‘Locke & Key’ Recap: ‘Ray of F**king Sunshine’

Written by John Edward Betancourt

THIS IS THE EMERGENCY SPOILER ALERT SYSTEM. YOU ARE ADVISED TO READ AT YOUR OWN RISK.

If there is one particular storytelling element that is more or less a staple of the horror genre, it would have to be social commentary. For horror stories love to examine our world and some of the problems that are currently plaguing mankind and while said commentary is often powerful and poignant, it tends to be grand and sweeping in nature. Which is why Netflix’s Locke & Key is such a breath of fresh air for the genre in general. For its commentary on the world is laser focused and relatable since it has taken the time to examine that fallout that comes about from loss and trauma. But as it turns out, this series had one other intimate concept in mind that it wanted to explore, one that only a handful of scary stories have ever taken the time to examine; alcoholism.
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For ‘Ray of F**king Sunshine’ saw Nina Locke completely fall off the wagon in this particular tale, as a direct result of all the stress she’s experienced recently, and well, this episode deserves some serious credit for how it handled this particular exploration. Because more often than not, when a recovering alcoholic succumbs to the temptation of the bottle in a horror story, they in turn become a horrific monster, one driven by booze and their drunken fury knows no bounds. But in this tale, Nina doesn’t use alcohol to transform into a monster, she uses it as a crutch. Because her addiction is an illness, one that helps her cope with the pain surrounding her and it was quite powerful to see her simply drink to dull the pain and see her family treat this with care and understanding.

Because they were fully aware of the fact that attacking and berating her for a moment of weakness would only complicate matters further. So, they instead took their time and pondered upon their next moves and that allowed for another interesting twist to be introduced into this particular examination. For at one point, Kinsey ponders upon just letting Nina drink so that she can continue to remember the past and enjoy the good vibes currently surging through her veins, and this just speaks volumes to how people sometimes try to normalize and rationalize addiction as the path of least resistance since fighting it is quite the difficult venture. But in the end, eventually Nina had her moment of reckoning when she smashed Rendell’s urn of ashes, when she wasn’t able to repair him in the same manner as other items placed inside the cabinet that can seemingly fix anything, prompting her to pause and listen to her daughter’s kind words while she wept over her actions.

But while all of this was powerful and fascinating to watch in its own right, there is still a juicy plot forming behind the scenes and the story found time to focus upon that as well. For Tyler and Kinsey finally got a good look at the door hidden deep within the sea cave, and while they were down there they started to question as to whether or not their dad was the monster he appeared to be since he and his friends carved their named into stone down there, so that others would know them to be ‘The Keepers of the Keys’, which is quite the noble title. And this discovery prompted them to dig deeper on what really happened here, which meant they needed some real answers from someone who knew about the past and that motivated Kinsey to visit Erin Voss and for the first time on the series, she spoke words, and unfortunately… those words were a warning, in that; Dodge and Lucas were apparently the same person.

Which has some credence for certain since it was revealed that Dodge was indeed disguising herself as Lucas in this tale in order to hang around Ellie’s place, leaving one to wonder if she’s used this trick before and that might explain why Rendell resorted to violence back in the day. But what matters more about this plot thread, is the sheer fact that this time round, Dodge didn’t win the day. For while she did get to Erin before Kinsey and learn where the Omega Key is buried, there’s no way at the moment she can get near it. Because Rendell buried it in his own mind, and ironically enough, Nina’s actions will keep it safe since Tyler and Kinsey discovered it while cleaning up their father’s ashes. In the end however, this really was a magnificent story for certain, one that did a phenomenal job of balancing plot and commentary in beautiful fashion and well, all character moments aside, it is likely that going forward that grand battle we’ve been waiting for, is about to take place. For the Locke children have what Dodge wants, and there’s zero chance they’re going to give it up willingly. Until next time.   

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