Stephen King’s It is famous for Pennywise the Dancing Clown, with many remembering Tim Curry’s portrayal in the 1990s miniseries or Bill Skarsgård’s in the recent films. However, the terrifying creature that plagues Derry, Maine, isn’t limited to one form – it can appear as anything. While it often chooses to be Pennywise, the seventh episode of Welcome to Derry finally explains why this particular form is so effective at tormenting and killing the people of Derry, and how the creature originally adopted this guise.
The episode begins with a look back to 1908, showing the creature’s first appearance in Derry. We see Pennywise the Dancing Clown performing with the Santini Brothers carnival, captivating a large group of children. They’re thrilled by his performance, rushing the stage to copy his dances and popping his red balloons. As Pennywise briefly hides, we see a figure watching from afar. This isn’t a child, however – it’s the entity known as It, witnessing the birth of the iconic Pennywise persona it will later adopt.
We then see a touching scene with Pennywise and his young daughter, Ingrid, in his makeup room. Ingrid proudly shows him her own clown makeup, and Pennywise affectionately nicknames her Periwinkle the Clown – a name apparently used by her mother, who is likely no longer alive. This hints that Pennywise and Ingrid’s mother were once partners in the circus. He tells Ingrid they’ll perform together as a father-daughter clown act, and they share a loving embrace. However, this happy moment doesn’t last long.
That night, after his performance, Pennywise the Clown, also known as Robert Gray, was relaxing with a drink and a cigarette. Soon after, the mysterious child he’d been watching emerged from the woods. The child directly told Pennywise that children were attracted to him. He then persuaded Pennywise to follow him into the woods, claiming he needed help finding his mother. As they walk hand-in-hand into the trees, it becomes clear this is the end for the man who was Pennywise. However, this isn’t the end of the terrifying entity known as Pennywise the Clown – it’s just the beginning, as it has discovered a new, preferred form.
The carnival workers later discovered a bloodstained handkerchief belonging to Pennywise, embroidered with the initials “R.G.” – revealing his true name was Robert Gray. His daughter, Ingrid, was heartbroken when they suggested he’d been attacked by wolves. However, that wasn’t the truth. The story behind how he chose his terrifying Pennywise the Clown form is revealed in IT: Welcome to Derry.
With each life it claims, the entity absorbs fragments of the victim’s personality and memories. It has a knack for understanding people, especially children, and prefers to prey on them rather than adults. In the form of Pennywise the Clown, it discovers an ideal way to attract children, a tactic it successfully uses for decades – most notably to lure Georgie Denbrough into the sewers, with tragic consequences.
For the next 54 years, the entity would consistently appear as Pennywise the Clown whenever it began to feed. It specifically targeted the daughter of Bob Gray, later known as Ingrid Kersh (played by Madeleine Stowe), using her to lure victims. Ingrid was led to believe Pennywise was her father, though the show Welcome to Derry revealed she subconsciously knew this wasn’t true – It was simply mimicking her father’s appearance and voice. Following the Black Spot fire in 1962, It killed Ingrid’s husband, Mr. Kersh, while disguised as Pennywise, and consumed him before her eyes. Traumatized after seeing the Dead Lights, Ingrid was taken away in an ambulance, likely to a psychiatric facility.
As a huge fan of the It universe, I’ve been thinking a lot about Chapter Two and the creepy way It manifests. The fact that It takes the form of an elderly woman, Mrs. Kersh, to torment Beverly is seriously unsettling. We don’t know what happened to the real Ingrid Kersh, or when she died, but it had to be a long time before 2016, the year Chapter Two takes place – she’d be over 120 years old! I’m really hoping the new series, Welcome to Derry, which is going back to explore earlier Pennywise cycles, will shed some light on that messed-up ‘mother/daughter’ dynamic. It would be great to understand how It used the Pennywise form not just in 1908, but also in 1935. There are still so many mysteries surrounding this entity, but honestly, I’m glad Welcome to Derry is finally giving us a good explanation for why It chooses a clown to begin with.
It: Welcome to Derry drops new episodes every Sunday on HBO Max.
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2025-12-08 06:06