Pennywise’s reach in Welcome to Derry warps children into the very grown-ups who perpetuate the town’s cruelty. The entity most easily ensnares kids from broken households—young people who often grow into the same destructive patterns they witnessed at home. The Hanlons, however, are different: they remain intact as a family unit, and that stability helps explain why Mike, even after choosing to stay in Derry, is one of the few Losers who never fully surrenders to Pennywise’s influence. More on how the series treats childhood trauma.
By episode 4, Leroy begins to recognize the town’s darker currents — especially when It begins tormenting his son, Will, during a fishing outing. The Hanlons stand out among Derry residents as a family that senses something rotten beneath the surface; Leroy, in particular, has shown an ability to detect the Shining, having recognized Dick Hallorann’s use of it in episode 3. He later notices one of Pennywise’s balloons near his home. Combined with a notable lack of fear and the anchoring presence of a stable household, these traits may explain why Leroy perceives hauntings that others ignore. Could this sensitivity be inherited — and part of why Mike resists the town’s corruption? Read about the show’s use of horror tropes here.
Photo: Brooke Palmer/HBO
Will is among the children at school targeted by Pennywise. Many of his classmates come from fractured homes whose adults either disbelieve or dismiss the strange happenings. Will’s vulnerability is heightened by both the town’s cruelty and his own possible sensitivity to the Shining. The Hanlons’ outsider status in 1962 compounds their unease: unlike many Derry families, they are cohesive, which makes the town’s rot feel all the more foreign to them.
Following the novel’s trajectory, young Will eventually finds himself at the Black Spot nightclub, where Hallorann intervenes to save him from a fire set by local racists. Adaptations of the story portray Will’s later life differently, but a common thread remains: tragedy touches him, Leroy survives, and the consequences ripple through the family for years to come. More on the Hanlons and the show’s changes to the source material.
That lineage of loss helps explain Leroy’s transformation between the events of Welcome to Derry and his older, harder self in It: Chapter 1. Surviving a son’s death — however it occurred — would plausibly harden anyone. Knowing he witnessed Pennywise’s influence on Will and its aftermath gives new weight to Leroy’s severity and the lessons he forces on the next generation.
When he lectures Mike on the farm about choices, Leroy frames life as a stark, survival-first lesson: be where you belong, act without hesitation, or someone else will decide for you. In retrospect, his bluntness reads like a warning he wished he could have given his son — or perhaps an admission that he, too, was once powerless against the town’s pull.
Source: Polygon
