Well, it's official: Bob Gray was a real person. In the 40 years since its publication, Stephen King fans have tirelessly debated where the human name that could sometimes appear on the eponymous evil creature might have come from – and it turns out the answer is heartbreaking.
Many speculated that “Bob Gray” was just another disguise He took on to move around Derry more undetected, a costume similar to Pennywise's. This theory was somewhat bolstered by an admittedly confusing scene in which Beverly Marsh visits her childhood home and meets Mrs. Kersh (It in Another Form), who mentions that Bob Gray was her father.
Elsewhere in an eye-opening flashback, Bob's conversations with Ingrid reveal that he used to perform in the circus, as he promises the loving babe that when “the big tops come calling again,” she'll be part of the show as sidekick “Periwinkle,” a role her mother used to play.
Bob is later seen enjoying a beer behind his trailer; his red wig hung neatly on a fence post. He coughs up blood into a handkerchief monogrammed with “RG” when a strange little boy emerges from the wooded area. “The children seem to be drawn to you,” the boy says from the shadows. “That’s a strange thing for a young man to say,” Bob replies, raising an eyebrow.
The boy then asks Bob to help him find his parents, to which Bob states that he is “busy.” However, he changes his mind when he hears a woman screaming in the distance. “This is my mother,” the boy says, grabbing Bob’s hand and leading him into the darkness. In the next scene, Ingrid is given her father's bloody handkerchief – although there is many there is more red on it now than before.
In 1962, It, as Pennywise, happily reveals to Ingrid that he's not really her father, that he ate Bob and, well, took on his identity. That's it, the mystery of 40 years is solved.
“You get a glimpse into a larger mythology for people who love books or movies,” Director Andy Muschietti previously warned us in an interview with SFX magazine.. “We open the window. Everything we create in the first season, which will really come through in the second and third, is a look at increasingly important questions about It. “What does It want? Why is It here? All the mysterious elements of It that we're going to break down and explain.”
For now, we're interested to see what happens to Madeleine Stowe's Ingrid, who was exposed to Deadlight in The Black Spot before being taken away in an ambulance. Since the series follows the film's timeline, it will “borrow” her (much older) face in the aforementioned Beverly scene, although this doesn't necessarily make her ill-fated. If she was a child in 1908, she would be around 115 years old when It: Chapter Two takes place, so perhaps she would survive the events of It: Welcome to Derry Season 1!? As seasons two and three jump back in time, we're only left with the finale to find out…
Ono: Welcome to Derry is streaming now HBO Max. New episodes air on HBO in the US and then air on Mondays on Sky Atlantic/NOW in the UK. To find out more, check out our selection of the most exciting new TV shows follow our path or our rating The best Stephen King adaptations.
