What's Inside The Box? Dick Hallorann's Childhood Trauma, Explained
One of the most disturbing sequences in IT: Welcome to Derry, Episode 5, is Pennywise invading Dick Hallorann's traumatic memories of his grandfather, but what does it mean?
WARNING: THE FOLLOWING CONTAINS DISCUSSION OF CHILD SEXUAL ABUSE.
IT: Welcome to Derry has been mercilessly delivering the scares after Episode 4 saw Pennywise attack Marge, resulting in the latter injuring one of her eyes. Episode 5 continued this trend by showing Pennywise getting more clever in scaring both the adults and the Loser kids trying to stop him in 1962.
By far, the most disturbing sequence in Episode 5 is Pennywise invading Dick Hallorann’s mind, and preying on his childhood trauma. Not only is Dick very visibly afraid of his grandfather in this sequence, but Pennywise keeps taunting him with a locked box containing secrets Dick doesn’t want going out. But what exactly are those secrets, and why is Dick so afraid of them?
Though Episode 5 only hints at the abuses Dick endured from his grandfather growing up, the answers are more clearly laid out in the Stephen King novel, Doctor Sleep.
