Dick Hallorann, originally introduced in Stephen King’s The Shining, has had a surprisingly big role to play in It: Welcome to Derry. The character has a cameo role in King’s original 1986 It novel, one greatly expanded for the new HBO series. In this series, he’s played by actor Chris Chalk. But developments in the fifth and sixth episodes connect the TV character to part of his backstory first explored in King’s 2013 novel Doctor Sleep, the sequel to The Shining, later made into a film by Mike Flanagan.
In the fifth episode of Welcome to Derry, the U.S. military forces, under the orders of General Shaw, descend into the tunnels of Derry, Maine. The hope is to trap the entity we know of as Pennywise to use as a weapon. But of course, Pennywise is an ancient being that’s been around for millions of years, and not so easy to manipulate. Plus, it can get inside anyone’s head. Even someone with the power of the shining, as Dick Hallorann has. When Dick encounters Pennywise in the tunnels, he gets inside his mind, and we get a dark look into his past.
Inside his own mind, we see Dick reliving his own traumatic childhood. We see his sadistic grandfather Andy, who was abusive to him mentally, physically, and sexually. He is berating him in his bathroom, chastising him for carrying on silent telepathic conversations with grandmother Rose, who also has the power of the shining. This enrages his grandfather (who here is really Pennywise), who threatens to kill Rose if he doesn’t unlock his “box.” We see as “grandpa” brings out a metal box under lock and key, which contains the power Dick is hiding. But by threatening Rose, Dick feels no choice but to open it.
Doctor Sleep first introduced the concept of a mental box for those who shine. In that novel, we learn that after Andy Hallorann died, Dick’s grandma Rose learned the truth about his years of abuse. Something which he’d kept secret for years. She taught Dick how to take hostile “shines,” essentially restless ghosts, and lock them away inside a mental box. This is a skill he taught young Danny Torrance in Doctor Sleep, later used in the novel’s big climax. In Mike Flanagan’s film, we see the adult Danny open his box to end the threat of the vampiric cult.
At the end of episode five, Dick wanders out of the tunnels, nearly catatonic after his encounter with Pennywise. His box is now open, and he sees the spirit of the recently killed soldier (Randy Mancuso) wandering around. It’s clear that his ability to keep negative shines under lock and key has evaporated. He’s clearly severely traumatised by his encounter with the entity within Derry’s tunnels.
In episode six, when Leroy Hanlon questions Dick about what happened, he explains what the box really is to him. He tells him how his “gift” allows him to see things, specifically “dead ones.” He tells him how IT went into his mind, forcing the dead inside his mind out. Leroy wants Dick to continue to use his gifts to try to track the entity down for the military, but Dick loses his temper, saying he doesn’t know if he can put the spirits back inside the box again.
However, we know that years later, during the events at the Overlook in The Shining, he will get those powers back. But for now, it remains a mystery as to how Pennywise will manipulate Dick Halloran’s open box. Will it have something to do with the deadly fire at the Black Spot, detailed in Stephen King’s original novel? We’ll have to wait and see how Welcome to Derry unfolds in the second half of the season.
It: Welcome to Derry is currently streaming on HBO Max.
Originally published November 23, 2025.