Welcome to Derry Could Have Unraveled a Longstanding It Mystery

Pennywise's impact on the young residents of Welcome to Derry shapes them long into adulthood, twisting them into the very adults who keep the community's cycle of hatred alive. It preys most easily on kids from broken households — children who often mature to repeat the same patterns as their guardians. However, the Hanlon family distinguishes itself as one of the few family unit that never splinters, which may explain why Mike, even after electing to remain in Derry, remains the sole member who never fully falls under the clown's influence.

Hanlon Household's Unique Resilience

In the fourth installment of Welcome to Derry, Leroy finally becomes increasingly conscious of the paranormal entities enveloping the community, especially when the entity starts haunting his son, Will Hanlon, during their angling excursion. The Hanlon family comprises a small number of adults who are cognizant that something is amiss with the municipality, especially the father, who was shown to be receptive to psychic abilities when he was able to detect a fellow psychic's employment of it in episode 3. Later, Leroy spots one of Pennywise's signature balloons outside his residence. This gift, coupled with his inability to experience terror, combined with the base of his household, may be why he's able to see Pennywise's hauntings. But what if that psychic sensitivity is hereditary, and one of the reasons Mike Hanlon is one of the only adults in Derry who didn't lose themselves to its cruelty?

Will is part of the collective of kids at his educational institution being tormented by Pennywise. His classmates hail from dysfunctional families, with caregivers who refuse to accept they're being haunted. The reason he is being pursued is because of the viciousness of the town, paired with his likely receptiveness to shine, which renders him vulnerable. The Hanlons are fundamentally outsiders in Derry during 1962, which lends itself towards the family feeling anomalies exist about the town from the onset. Additionally, they possess a good foundation that remains unbroken, in contrast to the residents who come from the town, with relationships that have deteriorated internally.

Backstory Connections

Based on the original book, we understand the juvenile Will will find himself at the infamous nightclub, where the psychic will save him from a fire that the local KKK members of the community will cause. In the recent film, we see that he has a boy named Mike and that the father eventually perishes in a fire, with Leroy outliving his own son and taking his grandson in. The public account in the film is that the parents were on substances, but given our current view of him in Welcome to Derry, that's hard to believe. Perhaps the timid boy, once he became an adult, leaned into drink to rid himself of the hauntings, or perhaps the rotten town got to him initially, with the hate group eventually finishing the job it started long before. Be it via the fear of Pennywise or via the malice of the community, seeded by Pennywise, It in the end gets the final victory on him.

Leroy's Transformation

These occurrences would explain how the elder Hanlon changes so drastically from what we witness in the first film and the prequel. In his later years, he appears resentful and much harsher with his parenting. Because he survived his own offspring, it's comprehensible to see such a drastic change. Nonetheless, his words carry more weight now that we know he's witnessed Pennywise's hauntings and the effects they wrought upon his son. In the opening scene of the movie, we see Mike pause to use a bolt gun on a sheep at Leroy's farm. His grandfather chastises him for delaying and offers an metaphor that leads to a survival-of-the-fittest scenario.

“There are two places you can be in this existence. You can be out here like us, or you can be trapped inside,” he says as he points to the sheep. “You dawdle hemming and hawing, and another is going to decide for you. Except you won't know it until you experience that bolt between your eyes.”

Looking back, this could represent a bit of foreshadowing, something he regrets not imparting to his own son. Perhaps he desires he had acted differently in his past, but for some reason, he couldn't resist the repellent allure of the town.