Even when Lily is no longer a patient, she seeks out the kindly older woman for comfort and advice – and why not, given that Derry is hell and positive role models are hard to find? However, every Stephen King fan was shocked to learn last week that Ingrid’s last name is “Kersh.” As in Mrs. Kersh, Pennywise’s expression that torments the original it Character Beverly Marsh. What is the connection after all? This week’s sixth episode lifted the curtain on who Ingrid Kersh is and what her motivations are for becoming such a good friend to Lily.
First, though, let’s see what else we know about Mrs. Kersh welcome to dairy As yet. We know he’s the alibi for accused murderer Hank Grogan (Stephen Ryder); He was with her when the movie-theater massacre occurred in episode one. But she is a married white woman – whose relationship with Hank is taboo on many levels, especially in a small town circa 1962.
We don’t know what will happen to her relationship with Hank now that he is a fugitive. The show may finally start again with him. But so far, we’ve seen many more scenes between him and Lily, starting in episode three.
Lily is returning to Juniper Hill Asylum for a bit after a grocery store malfunction – if you’ve seen your dead dad’s head in a pickle jar you’ll need to get your medication adjusted too – and before she leaves she’s sharing a moment with her friend Ingrid.
“It’ll be okay, dear,” Ingrid reassured her; Apparently, Lily has brought many troubles upon him, including his falling out with Ronnie (Amanda Christine), who is Hank’s daughter.
Ingrid adds, “My father used to say that life is about the journey.” “But I think it’s more about who you take that journey with. And if this Ronnie means as much to you as it seems, you’ll somehow find a way to make things right.”
She also offers this welcome reassurance: “If you tell me you’ve seen the impossible, I believe you. Most people, they only believe what they can see with their own eyes.”
Ingrid Kersh says all the right things, and it happens again in episode three when Lily finds her again. The children are starting to learn about Derry’s grim history, and Lily seeks Ingrid’s insight.
“I remember some kids going missing in the ’30s,” Ingrid thinks, though she claims she hasn’t thought about it for years. It was the Depression. Times were tough at that time.
However, she is encouraging of Lily’s detective work: “My father always said that if you have good friends, anything is possible. And it looks like you have them.”
In episode five, we learn that she is Ingrid. kershMarried to an obnoxious man who cares mostly about how his steak is cooked. Lily runs to him with the news that Matty—the boy who went missing at the beginning welcome to dairyThe first episode of – has somehow escaped his long imprisonment in the sewers. What’s worse, they’re certain that Phil, one of the theater kids, is still alive there.
Mrs. Kersh wisely tells Lily to go to the police, but by now it’s clear that the authorities in Derry have zero patience for children and their clownish nonsense.
Mrs. Kersh, at least, is willing to listen, but she begs Lily will not go into the sewers looking for Phil. Lily agrees, but as we saw in episode five, it wouldn’t be a show about Pennywise if the kids didn’t venture into the underground tunnels of Derry and find a demonic clown waiting for them.
Episode six begins with another flashback to the first Pennywise “cycle”, a throwback to 1935. We see a young version of Ingrid Kersh carrying a little girl into the Juniper Hill Asylum basement because “that’s where the clown told you to meet him.” A red balloon appears, which is never a good sign.
Before we see the full scope of that encounter, we go back welcome to dairyToday’s day. Lily has another panic, this time in math class when she sees her father’s pickled corpse scattered across her desk. “Who will help you now, you idiot?” The ghost screams.
Who else in the world is Lily’s best friend, and maybe Only Dude, now he’s out with Ronnie and the rest? Ingrid doesn’t answer her door, but Lily goes in anyway. There is a photo album in plain sight, filled with wedding pictures and the like; As Lily turns around, the images get older and older, until we finally reach 1908 and see a man who is clearly out of Pennywise makeup.
This is Ingrid’s father. The one who has all the household advice. It is sinking in with the sudden appearance of Ingrid; Instead of getting angry about the intrusion, she gives a distraught Lily a big hug, and tells her, “Whatever happens, it’ll be okay.”
Then, Lily looked over Ingrid’s shoulder at another picture. It’s the man from 1908, this time in full Pennywise regalia. Ingrid noticed him looking and asked, “Have you seen him?”
uh oh. “You saw him! Oh, darling, you did it! You brought him back!”
Lily, growing more uneasy, spies an old clown costume and a spiky white wig; This is exactly what the clown in the cemetery was wearing when the kids went on their photo mission. Later, we see the same pointy wig spying outside Will’s house. This is what the little girl Joker wore in episode three in the 1908 flashback.
“I thought he might appear that night. I was worried I might miss him!” Ingrid explains, admitting that she was at the cemetery with the children. Then, she tells Lily what we already guessed: “My father was a carnival performer. He called himself Pennywise the Dancing Clown.” Also, “I loved him, and he was taken from me.”
There are no further details, but we can guess that her father was Bob Gray, who goes by the same name. it look at that welcome to dairyThe creators will be seen teasing. While we’re pondering what “he was taken” means, we go back to the 1930s and see Ingrid overhear a young patient, Mabel, talking about Pennywise, but she’s scolded, “There’s no such thing as a clown in a pipe.”
ChhichhoraLike, Ingrid’s long-lost father, With Mabel in tow, Ingrid heads to the basement, and everything happens just as you’d expect. The sequence is filmed in black and white apart from yellow (Pennywise’s eyes) and red (the balloon, Mabel’s blood), but despite seeing a baby swallowed by a supernatural clown – a baby she gave birth to in order to be slaughtered – Ingrid simply needs “Papa’s” presence to be included in the program.
Bob Gray comes to his daughter, calls her “Pumpkin” and says he misses her. “Don’t be afraid; I can explain everything. Just open the door and let me in! Everything will be okay!”
There is a literal door that opens here, but you can guess that it also broke into Ingrid Kersh at the same time, and is taking advantage of her desire to be reunited with her beloved father.
She explains to Lily, who is trembling with fear, “I did what I had to do to see him again.” “If she could see me once more as her periwinkle [Ingrid’s clown character]Remind him of the love we share, I know he will be able to break free.
Although Ingrid assures Lily that she would never let any harm come to her, how can you trust a woman who is trying to reconnect with her long-dead father by wearing a 50-year-old clown costume? “Nobody who dies here ever really dies,” she tells Lily. “Come with me tonight and I’ll show you!” Lily’s response to this invitation is to be slashed with an alien dagger and banished.
This definitely won’t be Bob Gray’s only appearance welcome to dairyEspecially since we now know that Ingrid has been trying to resurrect her father for 27 years – all while encouraging children to believe the unbelievable, because children are delicious fodder for Pennywise.
We’re glad Lily realized in Derry that you should be extremely careful before you trust anyone – even someone who looks completely harmless. It’s a lesson Beverly Marsh must learn herself decades later when she meets Mrs. Kersh This: Chapter Two,
new episodes of This: Welcome to Derry Arrives Sunday on HBO and HBO Max.
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