Decoded: The 1935 Scenes in Welcome to Derry and Their Shocking Season 2 Implications

What the 1935 Scenes in ‘Welcome to Derry’ Tell Viewers About Season 2

The 1935 flashback scenes in IT: Welcome to Derry Episode 6 not only provided a glimpse of the show’s potential for Season 2, but they also deliberately showed that these sequences were primed to be the main tool in highlighting Pennywise’s reign of terror.

The inclusion of the black and white scenes would effectively make IT: Welcome to Derry Season 2 stand out from Season 1. Aside from the diferent aesthetic in showing off Pennywise’s kills, what makes a possible Season 2 unique is the fact that Pennywise will have an assistant in the form of Ingrid Kersh.

Pennywise poses as Bob Gray to weaponize and exploit Ingrid’s longing for her father, making her a willing participant in the ancient evil’s torment of Derry, Maine. This would also mark the first time that a young woman is open to helping Pennywise achieve its goals of consuming as many young children as possible.

All in all, the black and white aesthetic has a deeper meaning because it cemented Ingrid’s fall from grace as she succumbed to a reality where sacrificing children will eventually awaken her father’s lost humanity.

The 1935 scenes were a preview of IT: Welcome to Derry Season 2, offering fans a stunning glimpse into how the series will appear in that specific time period. Season 2 has yet to be greenlit, but it seems likely due to the show’s high viewership and popularity. The show’s sophomore run will undoubtedly still be in color, but some scenes could be in black and white to emphasize the terror of Pennywise’s attack. 

In the Inside Look at IT: Welcome to Derry Episode 6, released by HBO Max, director James Travis revealed what made the 1935 sequence stand out, noting that it was “a great opportunity to shift the style of the show” by way of moving the camera less:

“The 1935 sequence was a great opportunity to shift the style of the show. The camera is often very active in the 1960s story. It felt exciting to move the camera less, to make it about stationary frames that tell the story in a heightened way that references film history. We weren’t going for sheer realism in this sequence. There’s an air of melodrama to it that I thought was appropriate coming from Ingrid’s perspective.”

The director’s comments suggested that the sequences set in 1935 will mostly be shot in stationary frames, meaning that Pennywise’s haunting attack will be more of a slow burn rather than an all-out torment that the kids experienced in 1962.

The black and white scenes were showcased during Ingrid Kersh’s early days in Juniper Hill Asylum (the same facility where Lilly Bainbridge was sent to after her father’s accidental death). The flashback offered a glimpse of a young Ingrid who began hearing kids claim that a clown named Pennywise was luring them in, trying to show his “carnival.”