In a previous interview with Welcome to Derry’s showrunners, we were warned that you cannot trust any character. And honestly, that makes a lot of sense in a place like Derry where an entity is playing with people’s minds and preying on their fears. But we truly see how twisted things are in this small town full of darkness in episode five. Lilly learns that someone she’s put her deep trust in has been manipulating her all along, and that twist is directly tied to Pennywise.
In the episode, Lilly and Ronnie have a verbal spar about everything that’s happened. Lilly wants to use the ancient weapon that saved her from Pennywise to go back the sewers and defeat the clown. However, Ronnie says they barely made it out alive and accuses Lilly of causing all the mess with her father, which isn’t 100% wrong. Lilly tries to shake it off at school, but another waking nightmare drives her away from campus and to Ingrid Kersh’s house.
Brooke Palmer/HBO
As we know, Ingrid works at Juniper Hill Asylum and seems to be the only adult that Lilly can confide in about all the strange recent events. When she goes into the house, she wanders upstairs and notices a photobook on a table. She flips back and sees a photo of a man standing with a young Ingrid. Lilly appears to somewhat recognize his face, but it doesn’t click until she rushes in for a hug when Ingrid appears. She looks behind her and sees the man in the full Pennywise outfit and realizes that there’s a connection between the two.
A flashback to 1935 reveals that Ingrid took a young Juniper Hill girl into a basement to find the clown that she spoke of. And the girl dies as a result of this choice. However, Ingrid sees her father’s face and dancing clown persona in this being and feels like she can save him. Because she’s not afraid of Pennywise, it cannot do her any harm.
Brooke Palmer/HBO
She admits that she’s been befriending Lilly on purpose and even congratulates Lilly on reawakening Pennywise. She also admits that she was the clown they saw at the graveyard that night because she wore her old outfit. Ingrid invites Lilly to help try to find her father and bring him back, but Lilly cuts her hand with the ancient weapon and leaves the house.
That action is going to cause a terrible domino effect. It is very plausible that Ingrid was the anonymous tip who called in to report Grogan’s whereabouts. Now, the deaths that will very likely occur at the Black Spot will be her chance to make Pennywise come to her once again. Oh dear. So, unlike Mrs. Kersh from previous IT films, this one is not a manifestation of IT.
Instead, Ingrid Kersh is actually Pennywise’s daughter (well, the guy who inspired IT to take on that form) and they came into town in 1908. She’s stuck around since then, working at an asylum in hopes that some poor soul there would help her save her father. It’s very, very likely that we will see more of Ingrid in future seasons of IT: Welcome to Derry.
