‘Locke & Key’ Recap: ‘The Maze’

Written by John Edward Betancourt

Caution: This article contains spoilers for Episode 206 of ‘Locke & Key’. To revisit the previous episode, click here.
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​When we come to discover that someone important in our lives is not at all what they seem, we are put in quite the difficult place. Wherein we have to make some supremely tough choices. Such as whether or not to confront this person with the truth and whether or not we should keep them in our lives, and while a vast majority of people would advise us to flash that truth and toss them to the curb, because that makes the most sense… the reason we ponder upon this choice, is because it isn’t always that simple. Because sometimes we have years of history with these people that cannot be ignored or… confrontation and expulsion would bring about great harm to our lives and really, that difficult scenario and those choices are top of mind today, because they served as the central themes of the next episode of Locke & Key on Netflix.
 
For ‘The Maze’ saw the Locke family besides themselves and rightfully so. Because now they knew without a doubt, that Dodge wasn’t cast back into the other dimension that lie behind the door in the caves and that she was instead… alive and well and disguised as Gabe and eager to cause incredible trouble for the family and the world. And after politely chasing him off and coming to realize that he had a major interest in the now mentally sound Duncan because of his ability to produce keys, they were faced with those difficult decisions mentioned a moment ago and they came to the realization that tossing him aside would indeed bring about great trouble. So instead, they opted to just go with the flow and see if they could get more intelligence on Gabe/Dodge’s plans and hope to get one step ahead that way.
 
Which in turn led to some fascinating moments for certain, especially for Kinsey. Because she had to play nice and pretend as though nothing was amiss between her and Gabe and that was no easy task. For he kept pressing her about Duncan’s mental standing and pondering upon ways for the family to potentially bring back his memory and the sheer frustration that brought about for Kinsey was palatable for the audience, as was her fear in these situations. Because one slip up, one wrong step on her part, could have brought about great harm if Gabe realized she knew what was going on and sadly, despite her best efforts to keep Duncan out of the equation… he found a way to inject himself into the situation and escalate this ongoing war between evil and the Lockes. But not out of malice, mind you. No instead, Duncan’s involvement here was out of kindness. So, that he could keep Erin, safe.
 
Because while Kinsey was playing nice and trying to keep Gabe from catching on regarding what she knew, Erin was making plans to put him down for good. For a newly discovered key that Duncan knew little about purpose wise, motivated her to swing by the winter fair to confront Gabe. Because she knew what this key could do, in that… it could secure Gabe at last and get him back down into the well where evil belonged and for a time, it seemed as though this grand fight between good and evil was going to end with a victory for the right side, since she did secure him. But an assist from Eden allowed for Gabe to get the upper hand and end Erin’s life. Putting an end to her second chance and forcing the Locke family to take action far sooner than they would like, setting the stage for a grand showdown with a monster they are far too familiar with.
 
If anything, this really was quite the amazing episode when all is said and done. Simply because it completely shifted the tone of the second season away from deeper commentary and character development and went full bore right into horror and that’s not a bad thing by any means. Because it was only a matter of time before Gabe’s cover was blown and confrontation came into play, and by having it happen now, the show can offer up a quality fight between man and monster. One that ups the stakes and has gravity and meaning and it will be quite interesting to see, what the Locke family has planned for Gabe and how they will expose his true identity and quite frankly… stop him. Because this being is more determined than ever to succeed at its evil machinations and is ready to risk everything to achieve them… and truly, there is nothing more terrifying than a man, or a monster… with nothing to lose. Until next time.

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