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Pennywise's influence on the children of the Derry series shapes them throughout their adult lives, twisting them into the exact individuals who keep the town's pattern of animosity ongoing. The creature finds easy targets on children from broken households — children who frequently mature to replicate the same patterns as their guardians. But, the Hanlon family stands apart as one of the few households that never splinters, which may explain why Mike Hanlon, even after choosing to stay in the town, persists as the sole member who doesn't completely succumb under the clown's influence.

Hanlon Household's Distinctive Resistance

In episode 4 of Welcome to Derry, Leroy Hanlon finally becomes increasingly conscious of the paranormal entities enveloping the community, especially when the entity starts haunting his son, Will, during their fishing trip. The Hanlon clan comprises some of the few grown-ups who are aware that things are not right with the town, especially the father, who was revealed to be sensitive to psychic abilities when he was capable of sensing a fellow psychic's employment of it in the third episode. Later, Leroy spots one of the clown's trademark inflated orbs outside his residence. The ability, alongside his failure to experience terror, along with the base of his family, could be why he's able to see the entity's manifestations. However, consider if that psychic sensitivity is hereditary, and one of the reasons Mike Hanlon is one of the only individuals in the town who resisted succumbing to the town's malevolence?

The boy is a member of the group of children at his educational institution being terrorized by the clown. His classmates hail from dysfunctional families, with parents who don't believe they're being haunted. The cause Will is being haunted is because of the viciousness of the community, paired with his likely receptiveness to shine, which makes him susceptible. The Hanlons are ultimately outsiders in the town during 1962, which contributes towards the household feeling something is off about the locality from the beginning. They also have a good foundation that isn't fractured, in contrast to the residents who come from the town, with bonds that have decayed within.

Backstory Connections

Drawing from the It novel, we understand the juvenile Will Hanlon will find himself at the Black Spot, where the psychic will rescue him from a blaze that the local KKK members of the community will cause. In the recent movie, we see that Will has a boy named Mike and that Will eventually perishes in a configration, with his father surviving his own son and taking his grandson in. The official story in the film is that Mike's parents were on substances, but now that we see Will in Welcome to Derry, that's hard to believe. Perhaps the shy boy, once he became an adult, turned to alcohol to rid himself of the hauntings, or perhaps the rotten town got to him initially, with the KKK ultimately completing the task it began years ago. Whether through the terror of the entity or through the cruelty of the community, seeded by Pennywise, the creature in the end gets the last laugh on him.

Leroy's Transformation

These occurrences would explain how Leroy transforms so radically from what we see in the first film and Welcome to Derry. In his older age, Leroy seems bitter and much stricter with his parenting. Because he survived his own son, it's understandable to see such a profound shift. Nonetheless, his statements carry more weight since we are aware he's seen Pennywise's hauntings and the impacts they wrought upon his child. In the initial sequence of the movie, we see the boy pause to use a bolt gun on a animal at Leroy's farm. Leroy reprimands him for delaying and provides an metaphor that leads to a kill-or-be-killed scenario.

“You have two options you can be in this existence. You can be out here like us, or you can be in there,” he states as he points to the sheep. “You dawdle indecisive, and someone is going to decide for you. But you will be unaware it until you feel that projectile in your head.”

Looking back, this could represent a bit of foreshadowing, a lesson he wishes he had told his own son. Perhaps he desires he had done something in his youth, but for certain factors, he couldn't resist the sickening attraction of Derry.