You can’t kill evil—you can only put it to sleep. The first season of IT: Welcome to Derry ended on a high note, with an incredible finale that wrapped up its story with nary a thread dangling. But while the show is looking to the past for its potential second and third seasons, an end-credits scene previews the “future”—the year 1988—which bridges the prequel series to Andy Muschietti’s IT duology, IT (2017) and IT Chapter Two (2019).
It all hinges on one name, and one surprise cameo: Elfrida Marsh. But who is Elfrida Marsh? And why did that member from the Losers Club appear?
Here’s what happened at the very end of IT: Welcome to Derry. Spoilers ahead.
What Happens in the IT: Welcome to Derry Credits Scene?
Just before the finale credits roll on IT: Welcome to Derry, the show catches up with Ingrid (Madeleine Stowe). When we last saw Ingrid, it was the morning after The Black Spot fires where she lost her sanity gazing into Pennywise’s Deadlights. In the finale, Ingrid recovers (somewhat) and is placed at Juniper Hill Asylum. She raves about wolves that aren’t there, telling doctors the wolves ate her father. “I saw the handkerchief,” she says, a reference to her childhood memory when she learns Bob Gray is dead.
It’s a poetic fate for Ingrid. She spent years trafficking children from Juniper Hill to Pennywise as his food. Now, Ingrid herself is sentenced to stay at Juniper Hill, where she must live out her days being calmed by old music.
In a jump to October 1988, we catch up with an older Ingrid, played by the late actress Joan Gregson who played Mrs. Kersh in It Chapter Two (and terrorized Jessica Chastain’s Beverly); Gregson died earlier this year, in June 2025. When Mrs. Kersh hears screaming and crying from down the hall, she makes her way to another patient’s room. It belongs to Elfrida Marsh, whose body hangs from the ceiling.
As Juniper Hill staff work to get Elfrida down, two people are hunched over crying in the corner. One of them, a middle-aged man, physically pushes off his daughter, a teenage girl. When the girl turns to Mrs. Kersh, we see it’s a young Beverly, played again by It and It Chapter Two star Sophia Lillis.
The aged Mrs. Kersh offers a tearful Beverly some words of comfort that sound ominous in tone: “Oh dear, don’t be sad. You know what they say about Derry? No one who dies here ever really dies.” As Beverly looks at her in horror, Mrs. Kersh offers a creepy, crooked-toothed smile and a lazy-eyed stare. Years later, a grown-up Beverly hears those same words again, this time from It in the guise of Mrs. Kersh.
HBO
From IT: Welcome to Derry episode 2. Might this unnamed, lovestruck teenager be Beverly’s mom?
Who Was Elfrida Marsh?
Elfrida Marsh was Beverly’s mother. In Stephen King’s original novel, Elfrida is alive but absent as an overworked waitress. She also fears her husband’s abuse of Beverly might be sexual. The Muschietti films make her even more of a tragic figure, having Elfrida dead before the story begins and the reason for Beverly’s father’s abuse.
In It Chapter Two, a flashback to Beverly’s past reveals her father hated Beverly over her suicide. “She’d still be alive if it wasn’t for you,” Bev’s dad scolds her. Beverly replies, “Mama was sick. You know that’s why she did what she did.” They clearly do not have a happy relationship, which is why he pushes her off at Juniper Hill.
Interestingly, Welcome to Derry might have snuck in Elfrida Marsh in plain sight. In episode 2, an unidentified redheaded teenager sneaks a love note into someone’s locker. The striking resemblance to Beverly and their penchant for love notes (remember that Beverly treasures the anonymous letter that Ben wrote for her) makes fans think that Elfrida Marsh has been lurking in the edges of the series.
While Welcome to Derry reveals Beverly’s meeting with Mrs. Kersh in It Chapter Two is not the first time they met, you can’t blame Beverly for not recognizing her at first glance. She can barely remember the Losers Club, let alone a creepy old woman on the worst day of her young life. But go back and rewatch It Chapter Two. Watch Beverly’s face closely, after she hears Mrs. Kersh talk about the dead people of Derry. Perhaps it isn’t that Beverly couldn’t remember Mrs. Kersh from all those years ago. Maybe she didn’t want to.
