Welcome to the Season 1 finale of Derry. Undercut, the most unforgettable episode of the series

“It: Welcome to Derry” season 1, episode 7, “The Black Spot,” is easily the best episode of the series to date. Not only did it beat the “It” movies with the death of a major character, but it also successfully adapted what is easily one of the most disturbing moments from Stephen King’s “It” novel with the late Black Spot. This horrific event sees the very real threat of racial violence manifest in one of the most stark and upsetting developments in the entire series – and that’s saying a lot for a series as horrific as this. Unfortunately, the season 1 finale veered into entirely fantasy/horror territory, abandoning the extremely effective tone of the previous episode with a bunch of nonsense about magic trees.

The prequel series “It” delivered an absolute gut punch with the burning of the Black Spot bar – a speakeasy for Derry’s black servicemen – at the hands of the Maine Legion of White Decency (a white supremacist group from Derry). What makes the burning of the place even more horrific is that the racist group traps the bar’s patrons inside the building before lighting the fire, then shoots any poor souls who manage to escape.

This heartbreaking scene actually originated in King’s book “It,” when Mike Hanlon’s father, Will Hanlon, recalls the event in a flashback interlude. The original account of the tragedy was quite sparse, which gave “Welcome to Derry” creators Andy Muschietti, Barbara Muschietti and Jason Fuchs great creative freedom to expand on the Black Spot fire and ultimately produce a more immersive and gripping version of the event – one all the more shocking for its depiction of real-world horrors. Why, then, did all of this go out the window in the episode that followed?

“It: Welcome to Derry” significantly altered Stephen King’s version of the Black Spot fire. For one, the way Pennywise (Bill Skarsgård) selects victims amid the fire is completely different from that in the “It” novel, and Dick Hallorann, who was the Black Spot’s cook in King’s book, is actually a member of the military in the series. There’s also the fact that Maine’s Legion of White Decency travels to Black Point to find Stephen Rider’s Hank Grogan, wanted for the murder of three children that takes place in the pilot’s shocking ending, “Welcome to Derry.” Then there was this unforgettable death that left a top crew member sobbing.

Beyond that, the Black Spot fire is just a horrific sequence that is arguably the scariest moment in the entire series. “Welcome to Derry” flirted from the start with real-life horrors, particularly the threat of nuclear annihilation. Indeed, that demonic baby who decimated those poor children in the pilot episode was born to Miles Eckhardt’s Matty Clements who overheard a radio announcer discussing the effects of nuclear radiation on infants. But the massacre of dozens of Derry’s black residents must be one of the most shocking depictions of a very real aspect of history – especially as racists wait to shoot those who manage to escape the fire. This is the rawest and most intense “Welcome to Derry” of its first season, so it’s a shame that the next episode, the season finale, seemed like such an abrupt turnaround.

The Season 1 finale of “Welcome to Derry” arguably surpassed 2019’s “It Chapter Two” with its final battle against Pennywise. It also convincingly set up future seasons and, in one of the most exciting reveals of the entire series, even confirmed that he was traveling back in time to prevent his own destruction.

But the episode was also a bit silly. He saw all of Derry’s remaining heroes trying to stop Pennywise from reaching a specific tree by a river. You see, once he reaches the tree, no one in Derry will be able to contain him. For what? Because the ancient pillars that the indigenous people of the region used to encircle the feature within the boundaries of today’s Derry will no longer function beyond this point. For what? Just because.

The finale also ends with a sunny scene in which Chris Chalk’s Dick Hallorann and Jovan Adepo’s Leroy Hanlon are all smiles as the former announces his departure and the latter decides to stay in Derry despite the absolute horror he and his family have faced. So not only does the show go completely fantastical in this episode, but no one mourns the victims of Black Spot and considers the utter depravity of the racist attack, not to mention the other traumas endured throughout the series. Of course, this is ultimately a TV show, but if you’re going to tackle a topic as serious as racial violence, you should probably stay serious about it throughout. For a moment, with episode 7, the series did get serious and it was all the better (and more terrifying) for it.

Season 1 of “It: Welcome to Derry” is streaming on HBO Max.