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The clown's impact on the children of the Derry series shapes them throughout their adult lives, twisting them into the very adults who keep the town's pattern of animosity alive. The creature finds easy targets on children from broken households — children who frequently grow up to repeat the identical behaviors as their parents. However, the Hanlon household distinguishes itself as one of the few family unit that never splinters, which could clarify why Mike Hanlon, even after electing to remain in Derry, remains the only Loser who never fully falls under the clown's influence.

Hanlon Household's Unique Resilience

In episode 4 of Welcome to Derry, Leroy at last grows more aware of the supernatural forces enveloping the community, especially when the entity starts haunting his son, Will, during their angling excursion. The Hanlon clan comprises some of the few adults who are aware that things are not right 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. Subsequently, Leroy spots one of the clown's trademark balloons outside his house. This gift, alongside his failure to experience terror, combined with the base of his family, could be why he's capable of perceiving Pennywise's hauntings. But what if that shining is hereditary, and a key factor Mike Hanlon is one of the only adults in the town who didn't lose themselves to the town's malevolence?

The boy is a member of the collective of kids at his educational institution being tormented by the clown. All his school friends hail from broken homes, with parents who refuse to accept they're being haunted. The reason he is being haunted is due to the cruelty of the community, paired with his potential sensitivity to shine, which makes him susceptible. This family are ultimately strangers in Derry during the early sixties, which lends itself towards the household sensing something is off about the locality from the beginning. They also have a solid base that isn't fractured, in contrast to the folks who originate in the area, with relationships that have decayed internally.

Backstory Connections

Drawing from the original book, we understand the juvenile Will will find himself at the infamous nightclub, where the psychic will save him from a blaze that the town bigots of Derry will ignite. In the recent movie, we observe that Will has a boy named Mike and that Will ultimately dies in a configration, with Leroy outliving his own child and taking his grandson in. The official story in the motion picture is that Mike's parents were on substances, but given our current view of him in the series, that's hard to believe. Maybe the shy boy, once he grew up, turned to drink to free himself of the torments, or perhaps the rotten environment got to him initially, with the hate group ultimately completing the task it started years ago. Be it via the terror of the entity or through the cruelty of the community, seeded by It, It eventually achieves the final victory on him.

Leroy's Transformation

These occurrences would explain how Leroy changes so radically from what we witness in It: Chapter 1 and the prequel. In his older age, he seems bitter and much harsher with his parenting. Since he survived his own son, it's understandable to observe such a drastic change. However, his words carry more weight now that we know he's seen the clown's activities and the impacts they wrought upon his child. In the initial sequence of the movie, we see the boy hesitate to use a bolt gun on a animal at the family property. His grandfather reprimands him for hesitating and provides an analogy that results in a survival-of-the-fittest scenario.

“You have two options you can be in this existence. You can be out here like we are, or you can be in there,” he says as he gestures to the creature. “You waste time hemming and hawing, and someone is going to decide for you. Except you won't know it until you experience that projectile between your eyes.”

In hindsight, this could represent a bit of foreshadowing, a lesson he regrets not imparting to his own child. Maybe he desires he had acted differently in his youth, but for some reason, he was unable to avoid the sickening allure of the town.