🔗 Share this article

Pennywise's impact on the young residents of the Derry series shapes them long into adulthood, twisting them into the exact individuals who keep the town's cycle of hatred alive. The creature preys most easily on kids from broken homes — youngsters who frequently grow up to repeat the identical behaviors as their parents. However, 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 the town, remains the sole member who doesn't completely succumb under Pennywise's sway.

The Hanlon Family's Distinctive Resilience

In episode 4 of the series, Leroy Hanlon at last grows increasingly conscious of the supernatural forces enveloping the community, especially when the entity starts haunting his child, Will, during their angling excursion. The Hanlon family comprises some of the few grown-ups who are aware that something is amiss with the municipality, especially the father, who was shown to be sensitive to psychic abilities when he was capable of sensing a fellow psychic's use of it in the third episode. Subsequently, he spots one of the clown's trademark balloons outside his house. The ability, coupled with his failure to feel fear, along with the base of his household, could be why he's capable of perceiving the entity's manifestations. However, consider if that psychic sensitivity is generational, and a key factor Mike Hanlon is among the few adults in Derry who didn't lose themselves to the town's malevolence?

Will is part of the collective of kids at his school being terrorized by Pennywise. All his school friends come from broken homes, with parents who refuse to accept they're being haunted. The cause he is being haunted is because of the viciousness of the community, paired with his likely receptiveness to psychic abilities, which makes him susceptible. The Hanlons are fundamentally outsiders in Derry during 1962, which contributes towards the family feeling something is off about the locality from the onset. They also have a solid base that remains unbroken, unlike the folks who come from the area, with relationships that have decayed within.

Backstory Connections

Based on the original book, we know the juvenile Will Hanlon will find himself at the infamous nightclub, where the psychic will rescue him from a blaze that the local KKK members of Derry will ignite. In the recent film, we see that Will has a son named Mike and that Will eventually perishes in a fire, with his father outliving his own son and adopting his grandchild. The official story in the motion picture is that Mike's parents were on substances, but now that we see him in the series, that's hard to believe. Maybe the timid youth, once he grew up, leaned into alcohol to rid himself of the torments, or maybe the rotten environment affected him initially, with the KKK ultimately finishing the task it started long before. Whether through the terror of the entity or through the malice of the community, instigated by It, It in the end achieves the last laugh on Will.

Leroy's Transformation

This chain of events would explain how Leroy changes so radically from what we see in the first film and the prequel. In his older age, he seems resentful and much stricter with his discipline. Since he survived his own offspring, it's comprehensible to observe such a profound shift. However, his words carry more weight now that we know he's seen Pennywise's hauntings and the effects they had on his son. In the initial sequence of the movie, we see the boy pause to use a bolt gun on a sheep at the family property. His grandfather reprimands him for delaying and provides an metaphor that leads to a kill-or-be-killed scenario.

“There are two places you can be in this world. You can be in the open like us, or you can be in there,” he states as he gestures to the creature. “You dawdle indecisive, and another is going to make that choice. Except you will be unaware it until you feel that bolt between your eyes.”

Looking back, this could be a bit of foreshadowing, something he wishes he had told his own child. Maybe he wishes he had acted differently in his youth, but for certain factors, he couldn't resist the repellent allure of Derry.