Welcome to Derry’ Simply Shared a Creepy Backstory for Certainly one of Its Most Mysterious Characters

Last week on It: Welcome to Derry, we realized some vital new details about Madeleine Stowe’s character Ingrid, the pinnacle housekeeper at Juniper Hill Asylum who befriends the troubled Lilly Bainbridge (Clara Stack).

Even when Lilly’s now not a affected person, she seeks out the kindly older girl for consolation and recommendation—and why not, contemplating Derry is a hellscape and constructive position fashions are arduous to come back by? Nonetheless, each Stephen King fan watching was startled to be taught final week that Ingrid’s final identify is “Kersh.” As in Mrs. Kersh, the manifestation of Pennywise that torments the unique It character Beverly Marsh. What’s the connection precisely? This week’s sixth episode lifted the lid on who Ingrid Kersh is and what her motivations are for being such pal to Lilly.

First, although, let’s look again at what else we find out about Mrs. Kersh from Welcome to Derry thus far. We all know she’s the alibi for accused killer Hank Grogan (Stephen Rider); he was together with her when the movie-theater bloodbath happened in episode one. However she’s a married white girl—making her reference to Hank taboo on a number of ranges, particularly in a small city circa 1962.

We don’t know what is going to turn into of her relationship with Hank now that he’s a fugitive. The present might choose again up with them finally. However thus far, we’ve witnessed many extra scenes between her and Lilly, beginning in episode three.

Lilly’s wrapping up a quick return to Juniper Hill Asylum after a breakdown within the grocery retailer—you’d want your medicine adjusted too for those who noticed your useless father’s head in a pickle jar—and is sharing a second together with her pal Ingrid earlier than she goes.

“It’s going to be okay, expensive,” Ingrid reassures her; clearly, Lilly has unloaded many woes on her, together with her rift with Ronnie (Amanda Christine), who occurs to be Hank’s daughter.

“My father used to say that life is in regards to the journey,” Ingrid continues. “However I feel it’s extra about who you are taking that journey with. And if this Ronnie means as a lot to you because it sounds, you’re going to discover a approach to make issues proper one way or the other.”

She additionally gives this very welcome reassurance: “In the event you inform me that you just’ve seen the unimaginable, then I consider you. Most individuals, they solely consider what they will see with their very own eyes.”

Ingrid Kersh says all the best issues, and it occurs once more in episode three when Lilly seeks her out once more. The youngsters are beginning to poke into Derry’s grim historical past, and Lilly desires Ingrid’s insights.

“I do keep in mind some youngsters going lacking within the ‘30s,” Ingrid muses, although she claims she hasn’t considered that in years. It was the Melancholy. Occasions had been powerful again then.

She’s encouraging of Lilly’s detective work, although: “My father at all times stated that with good associates at your aspect, something’s potential. And it feels like you might have these.”

In episode 5, we be taught she’s Ingrid Kersh, married to an disagreeable man who largely cares about how his steak is cooked. Lilly runs to her with the information that Matty—the boy who went lacking initially of Welcome to Derry’s first episode—has one way or the other escaped his extended captivity within the sewers. What’s worse, he’s fairly positive one of many youngsters from the theater, Phil, remains to be alive down there too.

Mrs. Kersh sensibly tells Lilly to go to the police, however it’s clear by now that authorities in Derry have zero endurance for youths and their clown nonsense.

Mrs. Kersh, not less than, is keen to hear, however she begs Lilly to not go to the sewer in the hunt for Phil. Lilly agrees, however as we noticed in episode 5, it wouldn’t be a present about Pennywise if youngsters didn’t barge into Derry’s underground tunnels and discover a demonic clown ready for them.

Episode six begins with one other flashback to an earlier Pennywise “cycle,” a glimpse into 1935. We see a youthful model of Ingrid Kersh main a little bit woman into the Juniper Hill Asylum basement as a result of “that is the place the clown advised you to satisfy him.” A pink balloon seems, which isn’t signal.

Earlier than we see the complete scope of that encounter, we return to Welcome to Derry’s current day. Lily has one other freak-out, this time in math class when she sees her father’s pickled corpse slithering round in her desk. “Who’s gonna assist you now, loopy?” the apparition cackles.

Who else however Lilly’s finest pal on this planet, and perhaps solely pal now that she’s on the outs with Ronnie and the remainder? Ingrid doesn’t reply her door, however Lilly goes inside anyway. Sitting in plain view is a photograph album, stuffed with marriage ceremony portraits and the like; the pictures become old and older as Lilly flips by way of, till we lastly arrive at 1908 and see a person who’s clearly Pennywise out of make-up.

It’s Ingrid’s father. The one with all of the homespun recommendation. That is sinking in as Ingrid out of the blue seems; as a substitute of being offended in regards to the intrusion, she provides the distraught Lilly an enormous hug, telling her, “No matter it’s, it’s going to be okay.”

Then, Lilly notices one other picture over Ingrid’s shoulder. It’s the person from 1908, this time in full Pennywise regalia. Ingrid notices her taking a look at it and asks, “Have you ever seen him?”

Uh-oh. “You noticed him! Oh, sweetheart, you probably did it! You introduced him again!”

Lilly, rising ever extra uneasy, spies a classic clown costume and a sharp white wig; it’s precisely what the clown within the cemetery was sporting when the children went on their picture mission. Later, we noticed that very same pointy wig spying outdoors Will’s home. It’s additionally what the little woman clown was sporting within the 1908 flashback in episode three.

“I believed he may seem that evening. I used to be anxious I’d miss him!” Ingrid explains, admitting it was her within the graveyard with the children. Then, she tells Lilly what we’ve already guessed: “My father was a carnival performer. He referred to as himself Pennywise the Dancing Clown.” Additionally, “I adored him, and he was taken from me.”

There’s no elaboration past that, however we will guess her father was Bob Grey, a reputation identified from It lore that Welcome to Derry’s creators have been teasing will appear. Whereas we’re pondering what “he was taken” means, we return into the Nineteen Thirties and see that Ingrid overheard a younger affected person, Mabel, speaking about Pennywise, solely to be scolded, “There aren’t any things like clowns in pipes.”

Pennywise? As in, Ingrid’s long-lost father? With Mabel in tow, Ingrid heads to the basement, and it goes about the way you’d count on. The sequence is filmed in black-and-white apart from pops of yellow (Pennywise’s eyes) and pink (the balloon, Mabel’s blood), however regardless of witnessing a baby devoured by a supernatural clown—a baby she delivered as much as be slaughtered—all it takes is an look from “Papa” to get Ingrid on board with this system.

Bob Gray seems to his daughter, calling her “pumpkin” and saying he’s missed her. “Don’t be scared; I can clarify the whole lot. Simply open the door and let me in! Every thing’s gonna be all proper!”

There’s a literal door that will get opened right here, however you’ll be able to infer that It wormed its manner into Ingrid Kersh proper then as effectively, exploiting her want to reunite together with her beloved father once more.

“I did what I needed to do to see him once more,” she explains to Lilly, who’s quaking in fright. “If he might simply see me as soon as extra as his Periwinkle [Ingrid’s clown character], remind him of the love we shared, I do know that he’ll be capable of break away.”

Although Ingrid assures Lilly she would by no means let something harm her, how are you going to consider the phrase of a girl who’s been dressing up in a 50-year-old clown outfit attempting to reconnect together with her long-dead father? “Nobody who dies right here ever actually dies,” she tells Lilly. “Include me tonight and let me present you!” Lilly’s response to this invitation is to slice her with the alien dagger and get the hell out of there.

This absolutely gained’t be the one Bob Grey look on Welcome to Derry, particularly since we now know that Ingrid has been attempting to resurrect her father for 27 years—all whereas encouraging youngsters to consider the unbelievable, since youngsters are tasty bait for Pennywise.

We’re glad that Lilly has realized in Derry, you’d higher be extraordinarily cautious earlier than you belief anybody—even somebody who seems utterly innocent. It’s a lesson Beverly Marsh has to be taught for herself a long time later when she has her personal encounter with Mrs. Kersh in It: Chapter Two.

New episodes of It: Welcome to Derry arrive Sundays on HBO and HBO Max.

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