For the last seven weeks, HBO has delivered a constant stream of terror… and if you’re a Stephen King fan, I’m willing to bet that you’ve been in heaven. IT: Welcome To Derry has not only featured wide varieties of blood-soaked horror, but it has served as a brilliant expansion of the canon from IT: Chapter One and IT: Chapter Two, and every episode has featured fun nods to the wider King universe. It was true with the pilot all the way back in late September, and it remains true with the arrival of Episode 7, titled “The Black Spot.”
More IT: Welcome To Derry Easter Eggs
As is typically the case with penultimate episodes, the latest chapter of the HBO series features some major developments for the big picture story, but it is also loaded up with a number of easter eggs and references – both tying the show back to its source material in special ways and nodding to the larger King canon. Ordering them as they appear, I’ve collected a list of them all for your perusal below:
A Cameo From One Of IT: Welcome To Derry’s Co-Creators
Cameos are always fun to spot while on an easter egg hunt, and “The Black Spot” offers one up in its early minutes. Shortly after Pennywise The Dancing Clown has taken his on-stage bow in the 1908 flashback that serves as the episode’s cold open, an organ grinder can be spotted just alongside the crowd of kids watching the show. He’s wearing a black vest and smoking a cigarillo, and if he looks familiar, that’s because it’s none other than Andy Muschietti: the director and producer of the IT movies and one of the co-creators of IT: Welcome To Derry. It would have perhaps been too on the nose if the show were to feature him as the director of Pennywise’s performance, but fittingly, he is the one who starts playing the music that kicks off…
The Pennywise Dance!
If I had to pick any particular moment from IT: Chapter One that could fit under the heading “controversial,” it would probably be the dance performed by Pennywise when it has Bev Marsh trapped in the cistern. On the one hand, I can see the argument that it’s a touch too silly, while on the other, I also enjoy it as a showcase of just how demented the villain is. In “The Black Spot,” however, the dance gets a little more depth, as we learn that it was a part of the act that was performed by the real Pennywise The Dancing Clown before IT hijacked his image for its own nefarious purposes.
The End Of Bob Gray
One of the unexpected stories explored in IT: Welcome To Derry is the story of Mrs. Kersh – who movie-fans first got to meet in IT: Chapter Two. In that film, she introduced the idea that her father had been a clown, setting up the story of how IT came to take on the visage of Pennywise, and “The Black Spot” features that particular chapter of this epic tale unfolding. During the cold open, we never actually hear anyone refer to the carnival performer by his real name, but when Ingrid is shown the bloody handkerchief that belonged to her father and was found in the woods, we see that it is embroidered with the letters “R.G.” These are clearly the initials of Robert Gray a.k.a. Bob Gray, which is one of the names that Pennywise identifies himself as in Stephen King’s book. (Fun fact: it’s also the part of the story that made Bill Skarsgård say “yes” to being in the show.)
Monsters! (In Mask Form)
IT: Chapter One and IT: Chapter Two are, overall, movies that are very faithful to their source material… but there are certain elements that didn’t make it into the twin blockbusters. Fortunately, one of the cool things about IT: Welcome To Derry is that there is an opportunity to adapt certain things for the show that didn’t make it into the movies. A few weeks ago, we saw this happen with the introduction of the slingshot in Episode 3, and we’re seeing it again in “The Black Spot” via the masks worn by former Chief Bowers and his cronies. In Stephen King’s book, It takes the form of a number of classic Universal Monsters – including Dracula, Frankenstein’s monster, and the werewolf – and the looks of those creatures is represented in vacuum-formed plastic in Episode 7.
A Familiar Demand From A Threatening Force
Next, we come to what is my favorite easter egg in “The Black Spot.” When Bowers and his collection of cretins storm into the episode’s titular structure, looking for Hank Grogan, they state the rules of engagement succinctly: “Give us what we want, and we go away.” This may seem like a pretty general sentiment, but I’m willing to bet that it perked the ears of every hardcore Stephen King fan watching. Why? Because it’s basically a pluralized version of the repeated demand made by the evil André Linoge to the people of Little Tall Island in the 1999 miniseries Storm Of The Century. Before making his purpose clear, he simply sends out the message “Give me what I want, and I’ll go away,” and I have zero doubt that IT: Welcome To Derry is referencing that bit of televised brilliance.
A Memorable Ghost
Dick Hallorann has his first big hero moment in “The Black Spot,” as he is able to help Hank, Ronnie, and Will to safety during the blaze… but it comes at a serious cost. By engaging with the ghosts he sees because of his ability to Shine, they all start to engage with him, and that’s a terrifying circumstance that It is all too happy to exploit. While confronting Dick in the fire, the evil clown collects a number of freaky ghosts at his back to haunt him, and one in particular is very memorable – mostly because it doesn’t have a head. What makes it notable in addition to being memorable, though, is that it appears to be the exact same headless ghost that attacks Ben Hanscom in IT: Chapter One when he is doing research in the Derry Public Library.
Can A Fridge Earn Redemption?
I have a very limited number of gripes when it comes to IT: Chapter One (a film I view as one of the greatest Stephen King movies of all time), but one of them concerns the death of Patrick Hockstetter. In the adaptation, the savage bully is simply killed by Pennywise while roaming the sewers looking for Ben Hanscom, but his death in the book is one of my favorites: he opens a fridge in a junkyard – one he has been using to torture animals – and he gets attacked by a swarm of flying leeches. The appliance is a terrifying source of death in the novel… but I kind of love that it gets a bit of redemption in IT: Welcome To Derry. Instead of being used to kill someone, it’s used as a way of saving someone’s life, as Rich has Marge hide in a turned over refrigerator so that she can survive the blaze of The Black Spot.
That’s the end of the list… and we’ve almost reached the end of IT: Welcome To Derry Season 1! “The Black Spot” being the penultimate episode of the hit HBO series means that we are now just seven days away from the finale. What will happen now that the “gate” has been opened for It and the monster has awoken from its hibernation? Be sure to head back here to CinemaBlend next week for our full coverage of everything that goes down.