The prequel series IT: Welcome to Derry has dedicated its runtime to meticulously mapping the genealogy of one of Stephen King’s most haunted locations. By setting the narrative twenty-seven years before the events of Andy Muschietti’s cinematic adaptation of IT, the show has functioned as a tragic prologue that deepens the emotional stakes of the existing films. Viewers have watched Will Hanlon (Blake Cameron James), the science-minded outcast destined to become the father of Mike Hanlon (Chosen Jacobs/Isaiah Mustafa), navigate a childhood marked by the town’s inherent malice, while the violent death of Teddy Uris (Mikkal Karim-Fidler) served as a grim foreshadowing of the suffering that would eventually claim his nephew, Stanley Uris (Wyatt Oleff/Andy Bean). These narrative threads underline that the scars inflicted by Pennywise the Dancing Clown (Bill Skarsgård) are inherited by future generations.
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Warning: Spoilers below for IT: Welcome to Derry, Episode 8
Beyond the heroes, IT: Welcome to Derry has also demystified the antagonist by revealing the human origins of the Pennywise persona. The narrative confirmed that the clown face worn by the cosmic entity belonged to a real man named Bob Gray (Bill Skarsgård), a circus performer who was killed by IT and left behind an orphaned daughter, Ingrid. Throughout the season, an adult Ingrid (Madeleine Stowe) attempts to reconnect with her lost father by luring in the creature, only to fall victim to the Deadlight. Before the season finale, Ingrid is seen being carried into an ambulance, but her fate is unknown. It is not until the season finale that IT: Welcome to Derry reveals her ultimate fate, using a time jump to connect her tragedy directly to the timeline of the films in a sequence featuring key returning cast members.
IT: Welcome to Derry Season Finale Brings Back Beverly and Mrs. Kersh
The closing moments of the finale transport the audience to October 1988, placing the narrative just months before the inciting incidents of the first film. The setting is the grim interior of the Juniper Hill Asylum, where an elderly Ingrid has lived for decades, her mind irrevocably fractured by her encounter with the cosmic horror. She is now recognizable as the elderly Mrs. Kersh (Joan Gregson), the character who famously terrified audiences in the sequel movie. The scene is layered with auditory callbacks, as the haunting melody of “Det er det skønneste jeg ved” by Max Hansen plays in the background, the same tune that underscored her appearance in IT Chapter Two. In the scene, Mrs. Kersh is depicted painting clowns on a canvas, a lingering symptom of her obsession with her father, when a disturbance in the hall draws her attention.
Following the commotion, she discovers that a fellow patient named Elfrida Marsh has committed suicide by hanging, leaving her daughter, a young Beverly Marsh (Sophia Lillis), sobbing beside the corpse. Beverly attempts to embrace her father, Alvin Marsh, only to be cruelly pushed away. Watching the tragedy unfold, Mrs. Kersh tells Beverly that “no one who dies in Derry truly dies,” the exact phrase the entity later mimics to torment an adult Beverly (Jessica Chastain). This revelation proves that Pennywise did not simply choose a random form to frighten Beverly years later. Instead, the monster plucked a genuine memory from Beverly’s darkest day and twisted it, transforming a person who showed her kindness during her mother’s suicide into a nightmarish ghoul.
All episodes of IT: Welcome to Derry are currently streaming on HBO Max.
Do you think the connection between Mrs. Kersh and Beverly makes the movie scene scarier, or is it unnecessary? Leave a comment below and join the conversation now in the ComicBook Forum!
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