‘Locke & Key’ Recap: ‘The Keepers of the Keys’

Written by John Edward Betancourt

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

Over the course of its opening episodes, Locke & Key has been a fairly bleak affair and with good reason. After all, these opening chapters have been about a broken family starting over and the pain that they feel in their hearts over losing their father, is fresh and raw and that definitely means that some somber storytelling is going to come into play. Which is why the next episode of the series turned out to be such an unexpected surprise. For ‘The Keepers of the Keys’ broke away from darker storytelling almost entirely, by having two of our suffering characters indulge in a little joy for a change and that definitely changed the tone and the feel of this fascinating series, for the time being.
​
Which isn’t a bad thing by any means, because heaven knows this family has been through enough. So, there was definitely joy to be found in seeing Kinsey and Tyler smiling and enjoying themselves for a change and much of the happiness in this tale was driven by Kinsey. For her decision to put down her fear paid off in spades after all since she was filled with confidence and honesty, to a fault, and this newfound fearless push to live life to the fullest even allowed for her to finally spend a little quality time with Scot. And as an added surprise, she even invited him into her mind where they shared in her memories and their first kiss.

As for Tyler, well his joy in this tale seemed to be a direct result of Kinsey’s influence. For if she could go about her day in fearless fashion and get what she wanted in life, why not her brother? And that prompted Tyler to finally ask Jackie out on a date and use the Head Key to try and impress her. Which was quite the unique idea for certain since it informed all of us that elements can be injected into one’s mind via the right keys and really when all is said and done, it was quite refreshing to see the family smiling once again and enjoying everything that life has to offer. But thankfully the story didn’t completely stray from the bigger issues brewing behind the scenes.

Because the lady from the Well House returned in this tale to cause more trouble, and this time around she was supremely aggressive in her actions. In fact, she nearly burned the house down in order to get to Bode and the Head Key. And during this harrowing assault on the family and Key House, we came to learn that she cannot just take the keys when they’re in someone’s possession, they have to be willing to give them to her, and now that Bode has learned this valuable lesson, she’s going to have to find another way to get what she wants and that may cause more harm than good. Because she’s prepared to work closely with the young man that murdered Rendell and it should be interesting to see what this unholy alliance will bring forth.

In the end however, this really was quite the entertaining episode. Because it really did feature some lovely, lighthearted moments. Plus, it was also nice to see the plot continue to slowly chug along since this tale continued to build upon the mystery of Rendell’s youth and the horrible accident that changed so many lives. And receiving little tidbits about that in every episode thus far, makes it clear that the series is building to something big when it reveals what happened on that fateful night. Either way, this series continues to impress, and it really should be interesting to see how the family bands together to fight their mysterious antagonist, now that she’s made it evident that her attacks are going to become far more aggressive in nature. Until next time.    

---