The clown's impact on the young residents of Welcome to Derry shapes them throughout their adult lives, transforming them into the very adults who keep the community's pattern of animosity alive. It finds easy targets on children from broken homes — youngsters who often mature to replicate the identical behaviors 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 Derry, persists as the sole member who doesn't completely succumb under the clown's influence.
Hanlon Household's Distinctive Resilience
In episode 4 of the series, Leroy Hanlon at last grows increasingly conscious of the paranormal entities enveloping the neighborhood, particularly when It starts haunting his child, Will, during their fishing trip. The Hanlon family comprises some of the few grown-ups who are aware that things are not right with the municipality, especially Leroy, who was shown to be sensitive to psychic abilities when he was able to detect Dick Hallorann's use of it in episode 3. Subsequently, he spots one of Pennywise's signature inflated orbs outside his house. The ability, coupled with his failure to experience terror, combined with the foundation of his household, may be why he's able to see Pennywise's hauntings. But what if that psychic sensitivity is hereditary, and a key factor Mike Hanlon is one of the only adults in Derry who resisted succumbing to its cruelty?
The boy is part of the collective of kids at his school being terrorized by Pennywise. All his school friends hail from broken homes, with parents who don't believe they're being targeted. The reason Will is being haunted is because of the cruelty of the community, combined with his potential sensitivity to psychic abilities, which makes him susceptible. This family are fundamentally outsiders in Derry during 1962, which lends itself towards the family feeling anomalies exist about the locality from the onset. They also have a good foundation that isn't fractured, unlike the folks who originate in the town, with relationships that have deteriorated within.
Historical Context
Based on the It novel, we know the juvenile Will Hanlon will end up at the Black Spot, where the psychic will save him from a blaze that the town bigots of the community will ignite. In the recent movie, we observe that he has a boy named Mike and that the father ultimately dies in a configration, with Leroy outliving his own son 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 Will in the series, that's hard to believe. Maybe the timid boy, once he grew up, turned to drink to rid himself of the hauntings, or perhaps the rotten town affected him first, with the hate group ultimately completing the task it began years ago. Be it via the terror of the entity or through the cruelty of the community, seeded by It, the creature in the end achieves the last laugh on him.
Leroy's Transformation
This chain of events would explain how the elder Hanlon changes so drastically from what we see in the first film and Welcome to Derry. In his later years, Leroy appears bitter and much harsher with his parenting. Because he survived his own son, it's comprehensible to see such a drastic change. However, his words carry more weight now that we know he's witnessed Pennywise's hauntings and the impacts they wrought upon his child. In the initial sequence of the movie, we observe Mike hesitate to use a stunning device on a animal at the family property. Leroy reprimands him for hesitating and offers an analogy that leads to a survival-of-the-fittest situation.
“You have two options you can be in this world. You can be out here like us, or you can be in there,” Leroy states as he gestures to the creature. “You dawdle indecisive, and another is going to decide for you. Except you won't know it until you feel that projectile in your head.”
Looking back, this could be a bit of prediction, a lesson he regrets not imparting to his own son. Perhaps he wishes he had acted differently in his youth, but for some reason, he was unable to avoid the repellent allure of the town.
