Based on a comic book series created by Joe Hill, Netflix’s “Locke & Key” features a set of magical keys that give power to their master. However, due to a mysterious spell, only young children below the age of 18 can remember and use the Key’s magic.
Following the premise, Locke and Key follow the Locke family as they settle down in their ancestral “key house” after Rendell Locke’s murder. The teenagers hear the whispered keys and follow their voices and unravel their magic in pursuit. What lies ahead is a demonic being who threatens them with stealing the magical keys.
Created for Netflix, “Locke & Key” Season 1 establishes the prominence of the keys in 10 episodes and sets the ground for an ultimate battle.
‘Locke & Key’ Season 1: Plot Summary
Rendell Locke, a teacher in Seattle, lives with his wife, Nina, and three children, Tyler, Kinsey, and Bode. On one unpleasant day, Rendell’s student, Sam Lesser, a troubled teenager, enters his house and shoots Rendell and Nina. While Nina survives the bullet, Rendell loses his life.
After the tragedy, a grief-stricken family moves to Matheson and settles down in Locke’s ancestral mansion, Key House. As the family settles in, a curious Bode explores the estate and finds a well-house. Near the well, he hears a voice that calls herself Bode’s Echo. The Echo informs Bode that the Key House is filled with magical keys that can change the way he looks or can take him anywhere in the world. To find the keys, Bode has to listen to their whispering.
While Tyler and Kinsey get busy with their new school life, Bode begins his key hunt. He finally finds the Anywhere Key fixed in Kinsey’s bracelet given to her by their late father. Astonished by the magic, Bode revisits the well and informs Echo about the keys he has found.
For a sinister motive, Echo tricks Bode and convinces him to use the Mirror Key that may help his family see his father again. Bode uses the Mirror Key, and, accidentally, his mother gets trapped inside the mirror. In a panic, he seeks help from Echo, who demands the Anywhere Key in exchange. But as soon as Echo gets the Key, she leaves the well house.
Bode reveals the truth about the magical keys to Tyler and Kinsey, who help him to save Nina. But Echo’s disappearance leaves a lot of questions behind. Who was she? And from where did these keys come from? Why did Echo steal the Anywhere Key?
The Origins of Key House and Whispering Keys
According to the comic book series, during the American Revolutions, a band of rebels hid in the lands where the future Key House would be built. In the underground, they found a portal to another dimension filled with demons. When the humans opened the door, the demons tried to enter the human world. However, as soon as they crossed the threshold, they melted into whispering irons. And the ones who got in contact with the human body possessed them and mesmerized them.
A young blacksmith, Benjamin Locke, forged the whispering iron into magical keys to save the world from demons. He developed a master key called Omega Key to lock the door to another dimension and protect the world from demons. Throughout the years, the magic of the Keyhouse evolved. A spell emerged that caused their bearers to forget about the keys and their magic once they surpassed the age of 18 and became adults.
However, in 1988, Rendell Locke, his younger brother, Duncan, and his college mates, Lucas “Dodge” Caravaggio, Ellie Whedon, Mark Cho, Erin Voss, and Jeff Ellis, hunted the magical keys and discovered the demonic door. They located the Alpha key and decided to open the black door to bring more demonic iron into the world to forge more magical keys. However, in their selfish attempt, Lucas got possessed by a demon and killed two friends. To save the group, Rendell smashed Lucas’ head and killed him. The group understood the threat of the magical keys and thus decided to become Keepers of the Keys.
Who Revived Lucas? & Why?
Duncan saw Rendell killing Lucas, and thus to protect his brother, Rendell locked Duncan’s memory in magical jars using keys. The keepers of the keys found a way to remember the magic keys and parted away. For safety, Rendell hid the Omega Key inside his head and left Matheson to start a new life in Seattle.
Ellie Whedon, the protector of the Identity Key and the Echo Key, was the only one left behind in Matheson. In her loneliness, Ellie missed her past lover, Lucas Dodge. “She used the Echo Key to bring back Lucas. But they suddenly realized that the Echo wasn’t Lucas but the demon who possessed him before he died.
Lucas took the identity key from Ellie and used it to transform himself into the “well-lady, Dodge.” Dodge enchanted Rendell’s troubled student, Sam Lesser, and inquired about the Omega Key through him. When Rendell refused to tell its whereabouts, Sam shot Rendell in anger. Later, Dodge approached Bode and tricked him into getting the Anywhere Key to find the Omega Key all by himself. Dodge visited Erin Voss and used the Head Key to find its location and, through a memory, found that Rendell had hidden the Omega Key inside his head. After Rendell’s death, the Key got mixed with his ashes. In Episode 8, when Nina smashed the urchin in anger, Tyler finally found the Omega Key.
‘Locke & Key’ Season 1: Ending Explained
Lucas deceived Ellie and persuaded her to steal the Crown of Shadows, through which one can create and control powerful shadows. With the help of dark magic, Lucas attacked the Key House, and in a battle of darkness against light, the Locke family defeated Lucas and Dodge. Or at least, that was what they believed.
Kinsey convinced her siblings to throw Dodge’s demonic Echo into the black door, from where it came from. Hesitantly, Tyler agreed, and the siblings called their friends, Scot Cavendish, Jackie, Eden Hawkins, and Gabe, to lift Dodge’s body. The group traveled to the caves and, after a hustle, threw Dodge’s body into it.
Everything went back to normal, and after facing her own emotional demons, Nina decided to move back to Seattle. However, the kids refused to move again, and Nina accepted their request.
The new teenage group became the new keepers of the keys, but amid their happiness, Ellie was still missing.
A riveting flashback sequence establishes that after Ellie went back home to get the Crown of Shadows, she was attacked by Lucas. He used the identity key to transform Ellie into Dodge and himself into Gabe. Dodge’s body that Tyler and his group threw into the black door belonged to Ellie, who got lost in another dimension forever.
‘Locke & Key’ Season 2 Expectations
In Locke and Key episode 10, a flashback visualizes that Lucas had transformed himself into Gabe. The young teenager does not exist in real life, and Lucas created the identity to get close to Kinsey. In his attempt to steal the Omega Key, Lucas (as Gabe) starts dating Kinsey.
Another big revelation that the flashback establishes is that when the group visited the cave to open the black door, a demonic soul hit Eden Hawkins’ and possessed her. Gabe teams up with Eden at the end of “Locke & Key” Season 1 to steal the Omega Key and open the door to invite demonic annihilation on the human world.
Will Kinsey, Tyler and Bode be able to find Gabe’s identity and stop the demons from opening the portal? “Locke & Key” Season 2 will translate better.
“Locke & Key” is a Supernatural Drama Thriller series created by Carlton Cuse, Meredith Averill, and Aron Eli Coleite. Season 1 is streaming on Netflix.
