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Pennywise's influence on the young residents of the Derry series molds them throughout their adult lives, twisting them into the very adults who keep the town's pattern of animosity alive. It finds easy targets on children from fractured homes — children who often grow up to repeat the same patterns as their parents. But, the Hanlon family stands apart as one of the few family unit that never splinters, which may explain why Mike, even after electing to remain in Derry, persists as the only Loser who doesn't completely succumb under the clown's influence.

Hanlon Household's Unique Resilience

In episode 4 of Welcome to Derry, Leroy Hanlon finally becomes increasingly conscious of the paranormal entities surrounding the neighborhood, particularly when It starts haunting his child, Will, during their angling excursion. The Hanlon family comprises a small number of grown-ups who are aware that things are not right with the municipality, notably the father, who was revealed to be sensitive to psychic abilities when he was able to detect Dick Hallorann's use of it in episode 3. Subsequently, Leroy sees one of the clown's trademark balloons outside his residence. The ability, alongside his failure to feel fear, along with the base of his family, may be why he's able to see the entity's manifestations. But what if that shining is generational, and one of the reasons Mike is one of the only individuals in the town who didn't lose themselves to the town's malevolence?

Will is part of the collective of kids at his educational institution being tormented by the clown. All his school friends come from broken homes, with parents who don't believe they're being haunted. The reason Will is being pursued is due to the cruelty of the community, paired with his likely receptiveness to shine, which makes him susceptible. This family are ultimately outsiders in Derry during 1962, which lends itself towards the household feeling anomalies exist about the locality from the beginning. They also have a solid base that remains unbroken, unlike the folks who originate in the area, with relationships that have deteriorated within.

Backstory Connections

Based on the original book, we know the young Will Hanlon will end up at the infamous nightclub, where Hallorann will rescue him from a blaze that the local KKK members of the community will ignite. In the 2017 movie, we observe that he has a son named Mike and that the father ultimately dies in a fire, with Leroy surviving his own child and taking his grandson in. The public account in the film is that Mike's parents were on drugs, but given our current view of Will in Welcome to Derry, that's hard to believe. Maybe the shy youth, once he grew up, turned to alcohol to rid himself of the torments, or maybe the corrupt environment affected him first, with the hate group eventually finishing the job it started long before. Whether through the terror of the entity or through the malice of the community, seeded by Pennywise, It eventually gets the last laugh on Will.

Leroy's Transformation

These occurrences would explain how the elder Hanlon changes so radically from what we see in the first film and the prequel. In his later years, he seems bitter and much stricter with his discipline. Since he outlived his own offspring, it's understandable to see such a drastic change. Nonetheless, his statements hold greater significance since we are aware he's witnessed the clown's activities and the impacts they wrought upon his child. In the opening scene of It, we observe the boy hesitate to use a stunning device on a sheep at Leroy's farm. Leroy reprimands him for hesitating and offers an metaphor that leads to a survival-of-the-fittest situation.

“There are two places you can be in this world. You can be in the open like us, or you can be in there,” Leroy states as he points to the sheep. “You dawdle hemming and hawing, and another is going to make that choice. But you will be unaware it until you experience that projectile between your eyes.”

In hindsight, this could be a piece of prediction, a lesson he regrets not imparting to his own son. Maybe he wishes he had acted differently in his past, but for certain factors, he was unable to avoid the repellent attraction of the town.