🔗 Share this article

The clown's impact on the young residents of the Derry series shapes them throughout their adult lives, twisting them into the exact individuals who perpetuate the community's pattern of animosity ongoing. It finds easy targets on kids from broken households — youngsters who often grow up to repeat the same patterns as their parents. But, the Hanlon household distinguishes itself as one of the few households that remains intact, which may explain why Mike, even after choosing to stay in Derry, persists as the sole member who never fully falls under the clown's influence.

The Hanlon Family's Unique Resistance

In the fourth installment of Welcome to Derry, Leroy Hanlon at last grows increasingly conscious of the paranormal entities surrounding the community, particularly when It begins tormenting his son, Will, during their angling excursion. The Hanlon family consists of a small number of adults who are aware that things are not right with the town, notably Leroy, who was revealed to be receptive to psychic abilities when he was capable of sensing Dick Hallorann's use of it in the third episode. Later, he spots one of the clown's trademark inflated orbs outside his residence. This gift, alongside his failure to experience terror, combined with the base of his family, may be why he's capable of perceiving Pennywise's hauntings. But what if that shining is generational, and a key factor Mike is one of the only adults in Derry who didn't lose themselves to the town's malevolence?

The boy is part of the collective of kids at his school being tormented by Pennywise. All his school friends come from dysfunctional families, with caregivers who don't believe they're being targeted. The reason Will is being pursued is because of the viciousness of the community, paired with his likely receptiveness to psychic abilities, which renders him vulnerable. The Hanlons are ultimately outsiders in the town during the early sixties, which lends itself towards the household feeling anomalies exist about the locality from the beginning. They also have a solid base that remains unbroken, in contrast to the folks who come from the town, with relationships that have decayed within.

Historical Context

Drawing from the It novel, we know the young Will will find himself at the infamous nightclub, where the psychic will rescue him from a fire that the local KKK members of the community will cause. In the recent movie, we observe that he has a son named Mike and that the father eventually perishes in a configration, with Leroy surviving his own child and taking his grandson in. The public account in the film is that the parents were on substances, but now that we see Will in Welcome to Derry, that's hard to believe. Maybe the shy boy, once he grew up, leaned into alcohol to free himself of the hauntings, or perhaps the rotten town affected him initially, with the hate group eventually finishing the task it began long before. Be it via the terror of the entity or through the cruelty of the town, instigated by Pennywise, It in the end gets the last laugh on Will.

Leroy's Transformation

These occurrences would clarify how the elder Hanlon changes so drastically from what we see in the first film and Welcome to Derry. In his later years, he appears resentful and much harsher with his parenting. Since he survived his own son, it's comprehensible to observe such a drastic change. Nonetheless, his words carry more weight since we are aware he's witnessed Pennywise's hauntings and the effects they wrought upon his son. In the opening scene of It, we see the boy pause to use a stunning device on a sheep at Leroy's farm. Leroy reprimands him for hesitating and offers an analogy that results in a survival-of-the-fittest situation.

“There are two places you can be in this world. You can be in the open like we are, or you can be in there,” Leroy states as he points to the creature. “You waste time hemming and hawing, and someone is going to make that choice. Except you will be unaware it until you experience that projectile in your head.”

Looking back, this could be a bit of foreshadowing, something he wishes he had told his own son. Perhaps he desires he had done something in his past, but for some reason, he couldn't resist the repellent allure of Derry.