‘IT: Welcome to Derry’ Episode 6 Ending Explained: Who is Periwinkle? What Happens to the Black Spot?

IT: Welcome to Derry Episode 6 “In the Name of the Father” ends by teasing one of the most disturbing episodes referenced in Stephen King‘s It and by officially introducing a terrifying clown we’ve already seen snatches of on the HBO show.

**Spoilers for IT: Welcome to Derry Episode 6 “In The Name of the Father,” now streaming on HBO Max**

IT: Welcome to Derry finally reveals that Pennywise (Bill Skarsgård) isn’t the only clown who has been terrorizing the kids of Derry. No, Ingrid Kersh (Madeline Stowe) has been stalking Lilly Bainbridge (Clara Stack) and her misfit friends as her alter ego, “Periwinkle the Clown,” in the twisted hopes of being reunited with her father, Bob Grey, aka the original Pennywise the Dancing Clown.

Elsewhere, Charlotte Hanlon (Taylour Paige) has hidden Hank Grogan (Stephen Rider) at the Black Spot, the Black airmen’s hangout. She brings Ronnie (Amanda Christine) and Will (Blake Cameron James) to the Black Spot just so the little girl can reunite with her father. However, Will soon brings Marge (Matilda Lawler) and Rich (Arian S. Cartaya) to the bar, too, so the three of them can try to convince Ronnie to make up with Lilly and the group. While the kids partake in adorable antics at the bar, including drinking “Air Force Coke,” Clint Bowers (Peter Outerbridge) stokes the racist white locals’ rage and tells a group of angry men where they can “find” Hank.

IT: Welcome to Derry Episode 6 ends with a racist mob arriving at the Black Spot and with Ingrid Kersh decked out in her full “Periwinkle” costume. So what does this tell us about what’s going to happen next? Why is the Black Spot so significant in Stephen King’s books? Who is Periwinkle? Here’s everything you need to know about the end of IT: Welcome to Derry Episode 6…

IT: Welcome to Derry Episode 6 Ending Explained: Who is Periwinkle the Clown?

In IT: Welcome to Derry Episode 6, an upset Lilly Bainbridge goes to Mrs. Kersh for comfort and discovers she’s been cozying up to the enemy this whole time. If IT: Chapter Two established that Mrs. Kersh was the daughter of Pennywise the Clown, IT: Welcome to Derry Episode 6 reveals the insane lengths she’s gone to over the years to be reunited with her dead father.

IT: Welcome to Derry Episode 6 opens with a creepy black and white cold open set at Juniper Hill in 1935. There, a pretty nurse — the young Mrs. Kersh (Tyner Rushing) — is asking a pint-sized patient about her visions of Pennywise the Clown. Later in the episode, we learn that young Mrs. Kersh isn’t scared of Pennywise because she desperately misses and wants to be reconnected with her father at all costs. Even if it means the kids’ deaths.

Mrs. Kersh is essentially using the young patients of Juniper Hill to lure It to appear as her father, Pennywise, aka Bob Grey. Her theory is that her father is still somewhere in there and if he saw his daughter in her full Periwinkle get up, he’d snap out of It’s grasp.

Periwinkle is Ingrid Kersh’s clown alter ego. In fact we’ve already seen Periwinkle multiple times in IT: Welcome to Derry, specifically in Episode 3. She was the creepy little clown (Emma-Leigh Cullum) watching young Francis Shaw (Diesel La Torraca) in Episode 3’s circus flashbacks and she was also there, dressed as Periwinkle, in the graveyard. It was Periwinkle, not Pennywise, that Will Hanlon captured on film.

IT: Welcome to Derry Episode 6 ends with Ingrid Kersh in her full Periwinkle drag, ready to meet her father again. Only, as we know, her father is totally dead and It has just adopted the creepy clown’s visage to hunt its prey.

What Happens to the Black Spot in Stephen King’s It Book?

IT: Welcome to Derry Episode 6 ends with a darkly tense cliffhanger: a racist mob rolls up to the Black Spot determined to bring Hank Grogan to “justice.” So what’s going to happen next? Well, we can look to Stephen King’s It to find out…

In Stephen King’s book, It, he writes about earlier historical instances where the evil cosmic entity known as “It” unleashed horror upon the town of Derry. A generation before the events of the novel, a racist mob, known as the “Maine Legion of White Decency,” burned the Black Spot to the ground, killing most of the patrons inside. Dick Hallorann (Chris Chalk) just so happened to be at the club that night and managed to use his gifts to save young Will Hanlon from the inferno. Thus, ensuring that Dick would survive for the events of The Shining and Will would go on to father original Loser’s Club member, Mike Hanlon.

Because Dick Hallorann’s involvement in this awful race massacre is canon in Stephen King’s work, hardcore King fans have understood from the start why The Shining character is in IT: Welcome to Derry in the first place. It’s also a clear hint that, yes, the Black Spot is likely going to go down in flames in next week’s IT: Welcome to Derry and the only two characters we know for sure are safe are Dick Hallorann and Will Hanlon.

IT: Welcome to Derry returns next Sunday, December 7 on HBO and HBO Max.