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Pennywise's impact on the young residents of Welcome to Derry molds them throughout their adult lives, twisting them into the very adults who keep the town's cycle of hatred alive. It finds easy targets on kids from fractured homes — children who frequently mature to replicate the same patterns as their guardians. However, the Hanlon family stands apart as one of the few family unit that remains intact, which may explain why Mike Hanlon, even after electing to remain in the town, persists as the sole member who doesn't completely succumb under the clown's influence.

The Hanlon Family's Unique Resistance

In episode 4 of Welcome to Derry, Leroy Hanlon at last grows increasingly conscious of the paranormal entities surrounding the neighborhood, particularly when the entity starts haunting his son, Will Hanlon, during their angling excursion. The Hanlon family consists of some of the few adults who are aware that things are not right with the municipality, notably the father, who was revealed to be receptive to the Shining when he was capable of sensing a fellow psychic's employment of it in the third episode. Subsequently, he sees one of the clown's trademark inflated orbs outside his residence. This gift, coupled with his inability to experience terror, along with the foundation of his family, could be why he's able to see Pennywise's hauntings. But what if that shining is hereditary, and a key factor Mike is among the few adults in the town who didn't lose themselves to its cruelty?

Will is a member of the collective of kids at his educational institution being terrorized by Pennywise. His classmates hail from broken homes, with caregivers who refuse to accept they're being targeted. The cause Will is being haunted is due to the cruelty of the town, paired with his potential sensitivity to shine, which renders him vulnerable. The Hanlons are ultimately strangers in Derry during the early sixties, which lends itself towards the family feeling something is off about the locality from the beginning. Additionally, they possess a good foundation that remains unbroken, in contrast to the residents who come from the area, with relationships that have decayed within.

Backstory Connections

Based on the It novel, we understand the young Will will find himself at the infamous nightclub, where the psychic will rescue him from a blaze that the town bigots of the community will cause. In the 2017 film, we see that he has a boy named Mike and that the father eventually perishes in a fire, with his father outliving his own child and taking his grandson in. The public account in the motion picture is that the parents were on drugs, but now that we see Will in the series, that's hard to believe. Perhaps the shy youth, once he grew up, turned to drink to rid himself of the hauntings, or perhaps the rotten environment got to him first, with the hate group eventually finishing the job it began years ago. Whether through the fear of Pennywise or through the malice of the community, instigated by It, the creature in the end achieves the final victory on him.

The Father's Evolution

These occurrences would explain how the elder Hanlon transforms so radically from what we see in the first film and the prequel. In his later years, Leroy appears bitter and much stricter with his discipline. Since he survived his own offspring, it's comprehensible to observe such a profound shift. Nonetheless, his words carry more weight since we are aware he's witnessed the clown's activities and the effects they wrought upon his son. In the opening scene of It, we observe the boy hesitate to use a stunning device on a sheep at Leroy's farm. Leroy chastises him for delaying and provides an metaphor that results in a kill-or-be-killed scenario.

“There are two places you can be in this world. You can be in the open like we are, or you can be trapped inside,” he states as he points to the creature. “You dawdle hemming and hawing, and someone is going to decide for you. Except you will be unaware it until you feel that projectile between your eyes.”

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