Why It: Welcome To Derry Season 2 Will Dig Deeper Into Bob And Ingrid Gray's Story
by Joe Roberts · /Film"It: Welcome to Derry" essentially tells a story in reverse across three planned seasons, and according to co-creator Andy Muschietti, that means we'll get more of the Bob Gray/Ingrid Kersh storyline with future episodes.
With 2017's "It," Muschietti reinvented Pennywise the Clown for a new generation. The 2019 follow-up, "It Chapter Two" expanded the horrific harlequin's backstory, providing clues as to his true origins and even revealing the human version of the dancing clown that existed before It inhabited the form. "It: Welcome to Derry," which Muschietti co-created along with his sister, Barbara, and Jason Fuchs, expands things even further, providing a full backstory for not just Pennywise (Bill Skarsgård) but It itself.
While the latter involved a whole lot of fantastical nonsense about magical "pillars" and indigenous people constricting the evil to the area that would later become Derry, Pennywise' backstory was far more compelling if only for the human element of it all. Prior to It taking the form of the clown, Pennywise was a real person, Bob Gray (also played by Skarsgård) who in the early 20th Century performed as the clown in circuses and Derry's local carnival. He also had a daughter, Ingrid (played as a kid by Emma-Leigh Cullum and as an adult by Madeleine Stowe in "Welcome to Derry").
This is much more compelling than nebulous magic and extra-terrestrial origins. It sets up a dynamic between Bob and Ingrid that makes for one of the more interesting storylines that plays out in "Welcome to Derry," with the daughter later becoming convinced her long dead father still resides somewhere within Pennywise's twisted form. Thankfully, it looks as though we'll see a lot more of that storyline as the HBO series continues.
Welcome to Derry introduced the ill-fated Bob Gray and Ingrid Kersh storyline
In "Welcome to Derry" season 1, we learn how Bob Gray was lured into the woods by It and devoured by the entity, who wanted to assume his form to appeal to kids and similarly lure them to their fate. After Bob perishes, It begins to favor the form of Pennywise for that very reason, but there's one person who isn't terrified by the entity's new clownish appearance.
Midway through the season, Bob's daughter Ingrid Kersh is revealed as a secondary antagonist after the kids of the titular town discover she's been showing up during It's feeding cycles. Dressed as Periwinkle, a clown based on her father's version of Pennywise, Ingrid helped orchestrate the horrific incidents that plagued Derry throughout season 1 of the series in order to summon Pennywise and have a chance of seeing her father again.
As you might expect, such a misguided quest ends in tragedy after Pennywise grows tired of Ingrid's obsequies devotion and starts to detect fear within her. Following the horrific Black Spot fire in episode 7, which involved a major character death worse than anything in the movies, Ingrid suddenly realizes that her dad is long dead and that Pennywise is merely perverting his physical appearance to terrify kids. After that, the clown exposes Ingrid to the Deadlights — a glimpse of the creature's true form that sends observers insane — and Bob Gray's daughter is sent straight to Juniper Hill Asylum (one of the most terrifying locations in all Stephen King lore).
But that's not the end of Ingrid and Bob's story. "Welcome to Derry" is essentially telling a story in reverse, which means we should see plenty more of the father-daughter duo — especially since Andy Muschietti just confirmed as much.
Season 2 will devote more time to Ingrid Kersh and Bob Gray
"It: Welcome to Derry" was designed as a trilogy of seasons which jump backwards in 27-year increments to follow It's feeding cycles. That means that while Ingrid Kersh was driven insane via the Deadlights in the 1962-set season 1, the second season will go back to 1935 where Ingrid is still very much present and a long way from her clash with Pennywise.
In an interview with Deadline, Andy Muschietti claimed that there is "much more" to come from the Bob Gray/Ingrid Kersh storyline, which will continue to play out over the next two seasons (should HBO give the green light). "There's so much. We're going to learn a lot of things about it," he said. "We are going to know more about the Bob Gray of things, and we are going to know more about Ingrid, because Ingrid was around in the 30s. Our second season happens in 1935, in theory."
Elaborating on Ingrid in particular, the co-creator explained his view of what makes the character so interesting. "I think it's a pretty tragic character," he continued, adding:
"She's a very specific, very unique character, because she's a victim, but she's a perpetrator too. She's tricked into thinking that her dad is still there somewhere in the shadows of that monster, and she wants to liberate him, but the only way to see him and try to liberate him is by creating all these baits [and] all this pain, because she knows that he will show up."
That is one of the more tragically interesting aspects of "Welcome to Derry," and it will be great to see more of that with season 2 (and hopefully less magic pillars).