It: Welcome To Derry Episode 7 Leaves Us With Serious Questions About Dick Hallorann

This article contains spoilers for "It: Welcome to Derry" episode 7, "The Black Spot."

Dick Hallorann keeps seeing dead people, and it's officially becoming a problem. HBO's "It" prequel series is barreling towards an absolutely terrifying conclusion, one in which our favorite dancing, children-devouring clown Pennywise (Bill Skarsgård) seems closer than ever before to being set free from his "cage" set within the not-so-cozy confines of Derry itself. That's what tends to happen when military men meddle with powers far beyond their capabilities, undoing decades of planning by the local Indigenous population led by Rose (Kimberly Guerrero). Although glimpsed in a previous episode during flashbacks to It's cosmic origin story, the actual plight of Derry's first inhabitants and their tussles with the Lovecraftian horror (whom they refer to as the Galloo) have remained squarely in the background of all the present-day events of the show ... until now.

As "Welcome to Derry" finally adapts the infamous Black Spot fire from the Stephen King novel, our favorite psychic Dick Hallorann (Chris Chalk) takes center stage alongside the ghostly appearance of Indigenous warrior Seski (Morningstar Angeline) — and a whole bunch of questions. While Derry's contingent of trigger-happy racists set fire to the Black Spot, Dick picks out Seski among his visions of the dead. As we saw previously, she was the one who led her tribe to recover the obsidian-like artifacts that accompanied the Galloo's landing in Derry and buried these "pillars" at strategic points to keep It contained.

There's just one pesky little issue: Why would she help Dick (and, by extension, the US Army) to discover the location of those pillars and risk letting It loose upon the world? Was "Seski" actually just another manifestation of Pennywise? Or is there something else going on? Here's our best guess.

Even long after they're dead, Derry's original inhabitants are still helping to save the day — or are they? The "It" prequel series has made a point of underlining just how little control anyone has over the events of the story. Our new Loser's Club of kids are terrorized at every turn, ending with poor Rich (Arian S. Cartaya) sacrificing his own life. The greatest military minds at the disposal of the government are leading what's essentially a wild goose chase. Perhaps even deceased characters like Seski are about to learn a similar lesson.

When she appears to Dick in the middle of the firestorm in the Black Spot, it seems apparent that she'll end up playing a large role in the penultimate episode. It's just not immediately quite clear why she chooses to do so, leading Dick straight to one of the all-important pillars keeping Pennywise at bay. In fairness, Dick and Major Hanlon (Jovan Adepo) remain under the impression that General Shaw (James Remar) intends on tightening It's chains by moving each pillar closer to the center of Derry. Instead, his men remove it entirely and take it back to base — presumably for "research," but in actuality to melt it down and set Pennywise loose upon the world. Surely nothing bad would go down after that, right?

Still, we're left to puzzle over Seski's game-changing actions here. Most likely, she simply believed Dick would do the right thing and further contain Pennywise. Another possible explanation is that this was merely another form taken by the killer clown, leading the US Army to their prize because he knew they had far worse intentions in mind. Ultimately, it's left unanswered.

Whatever the case may be, next week's finale is almost guaranteed to be a bloodbath. Despite feeding enough to end this iteration of his cycle of violence and send him to another decades-long hibernation, Pennywise appears to abruptly wake up when he senses that one of the pillars containing him within Derry has been melted down. Regardless of what led to this turn of events (a bit of narrative convenience on the part of the writers when it comes to Seski can't be ruled out, providing an easier way to build up to the action-packed finale), the damage has been done. Even if some have begun to feel that this series is making things less scary, there's still one last episode to end things with a bang.

Will Dick's visions of the dead continue to play a role? All signs point towards "yes," given the meaty material and dramatic heft that Chris Chalk has been tasked with knocking out of the park thus far in the series. Could he be on a path to confronting Pennywise itself, given the clown was the one who forcibly opened the mental "box" in Dick's mind and caused all these issues for him in the first place? It'd be poetic justice if Seski and her tribe factored into the finale once more, as well, perhaps dealing the final blow that causes Pennywise to sleep for the next 27 years until the events of "It." However the season comes to a close, however, the safe bet is on Pennywise wreaking quite a bit of havoc before he's done.

The season finale of "It: Welcome to Derry" airs on HBO and streams on HBO Max Sunday, December 14, 2025.