Wedding Crashers
Episode 2 of Locke and Key Season 3 begins with the Locke’s preparing for their big wedding. Duncan shows up with Brian, ready for the big day, while Nina uses the Plant Key to speed up the process of setting the flora up. It’s all laughs and joy… but Captain Gideon watches from afar and he’s certainly not laughing. Using the key at the Well, Gideon manages to conjure forth his old soldiers to his command. Or, well, echoes of them anyway. Using his demonic voice, Gideon reinforces that these soldiers have to obey his every command, making them deadly assets. And as echoes, they’re incapable of physical pain either. Having released them from Well House, Gideon explains that the barrier between worlds has been broken. Given their history involving Benjamin Locke and his home, this looks like big trouble for the Locke’s, especially as the two soldiers are tasked with retrieving all the keys. With the wedding coming up, Bode struggles to write out his words for the best man speech. However, Tyler appears and surprises everyone, ready for the wedding. Of course, given he’s been out of town he has no knowledge of the keys and the magic he’s stepped into, as per his own wishes. Bode comments to Kinsey how much easier it would be if Tyler would just remember but Kinsey is quick to remind him that’s not what he wants an they should respect that. This is something made all the more difficult when Tyler admits that after the wedding he’s heading back to Montana. On the big day, a suit-wearing Bode heads downstairs, following whispers and uncovering another key inside the grandfather clock. With numerous different roman numerals and dials to spin, Bode decides to mess about with it… and finding himself thrown back through time. Specifically, bode shows up to find a young Benjamin Locke alongside Miranda who discuss a Harlequin Chest that’s unbreakable. Suddenly, Bode shows back up alongside Jamie who realizes, with glee, that he time travelled. They deduce that the final numeral is actually an indication of how long they’re in the past for. So holding their phone, Bode and Jamie both jump back and find a young Duncan at the kitchen table. Bode immediately mentions how Duncan is his Uncle but it doesn’t seem to have messed up the timeline. When they jump back to the present day, Duncan admits he used to mess about with the key too when he was a kid. Bode is forbid away from using the key, so Duncan gives it to Nina…who eyes it wondrously. For now though, Brian and Duncan are wed and the celebrations get underway. Nina and Josh dance while the others all let loose. Unbeknownst to them though, inside the house Gideon and his cronies begin searching around for the different keys. Gideon strikes gold though when he discovers Bode’s journal, which lists every single one of the keys and what they do. They also find the Plant Key; Gideon’s collection is growing. Speaking of keys, Kinsey speaks to her brother about their past and him leaving. However, Tyler notices a key wrapped around her neck and as a result, the memories begin flooding back that he lost. Those memories, of course, include Jackie’s death. Tyler begins hyperventilating, shaking and uttering how he doesn’t want this. Tyler heads inside the house, needing to get some space… but runs straight into Gideon and his lackeys. Just before they look set to hurt him, Kinsey rushes to his safety and scares them away, swinging a chain around courtesy of the Chain Key. Unfortunately in the skirmish, it’s revealed that Gideon also has the Anywhere Key, meaning them leaving the house is only the start of their issues. Tyler decides to stick around for a while, believing these men to be simple intruders, while Bode tries to devise a new plan to keep the keys safe.
The Episode Review
The trouble with time travel is that it introduces a whole world of problems to worldbuilding and ideas that can easily destroy the credibility of the world. For example, how is it that Duncan doesn’t remember Bode heading back and speaking to his younger self about the keys? Does it not matter to the plot? Is it literally just a one-time thing that doesn’t distort the timeline and once a “visitor” is gone then any changes are undone? If that’s the case, then I really hope we don’t see the key used to make big changes to the past because that just presents a whole world of issues and clumsy timey-wimey knots that will need further exposition to explain. Most of the problems in this show can be summed up by frustrating character choices and this second episode only further exemplifies that. Bode rushes straight into using the Time Key, realizing he’s going to the past but completely oblivious to the problems this could cause. It’s no different than Nina in the first episode using that Snow Globe key and all the other issues we’ve had over time. The difference here is that the third season literally rests on our characters making stupid decisions to push the plot forward and it gets tiresome quickly. Coupled with a long, laborious wedding that doesn’t really advance the plot very much, this chapter feels strangely like a filler – minus Gideon getting hold of a few more keys of course! Let’s hope the episodes ahead are an improvement.
