'Locke and Key's somewhat abbreviated finale still managed to introduce a slew of innovative new keys.
Locke and Key’s 3rd and final season, filmed directly after Season 2, finally arrived on Netflix on August 10th, 2022. The inventive urban fantasy series, based on the graphic novels by Joe Hill and Gabriel Rodriguez, follows the Locke family as they explore a magical, inherited mansion dubbed “Keyhouse” in the fictional town of Matheson, Massachusetts. Like its previous installments, Season 3 introduced a bevy of new keys with diverse abilities, with one even facilitating the series’ first foray into time travel. The following is a guide to all the new keys introduced in Season 3 and how they fit into the thrilling conclusion of the series.
Season 3, Episode 1, “The Snow Globe,” works both as a standalone story as well as a signifier of what’s to come. In the cold open, evil sisters Ada (Diana Bentley) and Dorothy (Susanna Fournier) attempt to break out of a dark, barren, snowy world. They are revealed to be trapped inside a snow globe, which Nina (Darby Stanchfield) finds on the floor after their supposed botched escape attempt. When Nina picks up the snow globe, the sisters indicate that their escape attempt was simply a ruse to get Nina’s attention. Nina, having her memory of magic restored with the Memory Key, opens up the possibility to Kinsey (Emilia Jones) and Bode (Jackson Robert Scott) that the snow globe might have magical qualities. Later on, Bode starts to hear the familiar cacophony of whispers that signal a new key, which leads him to the bottom of the freezer. There, he finds the Snow Globe Key, marked with an insignia of a snowflake. Nina’s enthusiastic rediscovery of magic leads her to immediately try the key in the globe, which engulfs Keyhouse in the snow globe world.
The logistics of the Snow Globe Key are simple: with a turn of the key in the snow globe, the user is transported to the snow globe’s pocket dimension. When the key is removed from the snow globe, the user shifts back to the real world. There is one caveat though: one must be present inside Keyhouse when returning to reality, otherwise they will get trapped on the snowy grounds outside. Bode becomes entrenched in such a scenario, and Kinsey and Nina embark on a search for the evil sisters after they steal the snow globe key. Similar to the Small World Key from Season 2, this key amplifies the whimsicality of the series’ premise, providing a momentary dose of thematic reprieve from the overarching darker plot.
Season 3’s return to Keyhouse in Episode 1 is marked with the tail end of Kinsey and Bode’s afternoon romp as, respectively, a cat and a bird. The addition of animorphing into the Locke and Key mythology is made possible with the brand new “Animal Key,” which allows the user to take the form of an animal. The key utilizes a tunnel on the side of Keyhouse that acts as a window to and from the animal world. This connection to animals is a common thread throughout Season 3, as in Episode 6, “Free Bird,” when astral Bode is able to channel himself through a bird to communicate from the ghost plane. Then, with Kinsey using the Animal Key, Bode is able to convert his astral self back into human form by taking the shape of a bird and flying through the animal portal. The Animal Key is likely using similar physics as the Identity Key, as it molds one's corporeal form to something entirely new.
Of Bode’s many curious kerfuffles this season, his dabbling into time travel easily tracks as the most ill-advised. In Episode 2, “Wedding Crashers,” as Bode is practicing his toast for Uncle Duncan's (Aaron Ashmore) wedding, he hears the whispering of a key. It leads him to a grandfather clock in the foyer of Keyhouse, in which one of the hands is the Timeshift Key. The clock opens to reveal a series of movable Roman numerals and an hourglass. After randomly flicking some numerals, Bode ends up in an 18th Century Keyhouse, meeting his ancestors Benjamin (Carson MacCormac) and Miranda (Chloe Avakian) Locke. As he recites just how many “Greats” of a grandson he is, he is catapulted back into the present day. Through this sequence, it is revealed that the numerals mark the destination in time, as well as how long one has.
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When Duncan catches Bode and Jamie (Liyou Abere) using the Timeshift Key, he vaguely suggests that the Timeshift Key is not a traditional time device. Bode asks Duncan if he remembers meeting him and Jamie twenty years ago, to which Duncan replies: “That’s not how this key works, buddy.” In Episode 3, “Five Minutes Past,” Bode makes his way back to a fight with Dodge/Gabe (Griffin Gluck) and Demon Eden (Hallea Jones). After Bode declares to Dodge that he and the Lockes win out in the end, Scott asks “But if you’re here now, doesn’t that change everything?” Duncan again responds with “No. That’s not how the key works.” After Dodge possesses Bode’s body and is brought back to present time, Kinsey reaches out to Duncan to get the full scoop on the Timeshift key. Duncan outlines the function of the hourglass:
“The hourglass is a failsafe of sorts. Anything brought into our time that isn’t supposed to be there will vanish when the sand runs out, to prevent a paradox. It’ll just go poof, like it was never there to begin with.” Thus, Dodge’s time in Bode’s body comes to an abrupt end, taking Bode’s body along with her.
During Bode’s encounter with Benjamin and Miranda Locke in Episode 2, the next key is teased: the Harlequin key. The Harlequin Key possesses the ability to generate a magical force field around a chest, making it impossible to break through without the key. Benjamin uses the key on a child’s chest to demonstrate its power to Miranda—it is revealed to be impenetrable. The present day Lockes make the decision to store the keys in the Harlequin chest, provided that they can find the key. Episode 3 opens with Bode following a sea of whispers to a joker playing card, which reveals the Harlequin key. The relegation of keys to the Harlequin chest proves incredibly resourceful—that is, until Gideon (Kevin Durand) eventually acquires the key in Episode 5, “Siege.” The Demon/Revolutionary War soldier uses it to open the chest and maintain his steadily increasing end-of-the-world key collection.
Arguably the most powerful key in the entire series is the Creation Key. It’s also the final frontier for Gideon, who spends nearly half of Season 3 trying to acquire it. The Creation Key allows the user to bring to life anything that can be drawn. This key was created by Rendell Locke (Bill Heck) in 1995, in an attempt to create a more realistic puppet to play Caliban in a school production of The Tempest. In a flashback sequence featuring the 90s Teenage Key Crew, Rendell draws a real life miniature Caliban monster that not only looks the part but also knows his lines. The creature breaks loose in the room as Gordie Shaw (Michael Therriault) walks in. Gordie briefly sees the creature, and the group then erases his memory of what he saw. Ellie (Sherri Saum) then hides the Creation Key in Gordie’s head. After acquiring the Creation Key, the Lockes finally regain access to the Harlequin chest by simply drawing a new door on top. In a way, it is fitting that the most potentially chaotic (even more than the Timeshift Key) of all the keys is the last one discovered, mere moments before all the keys are tossed into the nether realm.
Nicholas Sisti is a writer, actor and musician from the NYC area.
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