One of the biggest mysteries surrounding Stephen King’s IT, as well as the more recent movies — and therefore IT: Welcome to Derry — is the identity of Bob Gray (Bill Skårsgard). There have been strong implications that Pennywise the Dancing Clown was a real clown played by a guy named Bob Gray before the monster at the center of IT took on that form. But — and spoilers past this point — it wasn’t until this week’s episode of the HBO series that we found out why and how Bob Gray became Pennywise. Or rather: IT became Pennywise.
Titled “The Black Spot,” the hour opens with an extended sequence set in 1908, where the
Santini Brothers Carnival has come to Derry, featuring Pennywise the Dancing Clown as a star attraction. We get to see a full-on clowning routine from Pennywise, including a sequence where Pennywise mourns an empty clown uniform we discover later was the one worn by his wife when she performed as Periwinkle the Clown.
Things are not all dandy for Pennywise, despite his wide smiles and pratfalls. The children rush the stage, ripping off his wig and taking over at the end of his routine. Later, he tells his daughter Ingrid (Emma-Leigh Cullum) that he’ll make it back to the “big show” some day, aka the circus instead of a travelling carnival, and give everyone a show that they’ve never seen before.
In that same post-afternoon Pennywise show period, Ingrid also reveals her own clown makeup and costume, with her proud father telling him to show off her bow, and proudly bestowing the name Periwinkle on her, as well — with her permission.
Just in case it isn’t abundantly clear, because the show is trying to make viewers doubt whether this is the real Bob Gray, or a fabrication of the creature known as IT… It is, indeed, the real Bob Gray. To paraphrase the great sage Chris Evans: just to be clear, this isn’t Pennywise the sewer clown. This is the origin story of the human Pennywise the sewer clown is based on.
That becomes much clearer in the following scene, which finds Bob Gray smoking and drinking at the edge of the carnival at night, trying to get psyched up for yet another show to rowdy children. Out of the woods comes what seems to be a small boy — one who had been watching Pennywise’s show from far away earlier in the afternoon.
“The children seem drawn to you,” says the boy, with Bob remarking that is an odd thing for a child to say. Switching tactics, the boy — who is IT, in another form — asks Bob to help him find his mother and father. When that doesn’t work, the sound of a yelling woman comes from the forest, and that rouses Bob from his stupor. He follows IT into the woods, and the next day young Ingrid is presented with a bloody handkerchief with the initials “R.G.” — Robert Gray — on them, and is told her father was probably dragged away by wolves.
We know that Ingrid doesn’t believe it, because years later she’s dressing as Periwinkle and obsessed with finding her father again. When she does find “him” this episode, in 1962, she realizes she was very wrong and gets Deadlighted (aka mesmerized and likely driven insane) by IT. But back to 1908, there is some missing info there. The surface version is that IT realized it could more effectively lure children if it looked like Pennywise the Dancing Clown, and thus adopted that as its favorite form, killing Bob Gray and eating him in the process.
Side-note: this is completely original for the TV series. The Stephen King novel had Pennywise quote his name as Bob Gray to young Georgie Denbrough, but there’s no more to it. It’s possible King was somewhat alluding to the real serial killer named Albert Fish, who was also known as The Gray Man, a child murderer and cannibal. That is pure speculation, though, given King has never confirmed this particular theory.
Back to the TV series, there is a scene left off there — we don’t get to see IT chow down on Bob Gray — and we know that the show will hop back in time to 1935 in Season 2 and 1908 in Season 3. So is there perhaps more to tell about Bob Gray, and what happened to him? Did he really get eaten by IT? It’s certainly possible that things aren’t as straightforward as they seem. At the very least, though, we know the creature known as IT, inspired by Bob Gray’s act, took his look and wore it from then on. I guess he did show them something they’ve never seen before, after all.
IT: Welcome To Derry Premiere Dates And Episode Guide:
New episodes of IT: Welcome To Derry premiere on Sundays on HBO and HBO Max at 9pm ET.
Here’s the full list of episodes in IT: Welcome to Derry Season 1 with premiere dates:
- Sunday, October 26, 2025: IT: Welcome To Derry, Season 1, Episode 1
- Sunday, November 2, 2025: IT: Welcome To Derry, Season 1, Episode 2
- Sunday, November 9, 2025: IT: Welcome To Derry, Season 1, Episode 3
- Sunday, November 16, 2025: IT: Welcome To Derry, Season 1, Episode 4
- Sunday, November 23, 2025: IT: Welcome To Derry, Season 1, Episode 5
- Sunday, November 30, 2025: IT: Welcome To Derry, Season 1, Episode 6
- Sunday, December 7, 2025: IT: Welcome To Derry, Season 1, Episode 7
- Sunday, December 14, 2025: IT: Welcome To Derry, Season 1, Episode 8 *Season Finale*
Where To Watch IT: Welcome To Derry
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