IT: Welcome To Derry Season 1, Episode 7 Review - A Perfectly Executed Set-Piece Anchors The Stephen King Spinoff's Most Focused Episode To Date

IT: Welcome To Derry Season 1, Episode 7 Review - A Perfectly Executed Set-Piece Anchors The Stephen King Spinoff's Most Focused Episode To Date Pennywise smiling in It Welcome to Derry By  Ben Sherlock Published 2 hours ago Ben Sherlock is a Tomatometer-approved film and TV critic who runs the massively underrated YouTube channel I Got Touched at the Cinema. Before working at Screen Rant, Ben wrote for Game Rant, Taste of Cinema, Comic Book Resources, and BabbleTop. He's also an indie filmmaker, a standup comedian, and an alumnus of the School of Rock. Sign in to your ScreenRant account Summary Generate a summary of this story follow Follow followed Followed Like Like Thread Log in Here is a fact-based summary of the story contents: Try something different: Show me the facts Explain it like I’m 5 Give me a lighthearted recap

Warning! This review contains spoilers for It: Welcome to Derry episode 7.

With a heart-wrenching climactic set-piece and a devastating loss, It: Welcome to Derry’s penultimate episode has set a very high bar for the season finale. The episode opens in 1908, where we get a glimpse of Pennywise’s show before he became a demon who periodically haunts children. The sad-clown routine and the braying fans make him oddly sympathetic before we get another piece of his origin story. Welcome to Derry’s revelations about Pennywise’s backstory haven’t been everyone’s cup of tea — especially the controversial twist that Ingrid is Pennywise’s daughter, desperately searching for him — but it’s been interesting to see where he came from.

But that’s not the centerpiece of this episode; the centerpiece of the episode is, of course, the fire at the Black Spot. This disgusting act of racist violence was alluded to in the first It movie, and the entire debut season of Welcome to Derry has been building up to it. This is the horrific consequence of the racial tensions permeating throughout the town. The people of Derry have viciously vilified Hank Grogan to the point that an angry white mob will do something like this and call it noble.

This is Welcome to Derry’s most focused episode yet. One of the biggest issues with the series so far is that it’s felt overstuffed. It has too many major characters and it has too many different things going on, from the new Losers’ Club trying to catch the dancing clown to the military trying to weaponize his cosmic power. But this episode is built entirely around a single event. The first half of the episode deals with the fire itself, then the second half deals with the aftermath.

The Black Spot Set-Piece Is Executed Perfectly

Director Andy Muschietti Really Cooked With This Intense, Devastating Sequence

The fire is the most perfectly executed set-piece in the series to date. A lot of Welcome to Derry’s horror sequences have come off as goofy and unexciting, like the pickle monster attacking Lilly in the supermarket, but the fire is both a bracingly intense sequence and an emotional gut-punch. It takes up a good 15-minute chunk of the episode, and it’s riveting from start to finish.

Director Andy Muschietti does some of his best work in the entire franchise with this scene. He captures the chaos, the urgency, the terror, and he keeps you on your toes. As the flames engulf the building and the airmen come to the ominous realization that they’re locked inside, the scares keep coming. The kids are chased by Pennywise. Dick Hallorann is surrounded by visions of eviscerated soldiers. Just in case the fire wasn’t scary enough, Muschietti put everything and the kitchen sink into this sequence, and it works beautifully.

This whole set-piece builds to a heartbreaking conclusion when Rich sacrifices himself to save Marge. A reported 23 people are killed in this fire, but we wouldn’t feel the impact of that loss if none of them were major characters. After Rich struck up a budding romance with Marge in last week’s episode, the audience is deeply endeared to him — and that makes him the worst (and best) character to kill in a fire. Rich confessing his love for Marge while he’s burned alive protecting her grounds this horrific disaster in human emotion.

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.

65 9.2/10 9/10

It: Welcome to Derry

10 stars 9 stars 8 stars 7 stars 6 stars 5 stars 4 stars 3 stars 2 stars 1 star Like Follow Followed TV-MA Horror Mystery Drama Release Date October 26, 2025 Network HBO Directors Andy Muschietti Writers Jason Fuchs, Stephen King, Austin Guzman Franchise(s) IT 8 Images Dick Hallorann with his eyes wide looking angry in It Welcome to DerryBill Skarsgard's Pennywise in IT Welcome to Derry trailer 2Image courtesy of HBO MaxKid similing in IT Welcome To DerryIt: Welcome to Derry teens looking surprised at something off screenClose

Cast

See All

• Taylour Paige Charlotte Hanlon
• Jovan Adepo Leroy Hanlon

Genres Horror, Mystery, Drama Creator(s) Andy Muschietti, Barbara Muschietti, Jason Fuchs Expand Collapse Pros & Cons

• The Black Spot fire set-piece is perfectly executed
• Rich's sacrifice is a devastating twist

• The ending gets a bit MacGuffin-y

• It: Welcome to Derry

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