WARNING: The following contains major spoilers for episode four of It: Welcome to Derry.
As we near the midpoint of It: Welcome to Derry season one, the lore deepens and fan favorite characters begin coming together. Episode four, “The Great Swirling Apparatus of Our Planet’s Function,” not only provides an origin story for the titular monster but also marks the appearance of a prominent canon location. The sprawling story of Stephen King‘s 1986 source material, It, is punctuated by a series of Interludes chronicling earlier cycles of the monster’s destruction compiled by librarian, town historian, and Losers’ Club member Mike Hanlon.
It: Welcome to Derry brings these disturbing tales to life, promising future seasons that will explore the grisly Bradley Gang massacre and the Kitchener Ironworks explosions, both depicted in the show’s eerie opening sequence. While it remains to be seen if we’ll get to see the gruesome ax murder at The Sleepy Silver Dollar, series creator Andy Muschietti‘s first season will center the fire at the Black Spot.
As payment for his extraordinary service, airman Dick Hallorann (Chris Chalk) is granted use of a decommissioned storage building several miles away from the barracks. Unable to relax in the informally segregated town, the base’s Black servicemen hope to turn the place into a nightclub similar to the one seen in Ryan Coogler‘s 2025 film Sinners. For now, the Black Spot is simply a building with a lot of promise, but a Danger sign on the surrounding gate hints at the horrors of King’s second Interlude. Set during the Great Depression (see Muscietti’s altered timeline explained in our recap of episode one), the men of Derry’s all-Black Company E suffer horrific acts of racist abuse, but find refuge in this exclusive club, which eventually features food, liquor, and live music. As the Black Spot grows in popularity, it attracts the attention of local racists who belong to the Derry chapter of The Maine Legion of White Decency, aka the Ku Klux Klan.
Photograph by Brooke Palmer/HBO
On a busy Saturday night, a handful of hooded men creep out of the woods with gasoline and torches, then set the crowded building ablaze. With music blaring, the two or three hundred patrons don’t immediately notice the fire, and most become trapped inside. While some do manage to escape, including Mike’s father Will Hanlon and fellow serviceman Dick Hallorann, this hate crime kills around eighty people, a final sacrifice that concludes It’s 1930 cycle of death. Considering the racial tensions we’ve seen on the base, we’re likely to see this deadly episode play out in future episodes.
Despite this looming horror, the Black Spot we see in episode four is still just a dusty storage shed in need of renovation. While Dick and his friends begin this work, Leroy Hanlon (Jovan Adepo) arrives demanding information about the mysterious Operation Precept. Hours before their angry encounter, Leroy is fishing with his son Will (Blake Cameron James) when he steps away to retrieve supplies. Standing alone in the water, Will notices a strangely friendly fish with orange and white stripes similar to the white clown suit and orange pompoms worn by Pennywise the Dancing Clown (Bill Skarsgård). When Will bends over for a closer look, a hand reaches out of the water and pulls him under. Drifting up from the river’s impossible depths is the charred corpse of his father. With glazed eyes, the ghoul moans an ominous warning: “You’ll burn too.” While obviously a nod to the murderous clown’s chilling catch phrase, “you’ll float too,” this variation hints at Will’s own demise—in Muscietti’s version of the story.
The Will Hanlon we meet in King’s original novel is a successful farmer and loving father who helps his son navigate the treacherous town. In fact, it’s Will who recounts the story of the Black Spot as he lies in a hospital bed dying of cancer. But Muschietti’s 2017 adaptation, It, introduces us to an altogether different Hanlon family. This Leroy (Steven Williams) is a surly cattle farmer, and Mike (Chosen Jacobs) is a lonely orphan, his parents having died in a house fire when he was a child. Not only did Mike witness Will’s horrific death, but he must ignore vicious and racist rumors that the fire was caused by careless drug use. It: Welcome to Derry may provide more information about this tragic event, but for now, Will’s ominous river vision stands as a premonition of his untimely end.
While Leroy struggles to understand the town’s sinister secrets, Dick continues his mission to locate the dangerous entity. This time, he’s tasked with interrogating Taniel (Joshua Odjick), a member of the town’s indigenous community who’s been monitoring the military excavation. Reluctant to proceed, Dick begs the young man to share information, warning that what follows will not be pleasant. When Taniel refuses, Dick uses his telepathic talent to enter Taniel’s mind and finds himself surrounded by a metaphysical circle of backlit doors. He opens one into a memory of the young man’s past and a detailed description of the tribe’s closely guarded secret.
While none of King’s works show Dick wielding this invasive skill, it’s a curious facet of the psychic ability known as the shining, most prominently seen in Doctor Sleep. This 2013 sequel to King’s 1977 novel follows a similarly gifted girl named Abra Stone who is hunted by a team of energy vampires led by the sinister Rose the Hat. Using her own shine, Rose mentally travels across the country to infiltrate Abra’s consciousness and search through metaphysical file cabinets, each filled with the girl’s accumulated memories.
Photograph by Brooke Palmer/HBO
Though reluctant to enter Taniel’s mind, Dick’s mission is ultimately successful. In a conversation with his aunt Rose (Kimberly Guerrero), a young Taniel (Tres Garcia) explains Its origins. We learn that long before the dawn of man, a falling star crashed into the land that would eventually be known as Derry. Cracking open, this fallen star released a dangerous monster capable of taking the shape of its prey’s greatest fear. Remnants of the meteoroid formed the stalagmite-like nest at the center of Pennywise’s lair, and pieces of its jagged shards can be used to subdue the beast. While King’s source material describes a cataclysmic asteroid crashing into the rural landscape, possibly coming from Todash Space (described in our recap of episode three), most of this origin stems from Muschietti’s 2019 conclusion, It: Chapter Two. In order to defeat this otherworldly beast, Mike gathers information from local tribal leaders about the dangerous Ritual of Chüd, said to counteract Its manipulative power.
Along with this secret revelation, Dick also forces Taniel to reveal the location of the entity’s nest: the dreaded house on Neibolt Street. We first encounter this rundown structure when Loser Eddie Kaspbrak is menaced by a lecherous leper who slowly transforms into the sinister clown. Muschietti makes extensive use of the terrifying locale, known as the Well House, in his adaptations, positioning it as a gateway into the realm of It. Terrifying visions and unsuspecting monsters litter the dilapidated rooms, protecting the monster’s inner sanctum. This ominous cliffhanger all but guarantees we’ll soon return to the nightmarish house on Neibolt Street.
Photograph by Brooke Palmer/HBO
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