The character of Lucy Carlyle in the Netflix series “Lockwood and Co.” makes certain life choices that not only determine her fate but also take her on a journey of self-discovery. The girl had a tough childhood, and she didn’t have any great expectations from life. Lucy was a quiet kid, and she was used to doing things that she didn’t want to do because, most of the time, her opinions and desires were not taken into consideration. Lucy was a listener, and the irony was that she was petrified of her talent. She didn’t want to become an agent because she was not prepared to face what lay in the supernatural realm. Her mother was very unsympathetic towards her needs, maybe because she had also gone through a lot in her life. But still, that wasn’t an excuse to torture somebody and then turn against their wishes. Luckily for Lucy, being an agent did not turn out to be entirely bad. The profession had its dangers, but it gave Lucy an opportunity to find herself and be around people with whom she felt comfortable.
Lucy had become quite close to a colleague named Norrie, and it felt like she would finally leave her past behind and live life on her own terms. But once again, adversity knocked on her door, and she lost Norrie during an operation where they were trying to contain the spirits. Losing a friend is one of the most painful things, but the tragedy helped her find a purpose in life. Lucy decided to go to London in search of jobs, but she didn’t have the required qualifications. She didn’t have an ID, and obviously, she couldn’t have made her mother sign the parental permission certificate. Lucy had good grades, but she hadn’t qualified the fourth level, which was the minimum requirement for being an agent and working in the paranormal investigative agency. So, she was turned down by most agencies, and she lost all hope of doing some investigative work and earning a livelihood in London.
Call it fate or sheer coincidence, she found an advertisement for an agency named Lockwood and Co. in a newspaper, and not having any other options, she decided to visit the place once. The people running the agency were her age, and even she was surprised to find that they operated without any adult supervision. Lockwood and George welcomed her into their small family, and there was no turning back from then on. While solving the case of Annabel Ward, Lucy learned that she could make psychic connections with the spirits and sometimes channel them through her body. She heard their voices, and often, she could tell what they wanted. This was a phase where curiosity slowly started taking over her fears, and she started realizing that it was not such a bad thing to possess an extraordinary skill of hearing. Though solving the Annabel Ward case was an achievement, it was the Bickerstaff case that made Lucy realize her full potential.
Lucy could talk to the spirits, which belonged to the Type 3 class, and it was not something seen quite often in the world of agents. Lucy could hear and talk to the skull that was contained in a jar. The skull called itself an acolyte and referred to the subject of Lucy’s current case as his master. Lockwood and George were not able to believe that Lucy could communicate with the skull and that it was a Type 3. It was because there were a lot of controversies regarding the Type 3 class, and many people believed that nothing of that sort existed and that it was all a myth. Only one person had encountered a Type 3 on record, and that was the great Marissa Fittes. Lucy idolized Marissa from the very beginning, and after realizing that she could also communicate with Type 3, her aspirations to be like her strengthened. Marissa Fittes had played a key role in shaping the contemporary world, and the agency that she had started was still considered to be one of the best organizations in the investigative world. Though Lucy saw herself becoming the next Marissa Fittes, it was not an easy feat to achieve. Lucy had come a long way, from being scared of her own powers to being able to talk to a Type 3, but she still didn’t know the kind of threat the supernatural world could pose.
George’s instant reaction was that Lucy was just trying to give herself more importance because she had realized that she had a unique talent. But Lucy was not boasting about her psychic powers; she was stating facts. She knew she was powerful, and she needed to accept that fact to realize her full potential. She had no intention of bragging, as she herself felt petrified when she learned about it. She was not the kind of girl who wanted to be in the limelight. Instead, she asked Lockwood time and again not to boast about her listening skills, as she felt awkward when all the eyes turned towards her. She would have gladly taken the back seat if somebody else had the required talent to finish the job at hand. Marissa Fittes once said that whenever human beings are faced with a new idea, the innate reflex is to always meet it with denial. Lockwood, though not thoroughly convinced, did tell Lucy that he trusted her judgment. Lucy was clearly the chosen one, and there was no plausible explanation as to why she possessed such rare powers. All she knew was that she was vested with a huge responsibility, and she had to act to the best of her capability to justify it.
Lucy demonstrated yet again in the eighth episode of “Lockwood and Co.” why she was best suited for having those supernatural abilities. Had it been anybody else, the possibility of them misusing such powers would have been high, but with Lucy, that issue ceased to exist. The benignity of her disposition never made her act selfishly. Lucy was well aware that looking through the bone glass could have serious consequences, but she took the risk as she knew that she had a better chance of surviving it compared to George. Additionally, she also wanted to prove to George that, contrary to what he believed, he was an integral part of their agency, and they valued his contributions more than anything.
George always had his doubts about Lucy, but on that night, when he stood in front of Pamela Joplin, he realized how wrong he had been in judging her intentions. Lucy was the glue that held the agency, Lockwood, and Co., together. The Bickerstaff case made Lucy realize that she didn’t need to be scared of her talents, as through them, she had an opportunity to bring about a change. As it is said, with great power comes great responsibility, and in this case, Lucy knew that the danger would also increase manifolds. Lucy already had an extraordinary power to hear the spirits, and now she realized that she could even talk to them. Lucy’s powers were as volatile as a nuclear weapon, and though they had only helped her cause until then, the probability of them becoming an obstacle couldn’t be removed. In the second season (if there is any), we would see the trio, i.e., Lucy, Lockwood, and George, solving many more cases together and demystifying the obscure concepts and ideas of the paranormal realm.
