It: Welcome to Derry Recap: Ashes to Ashes

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As the season nears its end, I’ve realized It: Welcome to Derry is a show I’m finding difficult to fully enjoy. While the storytelling is often frustrating, there are definitely strong individual moments. “The Black Spot” is a clear improvement over the previous episode, but it raised a lot of questions for me. For instance, why did the episode begin with an 11-minute scene explaining Pennywise’s origins? This feels like information that should be saved for a future season set in 1908. Plus, it doesn’t reveal anything new. We see Bob Gray performing as Pennywise and his daughter, Ingrid, starting to follow in his footsteps by using the clown name Periwinkle. One night, a boy with glowing eyes approaches Bob and says, “The children seem drawn to you.” He leads Bob into the forest, and Bob is never seen again. All that’s left is a bloody handkerchief for Ingrid.

The series doesn’t gain anything by showing more of the human side of Pennywise, and it actually weakens the fear surrounding his most recognizable form. The backstory of who Bob Gray was isn’t important – he was just another disguise the creature used. The show spends too much time explaining this, which slows down the episode. This is especially frustrating because the last episode ended with a tense cliffhanger: a group of armed citizens heading to the Black Spot to confront Hank. Luckily, after a brief flashback, the story quickly returns to that moment. Hank tries to prevent a fight by surrendering, but the soldiers take control and order the crowd to leave. They succeed, but it’s a hollow victory. As soon as the mob steps outside, they start a fire, throwing Molotov cocktails into the Black Spot, trapping dozens of people inside. This event won’t surprise viewers familiar with the book It or the 2017 movie, but it’s still incredibly disturbing to watch. The chaotic fire and desperate escape attempts are sometimes hard to follow, but the sequence is undeniably intense. The most striking image is Pennywise emerging from the flames, and equally memorable is the shot of him eating Jax’s date, Noreen. (There’s even a darkly humorous moment where he jokes to Ronnie, “Do I have face on my face?”)

Honestly, while Welcome to Derry does a decent job, it just can’t fully capture the sheer horror of the Black Spot fire like the book does – Will’s description was truly terrifying. I really appreciated some of the things they added, though, like Dick breaking his rule and talking to an Indigenous spirit to find a way out. That scene with Pennywise surrounded by ghosts was fantastic! Dick managed to get Will, Ronnie, and Hank out through a hidden tunnel, which was a huge relief, even if they were all pretty shaken up. But then Rich and Marge got trapped, and it was heartbreaking. Rich basically sacrificed himself to save Marge, shoving her into a cooler and holding the lid down – it reminded me of that scene in Titanic. It was a powerful moment, even if their ‘I love you’s felt a little quick. It was a bold move to kill off one of the younger characters, and I think it was a good one. After the shocking start to the series, things had felt a little…safe, with Pennywise mostly just scaring people. This definitely raises the stakes as we head into the finale. Though, I have to say, it feels wrong that Rich’s death gets so much attention when the fire itself was an act of violence against the Black people who were at the club. Their deaths deserve to be remembered too.

As the crowd scattered from the Black Spot, Stan Kersh found his car wouldn’t start. Then he saw something bizarre: his wife, Ingrid, dressed completely as Periwinkle the clown. “This is who I truly am, Stanley,” she revealed. He angrily demanded she go home and remove the makeup, but Pennywise intervened, swiftly killing Stan with a cleaver and beginning to eat him. Ingrid was overcome with joy at seeing “her father” again, explaining she knew the violence would draw him out. Pennywise embraced the weeping woman, even complimenting her. However, their reunion was cut short when Pennywise announced he was going to sleep, seemingly after a large meal. Ingrid pleaded with him not to leave, but when he turned back, drooling, she realized something was wrong. “You’re not him,” she said, panicked. “Who are you?”

Let’s rewind to some puzzling moments from this scene. Why does Ingrid only now realize the creature isn’t her father? Have we not seen her get a close look at Pennywise since she unknowingly helped him years ago? If so, what has she been doing to assist him? When Pennywise praises her, what is he talking about? And it’s also strange that she doesn’t seem concerned about the racist attack on the club where her lover was hiding – did she even tell the mob where to find him? If her relationship with Hank was just a plan, how could she have predicted an event causing so many deaths to resurrect her father? These questions remain unanswered. Instead, Pennywise mocks Ingrid, shows her a terrifying vision, and leaves her nearly unresponsive. As she’s taken away on a stretcher, her eyes briefly focus on the young people who survived the fire.

Ronnie, Will, and Marge all survived, but they’re deeply shaken by Rich’s death, and are seen embracing his body the next morning. It’s somewhat comforting that he died from smoke inhalation rather than being burned alive, though there’s no good way to die in a situation like this. When Charlotte arrives, the kids lead her to Hank, who’s hiding in the woods – he’s been mistakenly reported as dead by the news. The fire, which killed 23 people at the “illegal speakeasy,” is being blamed on an electrical fault, but Charlotte still needs to get Hank out of town. The military is also present, and Leroy is trying to comfort Dick, who is really struggling after the fire. Dick has had a strange experience after speaking with the Indigenous warrior – he can now hear the voices of the dead, and can’t shut them out. However, he does have some good news: he knows where to find a pillar, and believes the creature has gone into hibernation. It’s unclear why Dick is suddenly helping with Shaw’s mission, but Leroy remains stubbornly focused on his own goals. After Charlotte demands justice for the deaths at the Black Spot, Leroy insists it’s not their concern. He also falsely assures her and Will that the creature under Derry can no longer hurt them. They plan to leave town together once Leroy completes his mission, and he promises them, “The worst of all this is behind us,” which feels like a foolish thing to say given the circumstances.

It really feels as though Charlotte is the only one reacting to the Black Spot fire properly, and given that she’s the only sensible person in Derry, I suppose that tracks. When Will says he wants to go to Lilly’s with Ronnie and Marge so they can tell her about Rich, Charlotte forbids it. Will reasons that the creature being asleep means the danger is behind them. “It wasn’t that thing that lit the fire last night,” Charlotte snaps back. “This town is the monster. You’re not going anywhere.” I honestly don’t know what I would do without her, the sole Welcome to Derry character who doesn’t make me feel insane. She still has a mission of her own, though. Charlotte decides to bring Hank to Rose, believing that Rose will be able to get him and Ronnie safely across the border. To do so, Charlotte disguises him as Leroy. Hank worries the neighbors might notice, seeing as the two men look nothing alike. “In this town?” Charlotte answers. Rose, meanwhile, is meeting with the members of her tribe tasked with monitoring the Galloo. They’ve determined that the Black Spot fire was the Augury, or the end of the latest feeding cycle, which means 27 years of relative peace. Yes, many people died to get to this point, but infinitely more would die if the pillars weren’t in place. “We do as much as we can for as many as we can,” Rose says. “Focus on the lives saved, the ones protected because we keep this thing in its cage.”

Regarding the cage they were building, Dick successfully found one of the pillars. However, Leroy was shocked to learn they weren’t going to use it to trap the creature, but instead bring it back to base for testing. He argued with Fuller that this was like leaving the cage door open, and Fuller dismissed his concerns, stating he was simply following orders. Shaw then revealed the truth: the operation wasn’t about Russia or ending the Cold War at all. The general always intended to destroy the pillars and release Pennywise on purpose. Shaw believed the biggest threat to the country wasn’t external, but internal, and he aimed to prevent a civil war by spreading fear nationwide. He admitted the Black Spot fire was terrible, but pointed out the immediate calm, explaining that fear would spread like a numbing fog, affecting everyone.

Shaw is completely unhinged, to put it mildly – those were Leroy’s words, not mine. The general coldly admits that many American children will die, but justifies it as necessary for the greater good, claiming soldiers are trained to accept unavoidable casualties. Leroy seems powerless to stop him. Fuller arrives and forces Shaw to reload the pillar into the incinerator, where it’s destroyed. Meanwhile, deep underground, Pennywise is apparently only lightly sleeping – he immediately awakens when the meteor fragment melts. Back at the Hanlon house, Will quickly learns this when he receives a disturbing call from Ronnie. She’s haunted by the image of Rich’s death, describing it in graphic and unsettling detail, her voice blending with Pennywise’s. She even claims to smell his decaying body. When Will turns around, Pennywise is standing on the fridge, not to attack, but to expose Will to the terrifying deadlights.

Losers’ Club

It’s easy to overthink this, but Pennywise isn’t wearing the deadlights – they are what the creature really is. Looking directly at them is incredibly dangerous, either killing someone instantly or driving them mad. The book shows Henry Bowers being committed to an institution after seeing them, which even turned his hair white. The recent movies, however, tend to show the deadlights putting people into a frozen, catatonic state, like what happens to Will and Ingrid in this episode.

We know Will lives because he later becomes Mike Hanlon’s father. In the story It, Beverly is saved from a near-death experience with a kiss from Ben, so it’s likely Ronnie will do the same for Will in the finale. The episode title, “Winter Fire,” might be a clue – it’s a reference to a poem Ben wrote for Beverly, which she repeats after he saves her. This suggests a similar rescue might happen with Will.

As mentioned earlier, this episode’s backstory for Pennywise doesn’t offer any new information. The original book implies that It once saw a performer named Pennywise back in the 1800s and chose that clown’s appearance because clowns naturally draw children in while also scaring them – which is central to the character. The fact that Welcome to Derry shows this happening in 1908 changes the timeline, but that’s consistent with the show overall.

The show portrays the angry crowd that destroys the Black Spot as seeking to lynch Hank, but it feels strangely toned down. In the original book, this group is clearly identified as the Maine Legion of White Decency, a version of the Ku Klux Klan. While the series does show the townspeople and Bowers are driven by racism, it doesn’t emphasize this as strongly as the book does.

As you’d expect, the pillar is supported by turtle shells, which is another nod to the character Maturin. This also connects to the idea that the pillars are like the beams supporting the Dark Tower. The shells show the turtle is protecting the pillar, and Maturin is one of the twelve guardians of those beams.

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2025-12-08 07:00