of evil on the real Pennywise the Dancing Clown. He’s in fact a fantastic dad to a little Ingrid. No wonder she still looks for him in the monster that stole his skin. But before all that, Pennywise and his little Periwinkle were just about to start a story of their own, though neither could bear the pain of the missing clown in the family. Little did they know that the thing that promised them a better future–all the claps and the cheers of the children–would be what drew in the monster. IT kept an eye on the real Pennywise in the form of a little boy it must’ve just eaten the night before, and IT liked how the clown was such a reliable figure for his next meals. So yeah, it is absolutely beyond creepy that the truth almost slips when IT comes to the miserable, drunk, grieving Pennywise, wearing the skin of a little boy looking for his mom in the woods. How could Pennywise not help? How could Pennywise not get lured into the woods, handheld and everything, when what stood between him and his fate was the fate of a woman? He couldn’t save his wife from something. So his need to save someone in trouble was what ripped him away from his little girl. His handkerchief was found all red. Wolves, they said. But something in Ingrid kind of sensed that it wasn’t wolves. Of course, that had something to do with the fact that she wanted to believe that her father, the real Pennywise the Dancing Clown, hadn’t died at all. But he had, though the official confirmation comes from the predator’s mouth much later in the episode, the real Pennywise sure as hell died and left his daughter all alone in the world. I guess even IT couldn’t have predicted that the world would move on, and that children would start finding clowns creepy. But Pennywise is still IT’s favorite skin. Fun or not, the Pennywise avatar is terrifying enough to freeze his victims and make them tastier. 

Who caused the Black Spot fire?

Well, the short answer is, the people of Derry. How? For that we gotta do the unthinkable and watch this insane massacre unfold in front of us. You know what’s totally messed up and absolutely brilliant about this episode of IT: Welcome to Derry, though? You know exactly what’s about to happen, and yet everything horrible comes slowly enough for a futile hope to set in. Yeah, it’s that bad (good?) So you can pray all you want for the happy crowd at the Black Spot, especially because the kids and Hank are there when Chief Bowers and his group of White supremacist terrorists knock down the door. Things almost begin to look up when the colored airmen, the actually gutsy people in the room, pull their state issued guns on the state issued goons. But the problem is, chickens don’t play fair. They’re here because they know that the Black Spot is where Hank Grogan is being sheltered. And Hank, good man that he is, couldn’t just hide while these good people put their lives on the line for him and his daughter. Even Hallorann tried to protect him, despite being against letting him stay there for understandable reasons. How could a club run and frequented by Black people harbor a Black man the whole town has made a monster of and hope to survive? They’re the odd ones out in Derry’s cookie cutter world. And you know what happens to the edges of cookies when they try to break free of the mold? They get charred, just like the innocent people who get locked up in the Black Spot from every side as the White terrorists shower molotov cocktails and bullets on them. Fire, bullets, blood, brains, and guts spilled, all the while everyone is trying to save everyone else. Hell? Just America. Just Derry and its environs. It really shouldn’t have fallen on poor Hallorann to save the children. He’s already haunted by spirits now that his mental box is wide open. The only reason he hasn’t completely lost his mind yet is because he’s stayed quiet. Like Hallorann said himself. If he says a single word to the spirit world, they never stop talking back. That’s why Hallorann’s an absolute trooper for speaking to a spirit, and boy did he speak to the right one? The spirit that Hallorann communicates with at the Black Spot is of Sesqui, who I’m pretty sure is a predecessor to Rose and Taniel. The hallowed war chief who once faced IT with all her might and lost her life is now in charge of helping Hallorann save the children, well, almost all the children. I doubt that he gets to even absorb the horror as it happens. His friends die just after giving him a hand with the rescue. How do you live with that? Will, Ronnie, and Hank only get out of that hell alive because Hallorann remembered the rotten boards underneath the refrigerator. It’s a way out into the woods. If only a big chunk of the ceiling didn’t cave before it was time for Marge and Rich to be saved too. But Marge’s got nothing to worry about with her knight by her side. It’s corny, and therefore a bit too “Titanic,” but it gets the point across about how the world butchers the most incredible people. Rich would’ve grown up to be one of them had it not been for this horror show. He gets to die the death of a hero when he forces Marge into a box to save her from the smoke. Rich takes all the carbon monoxide so his fair maiden doesn’t have to. I know what you’re thinking, where’s Pennywise in his Augury? I mean, the Black Spot fire is obviously the one last big boom after which IT will go to sleep. Oh, there he is. Right on time to eat somebody’s face in front of Ronnie’s horrified eyes. Do you see me not coping with the fact that Rich is dead? Follow my lead and do the same. Let’s instead focus on what led to this, because there’s pain to deal with there as well. Chief Bowers might’ve fronted this attack, but Al Malkin, Phil and Susie’s grieving father, has been a big part of it. He’s here to kill Hank, the man Derry has convinced him is the killer of his two kids. What a wonderful way for Derry’s evil to weaponize grief. But then, what don’t they weaponize, really? When Mrs. Kersh comes sniffing around in her Periwinkle outfit, she’s here to reap the rewards of this chaos. You see, it was Ingrid Kersh who first pretended to help Hank by stashing him here, and then called in the tip herself. How could she miss such a gruesome opportunity to meet her father again? Pennywise makes the meeting all the sweeter by snacking on Stan Kersh’s head. A butcher personally and professionally, Stan totally deserved this. He was an abusive loser, and a member of the Maine Legion of White Decency. But who do you side with? Pennywise? An abusive alien over an abusive man? The world’s really doing that bad, huh? It’s not your Papa, you freak! But it also kind of saddens you to be forced to acknowledge that Ingrid Kersh is just as much a victim as anyone else. She’s a broken little girl unable to accept that her father is dead. Do you really blame her when IT looks exactly like him? Of course, it should’ve been her cue to get the hell away when her “papa” started eating kids. But Ingrid Kersh convinced herself that she could free her dad from that monster. So it’s a rude awakening when she tries to stop Pennywise from going for that 27-year-long nap, and asks him that damning question. I repeat. That’s not your Papa. But it’s the 60s, and Ingrid is a woman. Do you really think she could’ve just gone and sought psychological help from one of the butchers at Juniper Hill? You feel almost sort of worried for Ingrid when Pennywise opens his mouth wide and bright. I mean literally, very bright. Bright enough for the light to blind Ingrid Kersh for some time. Oh, she’s fine. As fine as one can be when a sadistic alien monster shows her things that I suppose no mortal should know. No wonder she’s being carried away in a stretcher the morning after. The silver lining, if you really wanna see it, is that the police now think that Hank’s one of the charred bodies at the Black Spot. He’s safe, and so are Will and Ronnie. But for how long, really? 

What happens to Will in the end?

Nothing says Derry more than the bitter smell of hate settling like an ominous fog over the whole place. I’m not exaggerating. You can practically smell how bad these racists must stink through the screen, if you’re bothered enough. And since they couldn’t be more thrilled to hear the news of their latest, most hated Black man’s death, (as if they could even pick him out of a crowd with their dumb as hell eyes) the kindest thing you can find here is Lilly’s mom being completely unbothered by it. Uh huh. While Lilly is visibly shaken up by the news of her friend’s dad’s death, that too. So it’s really nice of Ronnie and Marge to drop by and tell her that the police got it wrong. Honestly, if you ask me, I don’t think the police got it wrong by mistake. I think they really don’t care if Hank even gets away as long as the Black Spot fire shakes up the Black residents of and around Derry enough. And I’m pretty sure it has. I’ve kind of got an “everything bad is connected” theory here that’s gonna take me a minute to put into words. So bear with me here. First things first, Hallorann can’t possibly have a single clue about what he’s actually walking into when he continues to follow Shaw’s orders. He thinks it’s easy for him to find at least one of the pillars now, because ever since he’s spoken to the ghosts, he hasn’t lost sight of Sesqui. He thinks she will show him to the site of her grave, where one of the pillars is buried. But is it really as simple as he thinks it is? Why would Sesqui open up to him about that when she can see everything that’s going on? So it’s entirely possible that she’s led Shaw’s team to her burial site and to the pillar on purpose. Maybe this is her way to warn her people before Shaw gets to all the pillars? Because as far as we know, Taniel has found out that Shaw’s people have removed the pillar from the site, basically leaving that part of Pennywise’s cage open. So much for that long nap! Rose’s family is relieved that this feeding cycle wasn’t as bad as the previous one, but they’re about to find out that it’s going to start back up again. 

Where’s Leroy in all this? Well, he’s finally done some right things, although anything can lead anyone to death in Derry at any point. He’s sent Hank back to Derry with Charlotte. Charlotte’s plan is to get Hank across the border. You know the only person who can help her with that is the one who believes that a border is just a line on the map, which it is, just saying. So Rose is going to help out the Grogans after all. As for Leroy, he’s finally seen sense after the removal of the pillar. You see, Shaw fed him a lie about his purpose. Decreasing the radius of Pennywise’s cage is the exact opposite of what he wants to do. And Leroy has a bitter awakening to that truth when Fuller changes the course of the pillar and brings it to the base instead, leaving the cage wide open. Leroy’s actually the hero he’s always wanted to be when he pulls a gun on his own men to stop them from incinerating the pillar. He’s wildly outnumbered, so don’t get your hopes high about his chances. The pillar burns, alright, but I’m not too sure what happens to a piece of a star when it burns. It’s got to melt, right? But I’m just gonna ask you to Google it instead of trying to sound smart in the same process. It’ll be more rewarding, trust me. In any case, I don’t think trying to burn the pillar will have the effect that Shaw’s going for. It could destroy it, but it could also make it easier to forge weapons out of it. So anything can happen with the molten star, really. It’s good to know that Leroy is gonna be in one piece for a while at least, even though he just pulled a gun on a superior. I feel like there’s a chance there that Leroy’s sort of a pet project for a racist lunatic like Shaw. Does he think he can prove a point by turning Leroy into a weapon against his own community? Possibly. 

But I don’t think Leroy’s gonna let that happen, especially after hearing Shaw spew absolute crazy for a good couple minutes there in the ending of the 7th episode. Underneath all the medals the government has buried Shaw under, he’s just a basic racist, sexist, White American whining about women and people of color. And that’s part of the reason why I think Shaw was behind the Black Spot fire too. Think about it. He had to have at least allowed the terrorists to walk right into his own base and burn down a club. He even admits that he appreciates how this “awful thing” has made the rioters go quiet. Peace and quiet, you know? It’s just nice when everyone gets along! I can’t even pretend that I mean it, can I? So Leroy now knows that Shaw’s big idea to fix his country is to let Pennywise lose as a dictatorial punishment tool. You gotta submit to fear, right? What better way to keep your country’s people in line than to terrify them with a man-eating clown? I’d call this a plan if you want me to. But you know this doesn’t make any sense at all. Unless the reason Shaw is burning this particular pillar is in fact to make weapons out of it? In which case, he’s possibly hoping to use those to tame Pennywise. In which case, he’s still an idiot. But you know who’s not an idiot? Will. Will is smart as hell. But that doesn’t keep you safe from Pennywise, especially when he’s here after being awakened from his nap. Will doesn’t get eaten, though. Thankfully! But Pennywise does the same thing to him that he did to Ingrid. He shows Will the light. What does this light mean? It’s possibly more fear. Lots and lots of it. It’s possibly even memories of real events that can scare the hell out of Will and Ingrid. Like images of Pennywise eating people? Who knows? This just blows. 

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