The Derry Chronicles Could Have Unraveled a Lingering It Mystery
The clown's influence on the young residents of Welcome to Derry shapes them long into adulthood, twisting them into the very adults who keep the community's pattern of animosity ongoing. The creature finds easy targets on children from broken households — children who frequently mature to repeat the identical behaviors as their guardians. But, the Hanlon household distinguishes itself as a rare example of a family unit that never splinters, which may explain why Mike Hanlon, even after electing to remain in the town, persists as the sole member who never fully falls under the clown's influence.
Hanlon Household's Distinctive Resilience
In episode 4 of Welcome to Derry, Leroy at last grows increasingly conscious of the paranormal entities surrounding the community, especially when the entity begins tormenting his child, Will Hanlon, during their angling excursion. The Hanlon clan consists of some of the few grown-ups who are aware that things are not right with the town, notably the father, who was revealed to be receptive to the Shining when he was able to detect a fellow psychic's use of it in the third episode. Subsequently, he sees one of the clown's trademark inflated orbs outside his house. This gift, alongside his inability to feel fear, along with the foundation of his household, could be why he's able to see the entity's manifestations. However, consider if that shining is generational, and one of the reasons Mike is one of the only individuals in Derry who didn't lose themselves to its cruelty?
Will is a member of the collective of children at his school being terrorized by Pennywise. His classmates hail from broken homes, with parents who don't believe they're being haunted. The cause Will is being pursued is because of the viciousness of the town, paired with his likely receptiveness to shine, which renders him vulnerable. This family are fundamentally strangers in Derry during the early sixties, which lends itself towards the household feeling anomalies exist about the town from the beginning. They also have a good foundation that remains unbroken, in contrast to the residents who originate in the town, with relationships that have deteriorated internally.
Backstory Connections
Drawing from the It novel, we know the juvenile Will Hanlon will end up at the infamous nightclub, where the psychic will rescue him from a fire that the local KKK members of the community will ignite. In the recent film, we observe that he has a son named Mike and that the father ultimately dies in a fire, with his father surviving his own son and taking his grandson in. The official story in the film is that Mike's parents were on drugs, but given our current view of Will in Welcome to Derry, that's difficult to accept. Maybe the shy boy, once he became an adult, turned to alcohol to rid himself of the torments, or maybe the rotten environment affected him first, with the KKK ultimately completing the task it started long before. Be it via the fear of Pennywise or through the malice of the community, instigated by It, the creature in the end achieves the last laugh on Will.
The Father's Evolution
This chain of events would explain how Leroy changes so drastically from what we see in It: Chapter 1 and the prequel. In his later years, he seems bitter and much stricter with his parenting. Because he survived his own son, it's understandable to see such a profound shift. Nonetheless, his statements hold greater significance since we are aware he's seen Pennywise's hauntings and the effects they wrought upon his child. In the opening scene of It, we see Mike hesitate to use a bolt gun on a animal at Leroy's farm. His grandfather reprimands him for delaying and offers an metaphor that leads to a survival-of-the-fittest situation.
“There are two places you can be in this existence. You can be in the open like us, or you can be in there,” Leroy states as he points to the creature. “You dawdle indecisive, and another is going to make that choice. But you will be unaware it until you feel that projectile between your eyes.”
In hindsight, this could represent a bit of foreshadowing, something he regrets not imparting to his own child. Maybe he wishes he had acted differently in his past, but for some reason, he couldn't resist the repellent attraction of the town.
