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The clown's impact on the children of Welcome to Derry shapes them long into adulthood, transforming them into the exact individuals who keep the community's pattern of animosity alive. It finds easy targets on children from fractured households — children who often mature to replicate the same patterns as their parents. However, the Hanlon family distinguishes itself as one of the few households that never splinters, which may explain why Mike Hanlon, even after electing to remain in the town, persists as the only Loser who doesn't completely succumb under Pennywise's sway.

Hanlon Household's Distinctive Resilience

In the fourth installment of Welcome to Derry, Leroy Hanlon at last grows increasingly conscious of the paranormal entities enveloping the community, especially when It starts haunting his child, Will, during their angling excursion. The Hanlon clan consists of a small number of adults who are cognizant that something is amiss with the town, especially the father, who was revealed to be sensitive to psychic abilities when he was capable of sensing Dick Hallorann's employment of it in episode 3. Later, Leroy sees one of Pennywise's signature inflated orbs outside his house. The ability, coupled with his inability to experience terror, combined with the base of his household, could be why he's able to see Pennywise's hauntings. But what if that shining is hereditary, and one of the reasons Mike Hanlon is one of the only adults in Derry who didn't lose themselves to the town's malevolence?

The boy is part of the collective of kids at his educational institution being tormented by the clown. His classmates hail from dysfunctional families, with parents who don't believe they're being targeted. The cause he is being haunted is because of the viciousness of the community, paired with his likely receptiveness to psychic abilities, which renders him vulnerable. This family are fundamentally strangers in the town during 1962, which contributes towards the household sensing anomalies exist about the town from the onset. Additionally, they possess a good foundation that isn't fractured, in contrast to the residents who come from the town, with relationships that have deteriorated internally.

Backstory Connections

Based on the original book, we understand the juvenile Will Hanlon will end up at the infamous nightclub, where the psychic will save him from a fire that the local KKK members of Derry will cause. In the recent film, we see that Will has a boy named Mike and that the father eventually perishes in a configration, with his father outliving his own son and adopting his grandchild. The public account in the motion picture is that Mike's parents were on substances, but given our current view of Will in Welcome to Derry, that's hard to believe. Maybe the timid boy, once he grew up, turned to alcohol to free himself of the hauntings, or perhaps the corrupt environment got to him first, with the KKK ultimately finishing the task it began years ago. Be it via the fear of the entity or via the malice of the community, seeded by Pennywise, the creature in the end gets the final victory on Will.

The Father's Evolution

This chain of events would explain how the elder Hanlon transforms so drastically from what we see in It: Chapter 1 and the prequel. In his later years, he seems bitter and much stricter with his parenting. Because he outlived his own offspring, it's understandable to observe such a profound shift. Nonetheless, his words hold greater significance since we are aware he's witnessed the clown's activities and the effects they wrought upon his child. In the opening scene of It, we see Mike hesitate to use a stunning device on a animal at the family property. His grandfather reprimands him for delaying and provides an analogy that leads to a survival-of-the-fittest scenario.

“You have two options you can be in this world. You can be out here like we are, or you can be trapped inside,” Leroy says as he gestures to the sheep. “You dawdle indecisive, and someone is going to make that choice. But you will be unaware it until you feel that bolt in your head.”

In hindsight, this could be a piece of foreshadowing, something he regrets not imparting to his own child. Maybe he desires he had done something in his past, but for certain factors, he couldn't resist the sickening attraction of Derry.