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Pennywise's impact on the young residents of Welcome to Derry shapes them long into adulthood, twisting them into the exact individuals who keep the town's pattern of animosity ongoing. It preys most easily on kids from fractured homes — children who frequently grow up to repeat the same patterns as their parents. However, the Hanlon family stands apart as a rare example of a family unit that never splinters, which could clarify why Mike, even after choosing to stay in the town, persists as the only Loser who never fully falls under the clown's influence.

Hanlon Household's Distinctive Resilience

In the fourth installment of Welcome to Derry, Leroy Hanlon finally becomes increasingly conscious of the supernatural forces surrounding the community, especially when It starts haunting his child, Will Hanlon, during their fishing trip. The Hanlon family consists of some of the few adults who are aware that things are not right with the town, especially the father, who was revealed to be sensitive to the Shining when he was able to detect a fellow psychic's employment of it in episode 3. Subsequently, he sees one of the clown's trademark balloons outside his house. The ability, coupled with his failure 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 hereditary, and a key factor Mike Hanlon is one of the only individuals in the town who resisted succumbing to the town's malevolence?

The boy is part of the group of kids at his educational institution being terrorized by the clown. His classmates come from dysfunctional families, with caregivers who don't believe they're being haunted. The reason he is being haunted is because of the viciousness of the community, combined with his likely receptiveness to psychic abilities, which makes him susceptible. The Hanlons are fundamentally strangers in the town during 1962, which lends itself towards the family sensing something is off about the locality from the onset. Additionally, they possess a good foundation that isn't fractured, unlike the folks who originate in the area, with bonds that have deteriorated within.

Backstory Connections

Based on the It novel, we know the juvenile Will will end up at the infamous nightclub, where the psychic will save him from a blaze that the local KKK members of Derry will ignite. In the 2017 movie, we observe that Will has a son named Mike and that the father eventually perishes in a fire, with his father outliving his own child and adopting his grandchild. The official story in the film is that the parents were on substances, but given our current view of Will in Welcome to Derry, that's hard to believe. Perhaps the timid youth, once he became an adult, leaned into alcohol to rid himself of the torments, or perhaps the rotten town got to him initially, with the KKK eventually finishing the job it started long before. Whether through the terror of the entity or via the cruelty of the community, seeded by It, It in the end achieves the final victory on Will.

Leroy's Transformation

This chain of events would explain how Leroy changes so drastically from what we see in the first film and Welcome to Derry. In his older age, Leroy appears bitter and much harsher with his discipline. Because he survived his own offspring, it's understandable to see such a drastic change. Nonetheless, his words hold greater significance since we are aware he's seen the clown's activities and the impacts they wrought upon his son. In the initial sequence of the movie, we observe the boy hesitate to use a bolt gun on a sheep at Leroy's farm. His grandfather reprimands him for delaying and offers an analogy that leads to a survival-of-the-fittest scenario.

“There are two places you can be in this existence. You can be in the open like we are, or you can be in there,” he says as he points to the sheep. “You waste time hemming and hawing, and another is going to make that choice. But you will be unaware it until you experience that bolt in your head.”

In hindsight, this could represent a bit of prediction, a lesson he regrets not imparting to his own child. Maybe he wishes he had acted differently in his youth, but for some reason, he couldn't resist the sickening attraction of the town.