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Cathal Gunning
Published 29 minutes ago
Cathal Gunning has been writing about movies, television, culture, and politics online and in print since 2017. He worked as a Senior Editor in Adbusters Media Foundation from 2018-2019 and wrote for WhatCulture in early 2020. He has been a Senior Features Writer for ScreenRant since 2020.
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While Hank Grogan did narrowly avoid death in It: Welcome to Derry episode 5, his run-in referenced another Stephen King novel and proved his troubles aren’t over yet. In It: Welcome to Derry’s opening scene, the show made it clear that it wouldn’t pull any punches. The prequel to the It movies is even more ruthless than the movies themselves.
This is what makes It: Welcome to Derry's dark Hank Grogan storyline so unsettling. The pilot episode had a shocking twist as most of the show’s apparent main characters were killed by Pennywise, who attacked them in an otherwise-empty movie theater by taking the form of a giant demonic baby.
While this description might sound silly, there was nothing funny about the bloodbath that ensued. All the show’s main characters, save for Lily and Ronnie, were brutally murdered, and the next episode’s opening scene revealed that the town’s racist chief of police intended to arrest Ronnie’s innocent father, Hank Grogan, for the deaths.
Hank Grogan’s Near-Death Experience Is Borrowed From Stephen King’s The Outsider
Although Grogan had an alibi, his story fell apart when another Derry local revealed he saw Hank out of his house during the killings. Hank was innocent, but he was also carrying on an affair with a local married white woman at the time the killings took place. As such, he was caught in a catch-22.
If Hank told the truth about where he was, he feared he would be lynched by the racist townspeople of Derry. If he didn’t explain himself, he would be put to death at Shawshank prison for crimes he didn't commit, and his family’s name would be sullied for generations.
Episode 5, “29 Neibolt Street,” revealed that Lily’s friend Ingrid was the It: Welcome to Derry character Hank was romantically involved with, and Ingrid helped hide him after he escaped from a bus en route to Shawshank. However, before this twist, Hank almost died in a face-off that subtly referenced a less famous Stephen King novel.
While Hank was being transferred from Derry’s local jail to a bus bound for Shawshank Prison, a crowd of braying locals assembled to insult and harass him. This was similar to a scene in King’s 2018 novel The Outsider and its 2020 adaptation of the same name, wherein the same thing happens to the novel’s protagonist, Terry Maitland.
Like Hank, Terry is falsely accused of killing children who were, in reality, murdered by a shapeshifting supernatural monster. In The Outsider, another bereaved family member runs up on this other falsely accused child killer outside a courthouse and aims a gun at them while they are en route to prison.
Unlike The Outsider’s Terry, however, Hank survives the attack. The Outsider’s big twist is that Terry isn’t the novel’s true protagonist, and he is killed in the street while being transferred from the courthouse to prison awaiting trial. It: Welcome to Derry episode 5 explained Neibolt House, but the episode also used this King nod to hint at Hank’s fate.
It: Welcome to Derry’s The Outsider Nod Is Bad News For Ronnie’s Father
Image courtesy of HBO Max
As a person of color in ‘60s Derry, Hank has been in much more danger than Terry Maitland since the beginning of It: Welcome to Derry’s story. However, the similarities between their ill-fated trips to prison don’t end at the arrival of a grieving, armed family member of the victim.
In The Outsider, Terry’s attack is secretly attended by the same shapeshifting supernatural monster who actually killed the child Terry is accused of killing. This monster, the eponymous Outsider, took the form of a human bystander to feed off the hate, fear, and bad energy surrounding the public event, and Terry ended up dead shortly after this encounter.
Similarly, in It: Welcome to Derry, Pennywise seemingly attends Hank’s transfer to Shawshank, appearing as a grinning prison guard behind a doorway. He is noticed by Charlotte, but no one else seems to see the killer clown thanks to his disguise, and this doesn’t bode well for Hank’s future fate.
It: Welcome to Derry Episode 5’s The Outsider Reference Brings The Stephen King Universe Together
Bill Skarsgård's Pennywise with his monstrous mouth open in IT: Welcome to Derry episode 5
Although It: Welcome to Derry episode 4 already linked up to one Stephen King theory, “29 Neibolt Street” seems to connect Hank’s story to the events of The Outsider. Pennywise and the Outsider could be different versions of the same otherworldly entity, as both are able to assume the form of different people to disguise themselves, and both feed off negative emotions.
While this makes sense of Pennywise and the Outsider, it doesn’t seem to bode well for Hank. The racism of Derry was already difficult for the innocent man to overcome, and the revelation that he was in a relationship with a married white woman only made things harder for him.
However, it was seeing Pennywise try to feed off Hank’s misery while the townspeople harassed him at the courthouse that was most concerning. The same fate befell an earlier Stephen King protagonist and cost him his life, so it seems increasingly unlikely that It: Welcome to Derry’s story will end well for Hank.
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It: Welcome to Derry
10 stars 9 stars 8 stars 7 stars 6 stars 5 stars 4 stars 3 stars 2 stars 1 star Like Follow Followed TV-MA Horror Mystery Drama Release Date October 26, 2025 Network HBO Directors Andy Muschietti Writers Jason Fuchs, Stephen King, Austin Guzman Franchise(s) IT
8 Images
Dick Hallorann with his eyes wide looking angry in It Welcome to Derry
Bill Skarsgard's Pennywise in IT Welcome to Derry trailer 2Image courtesy of HBO Max
Kid similing in IT Welcome To Derry
It: Welcome to Derry teens looking surprised at something off screen
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It: Welcome to Derry
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Do you think Hank Grogan's fate in It: Welcome to Derry will mirror Terry Maitland's from The Outsider?
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29 minutes ago
Some viewers may believe Hank will meet the same fate as Terry, given the similarities in their situations and the show's nod to The Outsider. Another perspective is that even if Hank survives, the encounter with Pennywise foreshadows ongoing struggles and danger for his character.
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