The cosmic entity at the heart of Stephen King’s IT is a creature capable of assuming the form of any specific fear its victims might harbor. Its most universally recognized form, however, is that of Pennywise the Dancing Clown. This specific manifestation was elevated to the status of a modern horror icon by Bill Skarsgård’s chilling performance in the two wildly successful IT feature films. For its first few episodes, IT: Welcome to Derry has intentionally kept Pennywise off-screen, building tension through allusions and ghostly apparitions connected to the creature’s influence. The fourth episode signals a definitive shift, directly teasing that the clown is finally about to make his terrifying debut. This is not the only horror the series is building toward, as the episode also lays the grim foundation for one of the bleakest tragedies in King’s original novel.
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Warning: Spoilers below for IT: Welcome to Derry, Episode 4
The groundwork for Pennywise’s arrival in IT: Welcome to Derry began in the third episode, when the town’s children unite to capture photographic evidence of the entity that is hunting them. Their plan culminates in a harrowing confrontation inside Derry’s cemetery, where they are forced to fight for their lives against a series of ghastly specters. During the chaos, a photograph taken by Will Hanlon (Blake Cameron James) reveals the distinct silhouette of a clown hiding in the background.
The fourth episode advances this plot point, showing the children attempting to use the photograph to exonerate Ronnie’s (Amanda Christine) incarcerated father, Hank (Stephen Rider). Their evidence is summarily dismissed by the authorities. Unfortunately, with their direct investigation, the children have provoked the creature, and it seems to have chosen Will as the focus of its impending escalation.
IT: Welcome to Derry Is Teasing Pennywise’s Debut
After Will’s failed attempt to prove the supernatural threat, the entity begins to personally torment him. During a fishing trip with his father, Leroy (Jovan Adepo), IT waits for the precise moment the child is alone to launch its attack. It manifests as a horrifying vision of Leroy engulfed in flames before attempting to drown Will in the river. Leroy returns just in time to rescue his son, and as the two recover, they witness a single red balloon floating ominously in the wilderness. Later that evening, a sleepless Will uses his telescope to observe his neighborhood, only to spot the shadow of a clown with glowing eyes peering out from behind a tree. His resulting screams bring Leroy rushing outside to confront the intruder, but he finds nothing except another red balloon, this one tangled in the branches of a tree. These escalating events are deliberate signals pointing to Pennywise’s preparation for a grandiose entrance.
This timing makes perfect thematic sense. The fourth episode provides the first detailed origin story for the IT creature, explaining the ancient events that have tethered it to the geographical location of Derry. While the children’s story arc is moving toward this iconic confrontation, the adult storyline is shaping an entirely different, yet equally horrifying, tragedy.
We Finally Know How the Black Spot Connects to IT: Welcome to Derry
In the fourth episode, Dick Hallorann (Chris Chalk) uses his critical role in the military’s Project Precept to leverage a favor from General Francis Shaw (James Remar). He secures access to a decommissioned hangar on the outskirts of Derry. The purpose is to create a social club, a safe haven where he and the other Black members of the Air Force can relax without enduring the oppressive racism of the town.
IT: Welcome to Derry has repeatedly highlighted this systemic bigotry, showing Black people being summarily ejected from local bars and revealing that the police have pinned the blame for the town’s missing children on Hank, despite a complete lack of evidence. The series is also carefully weaving in the historical context of the Civil Rights movement, with Charlotte Hanlon (Taylour Paige) actively campaigning against Hank’s unjust imprisonment. All these plot threads converge on the hangar, making it clear it is destined to become the infamous Black Spot.
In Stephen King’s novel, the Black Spot was a nightclub established in 1930 that primarily catered to Black soldiers from the nearby army base. It was a place of joy and community in a deeply segregated town, which made it a target. The nightclub met a horrific end when a local white supremacist group, the Maine Legion of White Decency, set fire to the building, killing all of the patrons and staff trapped inside. This act of racial terrorism was one of Derry’s darkest historical moments, an event that Pennywise was present for, feeding on the immense fear and hatred generated by the massacre. By showing the Black Spot’s creation, the series is actively building toward a known catastrophe.
New episodes of IT: Welcome to Derry premiere on HBO every Sunday.
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