It: Welcome to Derry flashback sparks complaints about one major character in Pennywise’s backstory

An unsettling flashback in It: Welcome to Derry Episode 7 has fans complaining about the way it handled a major character in Pennywise‘s backstory ahead of the finale.

The horror TV series has expanded the history behind Pennywise by exploring his previous hunting cycle in 1965 during the height of the cold war. Not only that, but it managed to reach out and connect to other stories from Stephen King by including Dick Hallorann (Chris Chalk) before the events of The Shining and Doctor Sleep.

Episode 7 finally adapted the Black Spot fire, which caused the deaths of numerous Black men and women when a racist mob set the bar ablaze in an attempt to lynch Hank Grogan (Stephen Rider). Although this horrifically traumatic event took up most of the spotlight in the episode, director and creator Andy Muschietti managed to squeeze in something else at the start.

The penultimate episode of the series opened in 1908 at a travelling circus, but fans have some complaints about one vital character in Pennywise’s origin story.

Fans want justice for Bob Gray in It: Welcome to Derry

Brooke Palmer/HBO

Audiences are surprisingly heartbroken over how Bob Gray (Bill Skarsgard) is depicted in the opening flashback of It: Welcome to Derry Episode 7. The man behind Pennywise the Dancing Clown is really a struggling single father, who does his best to provide for his daughter Ingrid (Emma-Leigh Cullum) following the death of her mother.

The scene clearly shows Bob Gray finding his job as a clown hard, as he drinks and smokes to cope with being on stage, despite the fact that children are drawn to his performance – which is what catches It’s attention. After disguising itself as a child and asking for Gray’s help, it leads him into the woods… The only thing the rest of the circus workers find is a blood-soaked handkerchief.

Fans found the scene surprisingly upsetting, largely because both the series and the films led audiences to believe that Gray was a villainous individual, but that clearly isn’t the case. One fan wrote, “Justice for Bob Gray” on X, while another added, “The Tragedy of Bob Gray. We forget he was its victim, too. And that his likeness was co-opted for evil.”

Another X user added, “Bob Gray seemed like such a good father and clown. And then Pennywise stole and demonized his entire flow.” And someone else described him as “a wonderful father that only wanted to make his daughter proud of him.”

Brooke Palmer/HBO

Meanwhile on Reddit, one user was surprised that It: Welcome to Derry revealed Bob Gray’s backstory this early, writing: “Given the show is intended to go in reverse with each season going back 27 years years I expected the final season to flesh out Bob Gray and show his story. That feels less likely now that they jumped to the end of that story and showed his final moments.”

What’s even more tragic is that as an adult, Ingrid Kersh (Madeleine Stowe) plays right into Pennywise’s horrific hunt by intentionally causing chaos in Derry to lure the monster out, all so that she could see her father again. But that didn’t turn out well for Mrs. Kersh, as she’s now become another pawn in It’s web of fear and despair.

While you wait for the It: Welcome to Derry finale, check out why the show’s ending changed, discover why the show is going back in time, and find out which scene scared Stephen King the most.