Episode 6  primarily reveals Ingrid Kersh’s connection to Pennywise and sets the stage for the tragic, racially motivated attack on the Black Spot social club.  The main plot points of this episode are Ingrid’s identity reveal, the black spot, and the fracture between the kid’s friendship.  

Ingrid Kersh is revealed as daughter of Bob Gray, the carnival performer who used the “Pennywise the Dancing Clown” persona. A black-and-white flashback to 1935 shows a young Ingrid leading another child, Mabel, to the basement of Juniper Hill Asylum where “It” consumes Mabel and then appears to Ingrid as her father. Ingrid has spent her life since then trying to reunite with her father, luring children to IT as bait and dressing up in her own “Periwinkle” clown costume to seek him out.  I like how this episode ties in with moments from the past and utilize that to build the story. 

The children’s group is divided over how to handle IT. Lilly, wielding the mysterious star dagger she believes is a weapon against the entity, wants to go back into the sewers to fight. Ronnie, traumatized and focused on her fugitive father’s safety, refuses and blames Lilly for their recent troubles. Disgraced former police chief Clint Bowers informs an angry, armed mob of white townspeople about Hank’s location. 

Charlotte has hidden Hank Grogan (Ronnie’s father) in a storage room at the Black Spot, an off-base hangout for black airmen. Dick Hallorann is struggling with the aftermath of his encounter with IT, which ripped open his mental “lockbox” that he used to contain visions of the dead, leading him to drink heavily and be compromised. This episode ends as the racist mob, wearing masks and carrying shotguns, arrives at the Black Spot while the airmen and some of the kids are enjoying a moment of joy inside. This sets up the historical “Black Spot Massacre” alluded to in Stephen King’s novel.  I like that in the show, the showrunner is using plot points from Stephen Kings’ novel.