IT: Welcome to Derry Episode 7 Finally Reveals What Happened to Will Hanlon and Ingrid Kersh
With one episode to go, IT: Welcome to Derry slams the gas, fusing Stephen King’s lore with fresh, skin-crawling twists. Episode 7 shoves the town to the brink as a chilling Pennywise origin comes into focus—and the worst may be yet to come.
Penultimate episodes are supposed to crank the tension. Welcome to Derry takes that note, throws gasoline on it, and lights a match. Episode 7 folds a bleak origin story into a brutal act of real-world hate, then flips the table with a last-minute plan so reckless you can practically hear the finale revving up.
Quick basics before we dive in
- Title: IT: Welcome to Derry (prequel to the 2017 and 2019 films, based on Stephen King’s 1986 novel)
- Setting: Derry, Maine, 1962
- Season 1: 8 episodes total
- Premiere: October 26, 2025
- Release: Episodes drop weekly on HBO and HBO Max
- IMDb (so far): 7.7/10
- Themes: Fear, childhood trauma, racial tensions, supernatural horror
Picking up the wreckage from Episode 6
We open right after the town learns Ronnie’s father escaped Shawshank and is hiding at the Black Spot. A mob of Masked Men storms in, tries to drag him out, meets resistance, and answers with arson. The Black Spot burns. A lot of people do not make it out. Rich dies going back for Marge, a quiet heroic beat in the middle of a nightmare.
And because Derry’s bad luck is never just Derry’s, Pennywise shows up in his true form and absolutely feasts on the chaos, ripping through anyone still inside. It’s as if the fire is a buffet and the clown is starving.
The 1908 detour that rewires Pennywise’s face
Before all that carnage, the episode opens with a 1908 flashback that finally explains why It wears a clown. The original Pennywise wasn’t a monster at all. He was a grieving performer whose act circled his late wife, the first Periwinkle the Clown. His humor was sad and awkward in a way adults found uncomfortable, but kids, being kids, swarmed the stage to mock him. Cruel? Yes. Effective? Also yes.
His young daughter Ingrid (Emma-Leigh Cullum) only saw the smiles, and that pull on children is exactly what draws the cosmic thing we call It. The clown becomes a perfect mask.
Ingrid Kersh bets on a monster and loses
Back in the present, the older Ingrid (Madeline Stowe) shows up at the ruins of the Black Spot specifically to lure the thing wearing her father’s face. She calls Pennywise ‘father’ and admits she tipped Derry’s racist police chief, Clint Bowers, that her lover Hank Grogan was hiding at the bar. The plan was simple and awful: provoke enough violence to make the clown come back.
It works. And then it doesn’t. Once Ingrid realizes this is not her dad but It, Pennywise hits her with the Deadlights. She’s left barely conscious and gutted emotionally. Soldiers haul her away, and even in that comatose drift, her eyes find young Will Hanlon — a tiny, chilling foreshadow.
The thing goes to sleep... and the Army wakes it up
After the Black Spot massacre, It slinks into hibernation, which usually signals the end of a cycle. Not this time. The U.S. military, led by General Francis Shaw, decides to get proactive. They literally break one of the ancient pillars that keeps the creature pinned beneath Derry. Major Leroy Hanlon — yes, Will’s father — tries to stop them, but they blow it anyway.
Their logic? Fear unites people. Shaw points to the eerie calm that settled over Derry after the Black Spot burned as proof. Never mind that Pennywise has already killed 17 children this season. Not exactly a subtle plan.
Two blasts of Deadlights, two lives on the edge
This hour is all about the Deadlights. Ingrid gets the full blast mid-episode. Then, after the Army shatters that pillar and wakes the monster, Pennywise goes straight for Will Hanlon at home, decked out in Indigenous-style war paint, lunges, and lights him up with the same orange horror.
Why the Deadlights matter (and why this is bad)
In King’s mythology, the Deadlights are It’s pure essence and a thread that ties into the larger evil often linked to the Crimson King. In the book, Henry Bowers takes a Deadlights hit and basically becomes It’s errand boy. Bill Denbrough’s wife, Audra, ends up catatonic until Bill shakes her awake with a ride on his childhood bike, Silver. That’s the tier of danger we’re dealing with for Ingrid and Will heading into the finale.
Where this leaves the finale
Pennywise is fully awake because the military decided national unity by terror was a workable idea. Ingrid is shattered. Will just took a direct hit. Major Hanlon’s worst fears came true the second that pillar fell. And Derry, once again, is the test case for a very bad experiment.
IT: Welcome to Derry is currently streaming in the US on HBO Max.