We’ve already gone in depth about the IT: Welcome to Derry Season 1 ending explained, breaking down — spoilers past this point — the wild time-traveling twist with Pennywise (Bill Skårsgard) that sets up the next two seasons of the series. But the HBO show has one last big surprise for an end credits scene: the return of actress Sophia Lillis as the young Beverly Marsh from IT and IT: Chapter Two.
That’s not all, though, as we also get to see a key other character from Chapter Two, which might be extremely confusing if you’ve been, for example, watching Welcome to Derry. So with that in mind, let’s lay out what happens, and then explain how this all actually works.
IT: Welcome To Derry Post Credits Scene Explained
Right after the title screen comes up reading IT: Welcome to Derry Chapter One, in a callback to the surprise reveal of the title “IT: Chapter One” at the end of 2017’s IT, the scene cuts to Ingrid Kersh (Madeliene Stowe) being committed to Juniper Hill. If you’ll recall, Ingrid was driven insane by the Deadlights in the previous episode (“The Black Spot”), and otherwise wasn’t seen in the finale, “Winter Fire.”
Here we see her screaming and crying as she’s interned at the asylum where she used to work as a nurse. She’s subdued and drugged, and time passes to October, 1988. Surprise, surprise, Ingrid is now played by Joan Gregson, just like how she is in IT: Chapter Two. She’s painting an abstract clown, when she hears a commotion down the hall.
Ingrid hobbles down, and overhears that Elfrida Marsh hung herself, and there is a man and a girl sobbing at her feet. In case that name sounds familiar… Yep, it’s Beverly Marsh’s (Sophia Lilis) mother, and while we don’t see her dad, Lillis turns around once Mrs. Kersh starts talking to her.
“Oh, don’t be sad,” Mrs. Kersh says with a creepy smile. “You know what they say about Derry, dear. No one who dies here ever really dies.” The music grows to uncomfortable levels as Ingrid continues to smile, the same disturbing smile she used in Chapter Two. Uhoh! Except also, hold on a second.
IT: Welcome To Derry Ends As IT Begins
So the first thing to point out is the October, 1988 date. While imprecise, that’s the same month when Pennywise woke up from his 27 year slumber and ate poor Georgie Denbrough (Jackson Robert Scott) in IT. While the bulk of the action of the movie takes place the following summer as the Losers Club, including Beverly, become aware of It, the beginning of the cycle also brings a time of heightened violence and darkness to Derry.
So the implication here, something that’s running below the surface in Stephen King’s novel in particular, is that Elfrida may have killed herself due to the influence of Pennywise. Though never outright stated, fans have intuited that Pennywise caused Stan Uris to kill himself instead of returning to Derry as an adult, and there’s teases that other characters also may have died or been killed due to Pennywise’s meddling. That’s somewhat contradicted on the TV show by the whole idea that It is trapped in Derry by 13 mystical pillars, but whatever, let’s not worry about that too much.
Point being, particularly with the revelation that Pennywise knows the Losers Club will kill him in 2016 since he lives his life backwards (see the ending explained piece for more on that), it’s possible he could already be messing with Beverly — despite Beverly not being aware of his existence at this point in time.
When Beverly Met Ingrid
The more curious part about this is that Mrs. Kersh, in this scene, meets Beverly Marsh in 1988. In the movies, the older Beverly (Jessica Chastain) returns to her apartment in 2016 to find a token that will help the adult Losers beat Pennywise. Only instead of finding her father Al Marsh, she discovers Mrs. Kersh instead. The creepy old lady offers her tea in her blazing hot apartment, gets weirder by the moment, reveals that her father Bob Gray (Skårsgard) was in the circus, and then chases Beverly, naked, stretching to horrific form.
The thing is, though, in case you couldn’t figure it out: in Chapter Two, that’s not Ingrid Kersh; that’s Pennywise, in the form of the older Ingrid.
So what happened to Ingrid? She dead. Or rather, we’re guessing she’s dead, because the real Ingrid Kersh was born in 1900. By the time we see her in this end credits scene, she’s 88 years old; and would be 116 years old in 2016. Instead, it’s more likely that Ingrid Kersh died some time between 1988 and 2016, and Pennywise is using the barely remembered form of the older Mrs. Kersh as a way of playing on one of Beverly’s most traumatic memories. Beverly saw this creepy old woman telling her not to be sad as a child, and the adult Beverly is clearly unsettled when she meets Mrs. Kersh in 2016.
So there you go! Lots going on in that brief scene… Not to mention Ingrid is at least somewhat aware that she will live forever, at least as a guise of Pennywise.
IT: Welcome To Derry Premiere Dates And Episode Guide:
New episodes of IT: Welcome To Derry premiere on Sundays on HBO and HBO Max at 9pm ET.
Here’s the full list of episodes in IT: Welcome to Derry Season 1 with premiere dates:
- Sunday, October 26, 2025: IT: Welcome To Derry, Season 1, Episode 1
- Sunday, November 2, 2025: IT: Welcome To Derry, Season 1, Episode 2
- Sunday, November 9, 2025: IT: Welcome To Derry, Season 1, Episode 3
- Sunday, November 16, 2025: IT: Welcome To Derry, Season 1, Episode 4
- Sunday, November 23, 2025: IT: Welcome To Derry, Season 1, Episode 5
- Sunday, November 30, 2025: IT: Welcome To Derry, Season 1, Episode 6
- Sunday, December 7, 2025: IT: Welcome To Derry, Season 1, Episode 7
- Sunday, December 14, 2025: IT: Welcome To Derry, Season 1, Episode 8 *Season Finale*
Where To Watch IT: Welcome To Derry
Comic Book Club Live Info:
Discover more from Comic Book Club
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.