Welcome to Derry’s Most Devastating Death Makes Stephen King’s Saddest Twist Hit Even Harder

Warning: Spoilers ahead for It: Welcome to Derry season 1, episode 7, “The Black Spot.”

While It: Welcome to Derry has featured plenty of memorably brutal deaths so far in season 1, the saddest moment in the prequel series makes It‘s plot even sadder. It: Welcome to Derry’s many Stephen King references are carefully threaded throughout the show’s story, allowing the series to expand on the author’s fictional universe.

However, it would be easy for viewers to miss out on the show’s subtler nods to earlier King works when the story of the series is so gripping and brutal. Season 1, episode 7, “The Black Spot,” expanded Pennywise the Dancing Clown’s backstory, but it was the racist massacre at the titular nightclub that commanded the episode’s focus.

During the horrific slaughter, countless patrons were killed by a violent white supremacist militia who had attempted to lynch Ronnie’s father, Hank Grogan. When the patrons of The Black Spot refused to give up Hank, the racist townspeople of Derry locked the doors, set the bar alight, and began shooting at the defenseless people inside.

Both It: Welcome to Derry’s Rich and It’s Richie Missed Out On Their Love Stories

While it may sound surprising, the saddest moment in the ensuing massacre subtly referenced an earlier King story. Specifically, Rich’s unexpected It: Welcome to Derry death referenced It’s Richie Tozier subplot, as their character arcs mirrored each other in numerous ways. Throughout It: Welcome to Derry season 1, Rich was the group’s comedic relief.

A talkative kid who wore his heart on his sleeve, Rich was well-meaning but also clumsy and occasionally overenthusiastic. He has these traits in common with Richie Tozier of It and It: Chapter 2, the next generation’s resident wise guy who grows up to become a stand-up comedian.

From his first introduction, Rich was always in love with It: Welcome to Derry’s Marge. He immediately confessed his crush to Will when they first met, and later gained the courage to hold her hand when the group entered the sewers with Matty in episode 5, “29 Neibolt Street.”

Although It: Welcome to Derry almost killed off Marge in episode 4, “The Great Swirling Apparatus of Our Planet’s Function,” she survived the outing with only a severely injured eye to show for it. Rich and she grew closer when he helped nurse her injury an episode later, prompting Marge to ally herself with Rich instead of her old friends.

Rich had just impressed Marge with his expert drumming skills when the massacre at the Black Spot began, and the pair were on the verge of admitting their feelings for each other before the attack. Rich ended up saving Marge from the blaze but died in the process, telling her he loved her as he passed away.

Rich’s It: Welcome to Derry Death Makes Richie Tozier’s It Story Even Sadder

Bill Hader as Richie and James Ransone as Eddie in It Chapter 2

Although It: Welcome to Derry’s devastating tragedy was foreshadowed earlier in the season, this didn’t make the moment any less brutally tragic when it arrived. Rich and Marge never got a chance to be together since Rich was killed before the duo could admit their feelings for each other.

The same fate befell Richie Tozier decades later in It: Chapter 2, when his estranged childhood friend Eddie is killed by Pennywise near the end of the sequel. Although it is heavily implied in the source novel, It: Chapter 2’s movie adaptation made it clear that Eddie and Richie harbored a mutual attraction that neither of them ever acknowledged.

Eddie was in a loveless marriage when he died, while Richie was conspicuously single, but Richie only admitted he was in love with Eddie after Eddie died. Similarly, Rich only told Marge he loved her when he sacrificed his life for hers, making the two comic relief characters into tragic mirror images of each other.

Richie’s It Ending Is Even More Poignant After It: Welcome to Derry

Bill Skarsgard's Pennywise wields a cleaver outside a burning building in It Welcome to Derry episode 7

Both It: Welcome to Derry and It: Chapter 2 have a comic relief character named Richard who tries to keep things light, but still ends up in a heartbreaking story of lost love by the end of his story. That said, Rich’s sacrifice was not pointless, since Marge was one of the only characters to survive the massacre.

Similarly, decades after It: Welcome to Derry’s Black Spot massacre, the Losers Club’s final showdown with Pennywise was a worthy way for Eddie to give up his life. Although it is tragic that he died, Eddie did at least help the group to finally kill Pennywise for good.

This means that, even though Eddie and It: Welcome to Derry’s Rich never got to see it, Derry was freed from the monster’s clutches by the end of Eddie and Richie’s story. Thus, while Rich and Richie might both have lost their love interests too soon, they can take solace in helping to defeat the evil entity.

After the Black Spot massacre, Pennywise told It: Welcome to Derry’s Ingrid Kersh that he would return to sleep, while, after his final face-off with the Losers Club, he was reduced to nothing. The It: Welcome to Derry hero’s sacrifice saved his love interest, while the death of Eddie’s love interest from It saved the entire town.