🔗 Share this article

The clown's impact on the young residents of Welcome to Derry shapes them throughout their adult lives, twisting them into the very adults who keep the town's cycle of animosity ongoing. It finds easy targets on children from broken homes — children who frequently grow up to repeat the same patterns as their guardians. However, the Hanlon family stands apart as a rare example of a family unit that never splinters, which could clarify why Mike Hanlon, even after choosing to stay in Derry, persists as the only Loser who never fully falls under Pennywise's sway.

Hanlon Household's Distinctive Resilience

In the fourth installment of the series, Leroy Hanlon at last grows more aware of the supernatural forces surrounding the community, especially when the entity starts haunting his son, Will Hanlon, during their fishing trip. The Hanlon family consists of some of the few adults who are aware that something is amiss with the municipality, notably the father, who was shown to be sensitive to psychic abilities when he was able to detect a fellow psychic's employment of it in the third episode. Later, he sees one of Pennywise's signature balloons outside his residence. This gift, coupled with his inability to feel fear, combined with the foundation of his household, may be why he's capable of perceiving the entity's manifestations. However, consider if that shining is generational, and a key factor Mike is one of the only individuals in the town who resisted succumbing to its cruelty?

The boy is a member of the group of children at his educational institution being terrorized by the clown. His classmates come from dysfunctional families, with caregivers who don't believe they're being targeted. The reason Will is being pursued is because of the cruelty of the town, paired with his likely receptiveness to shine, which renders him vulnerable. The Hanlons are ultimately outsiders in Derry during the early sixties, which lends itself towards the family feeling something is off about the town from the beginning. They also have a solid base that isn't fractured, in contrast to the folks who come from the area, with relationships that have deteriorated internally.

Backstory Connections

Drawing from the original book, we understand the juvenile Will Hanlon will end up at the Black Spot, where Hallorann will rescue him from a blaze that the local KKK members of the community will ignite. In the recent film, we observe that Will has a son named Mike and that Will ultimately dies in a configration, with his father outliving his own child and taking his grandson in. The public account in the motion picture is that Mike's parents were on drugs, but now that we see Will in Welcome to Derry, that's difficult to accept. Maybe the timid boy, once he grew up, leaned into drink to rid himself of the hauntings, or maybe the corrupt town affected him first, with the KKK eventually finishing the task it began years ago. Be it via the fear of Pennywise or through the malice of the town, instigated by Pennywise, the creature in the end gets the last laugh on him.

Leroy's Transformation

This chain of events would clarify how the elder Hanlon transforms so radically from what we see in the first film and Welcome to Derry. In his later years, he appears resentful and much stricter with his parenting. Since he survived his own son, it's comprehensible to observe such a profound shift. Nonetheless, his statements hold greater significance since we are aware he's seen Pennywise's hauntings and the impacts they had on his child. In the opening scene of the movie, we observe the boy pause to use a stunning device on a sheep at Leroy's farm. Leroy chastises him for hesitating and provides an metaphor that leads to a survival-of-the-fittest scenario.

“You have two options you can be in this world. You can be in the open like us, or you can be trapped inside,” he states as he gestures to the creature. “You waste time indecisive, and someone is going to decide for you. Except you will be unaware it until you experience that projectile between your eyes.”

In hindsight, this could be a piece of foreshadowing, a lesson he wishes he had told his own child. Perhaps he desires he had done something in his youth, but for some reason, he couldn't resist the sickening attraction of Derry.