Last night’s IT: Welcome to Derry Season 1 finale revealed that the HBO show has been even more intrinsically linked to Andy Muschietti‘s It and IT: Chapter Two than we initially thought.
**Spoilers for IT:Welcome to Derry Episode 8 “Winter Fire,” now streaming on HBO Max**
In a pivotal moment, Pennywise (Bill Skarsgård) drags Marge Truman (Matilda Lawler) away from her friends to taunt and torture. He reveals that he experiences time differently than we do, seeing past, present, and future all at the same instant. Marge isn’t just Marge, you see. She is the future Margaret Tozier, aka the mother of original Losers Club member Richie Tozier (Finn Wolfhard). Pennywise reveals that if he kills Marge in the 1960s, then he might be able to save himself from Richie and his friends in the future.
Of course, this isn’t the only shocking connection to the Losers Club we get from the IT: Welcome to Derry finale. The final scene takes us to 1988, a full year before the events of It. The elderly Mrs. Kersh (Joan Gregson, in her final role before her June 2025 death) is still toiling away in Juniper Hill Asylum, only as a patient. She hears a scream and walks down the hall, where fellow patient Elfrida Marsh has just died by suicide. Young Beverly Marsh (Sophia Lillis) is there with her abusive father and Mrs. Kersh offers the girl an eerie bit of comfort: “You know what they say about Derry? No one who dies here ever really dies.” It’s the same creepy line the Pennywise-version of Mrs. Kersh gives adult Bev (Jessica Chastain) in IT: Chapter Two.
So we already know that Will Hanlon (Blake Cameron James) is Mike Hanlon’s (Chosen Jacobs) father and Marge Truman is Richie Tozier’s mom. Is this final coda to the season proof that Lilly Bainbridge is Bev’s mother? Are Lilly and Beverly related? What is the secret meaning behind that final IT: Welcome to Derry scene…
Photos: HBO
IT: Welcome to Derry: Is Lilly Bainbridge Related to Beverly Marsh? Who is Beverly Marsh’s Mom?
As far as we know, no, Lilly Bainbridge is NOT related to Bev Marsh. She is not Beverly’s mom. Elfrida Marsh is Beverly Marsh’s mother.
Although there are a lot of thematic similarities between the two young girls — the loss of a parent, relationship with Mrs. Kersh, etc. — there is no real textual evidence to support the theory that Lilly grows up to be Beverly’s mother.
Again, in IT: Welcome to Derry, Bev’s mother is called Elfrida, which is her name in the Stephen King book. Not only is Beverly’s mom’s name not “Lilly,” but she has the same “winter fire” hair that Bev has. Note that Lilly has very dark hair.
So what’s the deal with this final scene? DECIDER asked IT: Welcome to Derry co-showrunner Jason Fuchs if it’s to show Mrs. Kersh is still grooming troubled little girls as victims for It after all these years…
“I don’t know that the It cycle of ’89 has necessarily begun in the moment we meet her there, but that is certainly open for interpretation and debate,” Fuchs said. “I think really, the most interesting aspect to me of that scene, is that it changes the context of the scene between Beverly and Mrs. Kersh in IT: Chapter Two.”
Fuchs is, of course, referring to the iconic Stephen King scene where an adult Beverly goes to her childhood home only to discover that her father has died and Mrs. Kersh now lives there. At first, the older woman is kind to Beverly. However, as the scene wears on, Bev begins to feel uneasy. She notices that things are “off,” until finally Mrs. Kersh is revealed as a manifestation of It.
“My initial understanding was the reason It is taking the form of Mrs. Kersh is specifically to prey on Beverly’s trauma related to her relationship with her dad, which is certainly twisted enough,” Fuchs said. “I don’t think that was all that was there now.”
“If, in fact, Beverly met — maybe for the only time — Mrs. Kersh on the day her mother killed herself, that’s really interesting, because what it suggests is that It is preying on one of her darkest, most painful memories.”
Fuchs went on to explain that it doesn’t matter if the adult Beverly remembers Mrs. Kersh so much as the fact that it’s there, “flicking at the back of her brain,” connect to the worst day of her life.
Who Are Richie Tozier’s Parents? How IT: Welcome to Derry Sets Up the Losers Club:
While Lilly Bainbridge might not be Beverly Marsh’s mom, several of her friends are definitely the future parents of Losers Club members. Pennywise himself reveals that Marge grows up to be Margaret Tozier, Richie Tozier’s mother. (In the book, Margaret Tozier is indeed Richie’s mom’s name. His father is Wentworth Tozier, whom we do not meet in the HBO show.)
“We knew very early that Marge was going to be Richie’s mom,” Jason Fuchs told DECIDER. “We knew that we wanted to have obvious connections to the original film and the original Losers. We also wanted to have less obvious connections and connections that made themselves clear as the season went on.”
The most obvious connection to the original Losers Club is, of course, Will Hanlon. Will goes on to become Mike Hanlon’s father and it’s heavily hinted that Ronnie Grogan (Amanda Christine) might just grow up to be his wife and Mike’s mother. (If so, the two will eventually meet a tragic, ironic end, dying in another fire.)
Poor Teddy Uris (Mikkal Karim-Fidler) dies in IT: Welcome to Derry Episode 1, but his older brother also grows up to become the father of Losers Club member Stanely Uris (Wyatt Oleff).
Fuchs confirmed that he, co-showrunner Brad Caleb Kane, and the Muschiettis have a “a rough three-season plan” for the HBO show, but wouldn’t comment on whether or not future seasons might introduce other Losers Club ancestors.
“We certainly have ideas about other groups of young people who’ve stood up to the darkness of IT, in terms of other characters,” Fuchs said. “There are ideas floating around our heads, but I think it’s too early to talk about that.”
