Dhruv Trivedi
‘Locke and Key’ season 2 episode 3 tells us a lot about the events that took place in Keyhouse thirty years ago. Titled ‘Small World,’ this chapter gives us everything that makes the show great and delves into the astonishing origins of one of the keys and how it indirectly spawned Dodge. There’s also a sprinkling of giant spiders and a few glowing jars of memories that get put into someone’s head. Let’s take a closer look at ‘Locke and Key’ season 2 episode 3 and make sure we’ve picked up all its gems. SPOILERS AHEAD.
Locke and Key Season 2 Episode 3 Recap
Episode 3 picks up from the previous episode and shows us how Erin was discovered in Keyhouse twenty-three years ago in a catatonic state. No one could explain what happened to her, and she remained motionless until Tyler and Kinsey freed her from her mind. Back in the present, Erin has been released from her care center and moves into Keyhouse. She tries to convince the Locke children to give her the keys so she can “put an end to it once and for all,” but they refuse.
Erin then explains to Tyler and Kinsey how their father, Rendell, got obsessed with trying to retain his memories of magic as he neared his eighteenth birthday. To this end, he decided to create a key and became convinced that opening the demonic portal would help him achieve his goal. However, when he and his friends did open the portal, pieces of cursed metal (also called whispering iron) shot out. One of the demonic projectiles infected Lucas, which is how the boy got possessed by Dodge and killed two of his friends before being incapacitated by Rendell. The bits of metal that did not hit people were left scattered around the entrance of the portal and could then be used to forge new keys.
Meanwhile, Bode makes another intriguing discovery when he visits his friend Jamie’s house and finds a detailed miniature replica of Keyhouse in her father’s study. By luck, the youngest Locke also has an as-yet unused miniature key that fits perfectly into the lock of the small replica house. Bode and Jamie then realize that the model house is a magical artifact that accurately reflects the state of the actual house.
When Bode breaks the tiny bed from his room in the model house, he goes back to home to find that his own bed has been snapped in two. Things get much worse when a spider enters the model house, and the residents of Keyhouse have to then contend with a giant spider running through their house. Jamie is eventually able to kill the spider before it harms anyone, but Duncan begins to get confused as he struggles to process what is happening even as his adult mind tries to forget the magic he’s seeing.
Locke and Key Season 2 Episode 3 Ending: What Does Tyler Put in Duncan’s Mind?
Gabe also continues to try and make a new key, and now, with Chamberlin Locke’s advice, thinks he’s cracked the secret. He uses his last piece of whispering iron to forge a new key and imbibes it with blood (which he takes from an unwilling Eden). However, the molten key then violently explodes, and the demon realizes to his frustration that he has been tricked by the ghost of the Locke ancestor.
Back in Keyhouse, Duncan remains confused as he tries to comprehend magic. Erin also reveals that Duncan was the only one who knew how to make new keys, and therefore it is essential to bring back his memories of magic. The episode then closes with Tyler using the Head Key on uncle Duncan and walking into his mind-door with a duffel bag.
The bag that Tyler carries into Duncan’s mind contains jars of the latter’s memories of magic. The Locke children discovered the jars while exploring the Keyhouse grounds but did not understand until much later what they were. In the memories, there is a particularly violent one of his older sibling Rendell seemingly killing Lucas. Since Duncan did not know at the time that Lucas was possessed, the memory is especially disturbing.
This memory and all his other recollections of magic were removed from Duncan’s head by Rendell so that he wouldn’t remember the traumatic events. These were then hidden in the grounds (using the Plant Key) and eventually discovered by the Locke children. It is these very memories that Tyler is now putting back into Duncan’s head. If successful, this will help bring back all his memories of magic, and Duncan might even regain his ability to forge keys. However, this also means that he will once again remember his brother Rendell killing his friend Lucas.
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