‘Locke & Key’ Recap: ‘Small World’

Written by John Edward Betancourt

Caution: This article contains spoilers for Episode 203 of ‘Locke & Key’. To revisit Episode 202, ‘The Head and the Heart’, click here.
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One particular problem in life that none of us would like to face, is losing precious time and precious years. Because to do so, would mean we would miss out on all of the incredible experiences and moments that life sends our way, and our fear of such matters… motivates us to live life to the fullest and do whatever we can to experience its wonders so that we have no regrets or gaps in the slightest. But while a vast majority of us never have to worry about such a problem, there are others that do. For folks that deal with medical issues that keep them on the sidelines, miss out on a great deal of life. To the point where when they recover, they have to play catch up and do their best to readjust to a world that they have forgotten and the difficulties that come with that, were on full display in the next episode of Locke & Key on Netflix.
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For when we catch up with the Locke family in ‘Small World’, they’ve decided to do Erin Voss a solid, and invite her into their home. Simply because… she has nowhere to go and this life is now foreign to her after being lost in her mind for years on end and well, there was definitely a painful adjustment period for Erin here. Because she lacked a lot of the social skills and emotional finesse, we develop in our teen years. Which made any conversation she had with Kinsey and Tyler a tad blunt and frustrating in nature and of course… she struggled to really communicate with Duncan. In part because he didn’t remember all that much about her, but also because… she was harboring some serious guilt when it came to Duncan and her sorted past with him.

Since it was revealed that she was a big reason as to how his memories went missing and she wanted nothing more than to restore him and resolve that guilt in her soul and well, Kinsey and Tyler opted to help her with that. For they decided to head into Duncan’s mind and restore the days he lost. But what matters more about this plot thread, is that it established in a supremely direct manner, that starting over in life when you lose years with the world… can be a devastating and difficult experience. One that is painful to navigate since returning to the world in that manner, makes one feel akin to an outsider and Erin was quite lucky in this tale. Since she received what few in this scenario ever would, in that she had love and care and support and that always helps us along and helps us to find our way and it will be interesting to see what this act of kindness will do for both Duncan and Erin.

But alas, we will have to wait until the next episode to learn about that, since the entry into Duncan’s mind is where this story ends. However, there is more to discuss when it comes to this tale, since we finally learned that Josh might not be as nefarious as we once thought, he might just be fascinated by Keyhouse. Since he simply bought that replica of the house for collecting’s sake and was clueless about its powers. The kind that allows for the holder of the newly discovered Small Key to view inside the house and manipulate its structure and/or deposit wild gifts, like say… a giant gummie bear. But while that was extremely awesome to see come to life, the dangers of these powers were explored as well, since a tiny spider got into the dollhouse and wrought havoc in real life and if it wasn’t for Jamie, it might have eaten a family member.

Plus, this is also a story that once again saw the villains of this tale get their just desserts. Since Dodge/Gabe and Eden’s attempts to divide and conquer the family failed miserably. Thanks to in part to Kinsey’s understanding of magic, since she knows people just don’t act odd for the thrill of it and they also failed because, they’re incompetent. Since Eden screwed up and lost the Anywhere Key and their plans to build a powerful key failed miserably since they’re not Lockes and that was all satisfying to watch. As was the rest of this episode since it was filled with beautiful, character driven storytelling and horror elements and fun and meaning and now that this adventure through Keyhouse has come to a close, the time has indeed come to turn our attention to Duncan and how he will handle the truth about his sorted and missing and magical past. Until next time.

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