The series finale of Locke & Key traffics in serious wish fulfillment, but this is the kind of show that had to give its characters a happy ending, right? The narrative really kicked off in season one with the death of a patriarch named Rendell Locke, and the 28 episodes that followed have been about his family learning more about Dad’s magical past before putting it away forever — and saving the world a few times in the process. Closing it with a happy Locke family, one that has been given one last chance to spend time with their father before saying good-bye forever, feels rewarding. This final season was far from perfect. The shortened episodes — in total and individual length—almost made it feel like an afterthought. But it landed in a comforting place, suggesting that these characters realize that they can’t play with magic forever and that the only key that matters is the one to their family home.
With his last breath, it feels like Gordie is trying to save the Lockes and his old friend Ellie. He shows Kinsey, Tyler, and Ellie the door, and the trio bursts through the curtain, but Gordie’s real body is gone. In its place, they find cops with guns drawn. Gideon is trying to escape too, and the cops stare at the blinking curtain in front of them when the villain suddenly bursts forward. He punches a cop before taking three bullets. Sam is stuck under the piano that Gideon threw at him last episode. The camera pans up and back down again, revealing him back in Sam form. So he’s a ghost stuck in an echo inside a dying man’s head. There are so many questions.
Gideon gets back up and takes another bullet before overcoming the second cop. At least the officer gave the gang time enough to escape to find a dead Gordie. Poor plot-device Gordie. Ellie is going to stay there and protect Rufus while Kinsey and Tyler flee with the Creation Key. Ellie takes Rufus to find Josh, mostly just to bring the guy into the endgame of the show.
Meanwhile, Kinsey and Tyler draw a door into a bar and then draw a lock on that door they just came through. Neat. Gideon smashes it down, crashing a glass on a guy’s head in this remarkably crowded bar just for fun. He almost throws a guy down the stairs too!
Back outside, Kinsey draws a motorcycle on the pavement, and it becomes real! Just as Gideon is about to catch up, Josh rams into them with his car. Gideon gets up and steals it, nearly killing Josh in the process, but the Revolutionary War artifact doesn’t really know how to drive. A chase between him and the Lockes ends with Gideon flipping the automobile, which then bursts into flames like it has dynamite embedded in its seats. Gideon isn’t fazed by flames. He growls his way out.
While Gideon is joyriding, Tyler and Kinsey make it home and explain the Creation Key to Mom and Bode. They come up with a plan to take down Gideon, who gets there to find Tyler in the well house. He’s distracted enough not to notice that Bode used the Creation Key to make a massive construction arm, which the kid uses to try to push Gideon over the well, which would destroy him. How very Aliens! Of course, Gideon is too strong. He breaks the arm with the muscles in his back and then uses the claw to destroy the well house. Does that take away its power?
Back in the house, they can’t get into the chest, but Kinsey saves the day. She uses magic to defeat magic, drawing a door on the chest with the Creation Key. And they fish the Alpha Key out. Boom! Gideon kicks down the front door, dragging Kinsey to the portal that happens to still be in the living room floor. She stabs him with the Alpha Key, actually using a profanity like it’s the singular one the writer of a PG-13 movie has in their quiver: “No, you fucking die!†Gideon struggles, and his body turns in time for Nina to actually be the one to push him into the blue abyss.
Tyler notices that the hole in the ground got smaller when Gideon fell in with two keys. Tyler takes the Head Key and throws it in, closing it further. They can end this forever by tossing all the keys into the hole. Bode doesn’t like it at first, but he’s outvoted. He finally agrees, but he needs one more thing. He wants to go back to see his dad again, and he has the Timeshift Key to do it.
In the past, the Lockes leave, and Rendell goes back to work when his family returns, only a few years older. He knows what’s happening. Bode hugs him first. And then they all do. They laugh and tell Rendell about everything that happened in Matheson. It’s a really graceful, touching ending that almost recalls Field of Dreams in its “one more catch with Dad†aesthetic. Who wouldn’t want one more chance to hang out, smile, and laugh with someone they’ve lost? “This was real magic,†says Rendell. “This was all I ever needed.†Bill Heck sells the moment beautifully. And so does Connor Jessup when he says, “The past is always with us.†In many ways, Locke & Key was a show about people forgetting that they carry loved ones always, even without the physical keys to do so.
From here, the final episode plays out with a series of happy beats for characters that fans love. Scot comes home to see the premiere of The Splattering II and reunites with Kelsey, who may join him on his return back across the pond. It’s a cute beat and a nice promise of potential future happiness. Uncle Duncan comes home. Bode warms up to Josh, who has no memory of the specifics about Gideon. Now everyone can move on together. Rufus is finishing his story while his mom Ellie goes back to work at the school, which has dedicated a theater to Gordie. Tyler reconnects with Carly, whom he is going to return to, but not before they go on a road trip together.
In the final scene, the Lockes stand on their front porch. “Do you guys hear that,†asks Bode. “Absolutely nothing.†As the camera pans in on the front door, the viewer can make out the faintest whisper of a key.
Unlocked Doors
• A lot of the missteps of this season can be forgiven in the wake of the Lockes’ tender family reunion, something the show has been working toward for years. It’s a show that can be melodramatic at times, but Bill Heck, Emilia Jones, and Connor Jessup in particular earn that beat.
So how was the season overall? Kind of all over the place. The shortened season made some characters feel like pure plot devices — Gordie, Ellie, Dodge, Josh — but it’s hard to complain about a Netflix show that moves as quickly as this season did. There’s very little fat on it and none of that dreaded “Netflix Sag†that comes when four episodes of plot are stretched to ten. Perhaps the biggest problem was actually Gideon. While Kevin Durand is a very capable actor, the character never felt like the menace of Dodge or even Gabe did in the first two seasons.
• Who were the season MVPs? It seems like Jessup and Jones are the two performers most likely to use this as a springboard to bigger and better things. They’re both charismatic, even if they also both looked like they had kind of aged out of the show by the final season.
• After several stalled productions, including an entire pilot shot for another network, Locke & Key is over. Or is it? This version is certainly done, but the source material here is so rich with ideas that it’s not impossible to envision a creator producing a very different version in a few years, maybe one that embraces some of the book’s darker themes more than this one. Maybe that door isn’t truly locked yet.
• Thanks for reading this season!