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The clown's impact on the young residents of Welcome to Derry shapes them throughout their adult lives, transforming them into the very adults who perpetuate the community's pattern of hatred ongoing. It finds easy targets on children from fractured households — youngsters who frequently grow up to repeat the identical behaviors as their guardians. However, the Hanlon household stands apart as a rare example of a households that remains intact, which may explain why Mike Hanlon, even after electing to remain in the town, remains the only Loser who doesn't completely succumb under Pennywise's sway.

Hanlon Household's Distinctive Resistance

In episode 4 of the series, Leroy at last grows increasingly conscious of the supernatural forces enveloping the neighborhood, particularly when the entity starts haunting his child, Will Hanlon, during their angling excursion. The Hanlon clan consists of some of the few adults who are aware that things are not right with the town, notably the father, who was shown to be receptive to psychic abilities when he was capable of sensing Dick Hallorann's use of it in the third episode. Subsequently, he spots one of the clown's trademark inflated orbs outside his house. This gift, coupled with his failure to experience terror, combined with the foundation of his family, could be why he's capable of perceiving the entity's manifestations. However, consider if that psychic sensitivity is hereditary, and one of the reasons Mike is among the few individuals in Derry who resisted succumbing to its cruelty?

The boy is a member of the collective of children at his educational institution being terrorized by Pennywise. His classmates come from dysfunctional families, with caregivers who don't believe they're being haunted. The cause Will is being haunted is due to the viciousness of the town, combined with his likely receptiveness to psychic abilities, which renders him vulnerable. The Hanlons are fundamentally strangers in the town during the early sixties, which lends itself towards the household sensing something is off about the town from the onset. Additionally, they possess a solid base that remains unbroken, in contrast to the folks who originate in the area, with bonds that have deteriorated within.

Backstory Connections

Drawing from the It novel, we understand the juvenile Will Hanlon will end up at the Black Spot, where Hallorann will rescue him from a fire that the local KKK members of the community will cause. In the 2017 movie, we observe that Will has a son named Mike and that the father ultimately dies in a fire, with his father outliving his own child and adopting his grandchild. The official story in the motion picture is that the parents were on drugs, but now that we see Will in Welcome to Derry, that's hard to believe. Maybe the shy youth, once he became an adult, leaned into alcohol to rid himself of the torments, or maybe the rotten environment got to him first, with the hate group ultimately finishing the job it began years ago. Whether through the terror of the entity or via the malice of the community, seeded by Pennywise, It eventually gets the final victory on Will.

The Father's Evolution

These occurrences would explain how Leroy transforms so drastically from what we see in the first film and the prequel. In his later years, Leroy appears resentful and much harsher with his parenting. Because he outlived his own offspring, it's understandable to observe such a drastic change. Nonetheless, his statements carry more weight since we are aware he's seen Pennywise's hauntings and the effects they had on his child. In the opening scene of the movie, we observe Mike hesitate to use a bolt gun on a sheep at the family property. His grandfather reprimands him for hesitating and provides an analogy that results in a survival-of-the-fittest scenario.

“You have two options you can be in this world. You can be out here like we are, or you can be in there,” he says as he points to the sheep. “You dawdle hemming and hawing, and someone is going to make that choice. Except you will be unaware it until you experience that projectile between your eyes.”

Looking back, this could represent a bit of foreshadowing, a lesson he wishes he had told his own child. Perhaps he wishes he had done something in his past, but for certain factors, he was unable to avoid the repellent attraction of Derry.