Welcome To Derry Just Added A Great Twist To Dick Hallorann’s Origin Story
What’s in the box?
Tie-ins to a shared universe, when done wrong, can feel tedious. It: Welcome to Derry might be the exception to that rule. The prequel keeps finding clever ways to reference the Stephen King universe — and even improve on it — with its focus on characters like Dick Hallorann (Chris Chalk).
Hallorann is best known as a minor character in The Shining and its sequel, Doctor Sleep. He serves as a mentor to Danny Torrance, teaching him to hone his clairvoyant gifts (which he refers to as “the shine”). He’s also mentioned here and there in It, but Welcome to Derry beefs up his presence in the titular town. Hallorann is a major player in the ‘60s-set series: Here, he’s a high-ranking Airman in the U.S. Army who uses his abilities to search for a powerful weapon. Unbeknownst to him or any of his superiors, said weapon is “It,” a shapeshifting, reality-warping entity that’s roamed the Earth for millennia and typically takes the form of Pennywise the Clown (Bill Skarsgård).
The mystery of It has fueled the first half of Welcome to Derry, but Pennywise finally reveals himself in Episode 5, “29 Neibolt Street.” From the beginning, it was always clear that our heroes were in over their heads, and that feeling crystallizes further when they descend into Derry’s sewers to find Pennywise’s lair. It goes from prey to predator in a flash, effortlessly twisting the minds of his victims. By the time the dust settles, even Hallorann is rattled by the encounter — and Welcome to Derry also takes the opportunity to flesh out the blind spots in his origin story.
Spoilers ahead for It: Welcome to Derry Episode 5.
Pennywise finally appears in Episode 5 of Welcome to Derry.
Pennywise finds Hallorann before he can lead his squad to It, trapping the clairvoyant in the depths of his own mind. Hallorann is transported into what feels like a memory; there he reunites with his grandmother Rose (from whom he inherited his shining) and his abusive grandfather Andy, who’s really It in disguise. He produces a metal box sealed with a chain and lock, threatening to hurt Rose if Hallorann doesn’t open it.
Welcome to Derry plays coy when it comes to explaining what exactly this box is, but those who tuned in to Doctor Sleep have some idea of its contents. The concept of a box like this was first introduced in King’s 2019 novel: when Hallorann trains Danny to hone his shining gifts, he mentions that he controls his own clairvoyance by locking bad “shines” — like ghosts, spirits, or fears — away in a mental construct. In Derry, it seems like that box also keeps a lid on Hallorann’s shine: according to Clark, Hallorann’s grandmother “put stopgaps in his brain to protect him from himself.”
“Dick, instead of squishing the trauma down, he’s locked it all up in this psychic box that he can protect,” Clark told The Hollywood Reporter. “The box contains literally every one of his nightmares, and they’re not happy with him.”
Hallorann’s unlocked powers allow him to see a zombified soldier — but what else is in store?
Opening the box has unleashed more than nightmares, however: it’s also unlocked Hallorann’s ability to see beyond the material world. Hallorann finally emerges from the sewers at the end of Episode 5, visibly shaken from his encounter with It. Shockingly, he’s able to see the undead version of a soldier (Rudy Mancuso) who was shot while searching for It — and there’s no telling what else he’ll be able to sense with his mental barriers dissolved.
There’s no question that Hallorann is more powerful now than he was before, but those powers are unrefined and tainted by fear and past trauma. Thanks to The Shining, we know that he eventually gets a handle on his abilities and closes his box once more. But that version of Hallorann is a long ways off from the one we’re following in Welcome to Derry. Chaos will undoubtedly ensue for the character as the series continues, but Derry has the power to make his story a lot more interesting, too.
