Peter Gordon

"Maybe I'll see you later, four-eyes!"

- Peter makes a threatening quote to Richie

Peter Gordon is one of the members in Henry Bowers' gang of bullies and he is a minor antagonist in Stephen King's IT. For some reason, Peter Gordon is not in the film.

Origins
Peter Gordon values money above all else, as he comes from Broadway, a rich part of Derry town. This puts him at odds with Henry Bowers, who despises wealth or work. Henry and Peter regularly seem to clash. Henry only has two close friends, Victor Criss and Belch, so Henry seems to only value their company and looks down on anyone else as just being a perpetual annoyance. However, like any crime boss, Henry needs lackeys and accomplices to pin the blame on, and gullible people like Peter are useful for this.

In the novel, Peter is described as "sometimes hanging out with Henry and his gang but not being brave enough to do anything on his own."

Unlike the other bullies in town, who are mostly lustless males, Peter has a deep romantic attraction for Marcia Fadden, and this makes Peter unusual among the bullies because he is capable of feeling love.

At the cinema
Peter first appears when Richie and Beverly are outside the cinema, and Peter immediately thinks its a date. For some reason Peter laughs at the "date" even though he himself is dating Marcia at the time. Peter laughs at Richie with "Richie and Beverly up a tree, kissing, first comes love then comes marriage" and Marcia finishes it off with "Here comes Richie on a baby carriage!" and for some reason Beverly tells Marcia to piss off, acting like it was a criminal offence when its just a minor insult. Marcia recoils in fear and Peter puts his hand round Marcia's naked shoulders and says to Richie he'll "get him" later. Peter takes Marcia into the cinema, protecting her, and this doesn't stop Beverly who insults Marcia behind her back.

After the cinema, Peter and Marcia meet Henry Bowers and Peter tells him he had a run in with the Losers earlier and they humiliated Marcia. Henry and Peter vow to protect Marcia from the Losers and vow to destroy the Losers in revenge. They corner Richie, Beverly and Ben outside the cinema but the attempt fails.

Chasing Mike
"Jeez, Henry, I don't know..."

- Peter questioning Henry's sanity

After the disastrous cinema event, Peter and Marcia presumably spend much time together lusting after each other and kissing. Marcia gets Peter to hunt the Losers for her and one day Peter and Henry are together with the entire gang, including Belch, Vic and Moose Sandler, and they all see Mike going about town. Undeterred about being in public, they all chase Mike down the endless streets and they corner him at the Barrens.

Here, Peter is the first of the gang to partially redeem himself, he begins to see Henry's true madness for what it is and he openly tells Henry he wants out. However, Henry threatens to kill him when he's done with Mike and this spurs Peter to follow him. Peter half-heartedly follows Henry and only reluctantly joins in the Rockfight, throwing one or two hesitant rocks at the Losers, and then Peter flees, because "Things did not happen this way on West Broadway."

Fate
Peter was never seen again after the Rockfight and its presumed he may have either left town for fear of Henry's retribution or may have been killed by either Henry or by IT. The latter is more likely, seeing how after the Rockfight, IT went after Henry's gang instead of random children off the street. Henry also threatened to kill Peter if he deserted him, and Peter eventually did leave. Its presumed Marcia comforted Peter after the fight and said he did his best. Marcia and Peter presumably protected each other for as long as they could throughout the rest of the Summer until on a date they got eaten by IT.

Nature
Peter was a sophisticated member of Henry's gang, not liking mindless violence. He fled rapidly from the Rockfight and didn't like chasing Mike. He was also good at survival, and if he had stuck to the end he might have chickened out at the sewer chase. Peter was like Vic, because Vic actually wanted to join the Losers and chances are Peter would have done the same. Vic and Peter were perhaps the most humane members of Henry's gang, and the closest to redeeming themselves.