It: Welcome to Derry episode 7 finally settles Stephen King fans' 40-year Bob Gray debate

Well, it's official: Bob Gray was a real person. Over the 40 years since It was published, Stephen King fans have tirelessly debated where the human-sounding name the eponymous evil entity occasionally might have come from – and it turns out, the answer is heartbreaking.

Many assumed "Bob Gray" was just another guise the shapeshifting It adopted in order to move more stealthily around Derry, a costume, just like Pennywise. Said theory was backed up, somewhat, by an admittedly confusing scene in which Beverly Marsh visits her childhood home and encounters Mrs. Kersh, It in another form, who mentions Bob Gray was her father.

In It: Welcome to Derry's latest episode, though, we meet the actual Bob Gray, a relatively normal guy who performed at low-key carnivals as "Pennywise the Dancing Clown" in the early 1900s. With his act, the spin-off quickly and effectively sets him up with a sad backstory: he's lost his wife and is now the sole caregiver to their daughter, Ingrid.

Why does It call itself "Bob Gray?" from r/MovieIt

Elsewhere in the eye-opening flashback, it's revealed through Bob's conversations with Ingrid that he used to have a circus act, as he promises the doting little one that when "the big tops come a-calling again", she'll be a part of the show as sidekick "Periwinkle", a part previously played by her mother.

Later, Bob is seen enjoying a beer behind his trailer; his red wig hung neatly on a fence post. He coughs blood into a monogrammed 'RG' handkerchief, as an odd little boy emerges from the woodland surroundings. "The children seem drawn to you," the boy says from the shadows. "That's a strange thing for a young man to say," Bob replies with a raised eyebrow.

The boy then asks Bob to help him find his parents, to which Bob claims he's "busy". He changes his mind, however, when he hears a woman crying out in the distance. "That's my mother", the boy says, grabbing Bob by the hand and leading him into the darkness. In a follow-up scene, Ingrid is given her pop's bloody handkerchief – though there's a lot more of the red stuff on it now than before.

In 1962, It, as Pennywise, revels in telling Ingrid that he's not really her father and that he ate Bob and, well, kind of assumed his identity. And that's that, 40-year mystery solved.

"You get a glimpse into a bigger mythology for people who love the book or love the movies," director Andy Muschietti previously prewarned us in an interview with SFX magazine. "We're opening a window. Everything that we are setting up in season one, that will really manifest in two and three, is a look into all the bigger questions about It. 'What does It want? Why is It here?' All the cryptic elements of It that we're going to ruin and explain."

For now, we're intrigued to see what happens to Madeleine Stowe's Ingrid, who was exposed to It's Deadlights in 'The Black Spot' before being carted off in an ambulance. With the show following the movies' timeline, It will "borrow" her (much older) face in the aforementioned scene with Beverly, though that doesn't necessarily mark her as ill-fated. If she were a kid in 1908, she would've been around 115 when It: Chapter Two is set, so perhaps she survives the events of It: Welcome to Derry season 1!? With seasons 2 and 3 set to go back in time, we've only got the finale left to find out...

It: Welcome to Derry is streaming now on HBO Max. New episodes air on HBO every in the US, before broadcasting on Mondays on Sky Atlantic/NOW in the UK. For more, check out our picks of the most exciting new TV shows heading our way or our ranking of the best Stephen King adaptations.