Fair warning: This recap of Locke & Key “Echoes” contains more spoilers than times Nina has forgotten about magic… That is to say, a boat load.
Welcome to the another recap of Locke & Key, the show based on the comic book series by Joe Hill and Gabriel Rodríguez. Last time, we learned that alcohol allows adults to remember magic, which left the Locke kids with a difficult decision. And oh yeah, Dodge and Lucas are the same person.
This time, the Locke kids stroll through memory lane with Ellie and learn why her high school boyfriend is an evil demon woman. Also, Nina almost goes to an AA meeting.
Let’s take a walk through the episode, shall we?
Six months ago. Ellie’s (Sherri Saum) phone buzzes. It’s someone named Bernadette, who sends her a newspaper article, letting her know Rendell (Bill Heck) is dead She sees the omega symbol tattoo on Sam (Thomas Mitchell Barnet)’s arm and immediately calls Mark—(Ken Pak). Ellie blames herself for Rendell’s death and we again watch Mark burn himself to death with the Fire Key.
Now it’s three months ago. Ellie and Rufus (Coby Bird) are having dinner and she casually asks him how things are at Key House now that it’s inhabited by Lockes. Other than some raccoons in the trash, things are business as usual. There’s a knock at the door. It’s Lodge! (Felix Mallard). Ellie’s in scared-shock. He kisses her hand and tells her he’s gonna need her help. Oh, Ellie.
So this is when Ellie sneaks into Key House (remember when she pretended she was on a GI Joe retrieval mission?). Down in the basement, she finds a crown hidden in one of the rafters. The Crown of Shadows, to be exact. Lodge is annoyed that Ellie didn’t find the key that goes along with it: “without the key this is just a goth accessory.” Ellie is annoyed that Lodge won’t tell her why he wants it or where he keeps disappearing to. They’re interrupted by Joe the English teacher (Steven Williams), who is snapping pictures outside. That’s the kinda behavior that can get you killed Joe! Oh wait…
When Joe gets home, Lodge and Ellie are already there waiting for him. Ellie begs him to give over his cellphone, but Joe wants answers because didn’t Lucas die 25 years ago? Joe relents, but Lodge decides to kill him anyway, Ellie screaming bloody murder the whole time. When they see Nina (Darby Stanchfield) pull up to the house, Lodge Anywhere Keys himself outta there and leaves Ellie to hide. I have questions about the Matheson PD. Does Lodge not have fingerprints? Would they not have found signs of strangulation? Would Ellie’s fingerprints not have been in Joe’s house?
Back home, Ellie pulls her gun out of the lockbox and shoots Lodge a bunch of times, but he’s A-OK. He tells her, “You know you can’t kill an echo. I’m already dead.” He threatens to kill Rufus if she doesn’t help him get everything they need.
Present day. The snow has melted at Key House, where Tyler (Connor Jessup) and Kinsey (Emilia Jones) are watching Duncan’s (Aaron Ashmore) memory of Rendell pulverizing Lodge. Tyler wants to know how it’s possible that Dodge (Laysla De Oliveira) and Lucas Lodge could be the same person. Kinsey has no clue, but is positive that Dodge will come for the Omega Key. They wonder if it’s safe where they hid it.
Bode (Jackson Robert Scott) walks in to tell them he found the Matchstick Key (what I’ve been calling the Fire Key) outside—Sam probably dropped it. He wants to know what they’re looking at and when they won’t show them the memory, he screams at them for shutting him out. They cave and show him, which is good because Bode recognizes Lodge as the “guy staying at Ellie’s house.” The three siblings want to know why Lodge is dressing up as their dad’s dead 17-year-old best friend.

Next, at Ellie’s house, Lodge is eating breakfast and asking what was done to Rendell’s body. He tells Ellie she’s gotta search Rendell’s ashes for the Omega Key.
Meanwhile, at Key House, Nina’s staring at Rendell’s urn, which I guess they placed in the Fix-It Cabinet, because it’s totally whole again. Kinsey asks Nina if she’s OK and she says she’s feeling a lot better, but she coulda sworn something happened to the urn. So she’s back to forgetting magic. Kinsey lies and says no. Nina apologizes again for her brief fall off the wagon.
Bode skips school to see Rufus. Bode explains the whole well lady, Dodge, Lucas, Lodge thing to Rufus, who’s like yeah, that makes sense. He shows Bode the Crown of Shadows and Bode’s pretty sure he’s seen the design around the keyhole before. He promises to find the key and says they’ll battle Lodge together.
Later, at the Academy, Eden (Hallea Jones) is in her dorm room and opens the window curtain to a jump scare…Kinsey’s Fear! I’m not sure how she recognized her as Kinsey in those three seconds, but she warns Kinsey off about messing with her.
Kinsey doesn’t have time to care about that because she sees Ellie and runs after her. She is not gonna put up with her lies and BS any longer. Ellie admits she’s doing what she has to keep her family safe and tells Kinsey she ought to do the same.
Meanwhile, at school Eden is sharing her morning scare with Jackie (Genevieve Kang) and Logan (Eric Graise), but they’re skeptical.
Kinsey tells Tyler that Ellie admitted that Lodge was staying with her. Tyler laments that Dodge is too powerful to take on by themselves and that maybe it’s time to tell their friends. Just then, Eden comes up to harass Kinsey some more. When she mentions claws and monster makeup, Kinsey realizes what happened. Right then, her Fear comes up from behind to attack Eden. The teens grab lacrosse sticks and beat it away.
Next, Ellie returns to Key House, peeks through the window at Rendell’s urn and drives home to pack a bag. She and Rufus are leaving town. Rufus tells her about his conversation with Bode and they hug it out. He tells her they can’t run because if they do, they’ll always be afraid.
Turns out, Rufus knows exactly where Lodge is hiding all the keys. Have to say, under a floorboard in Rufus’s workspace is not a great hiding spot.
Meanwhile, at the Academy, Tyler is coming clean to Jackie and Logan who are pretty disbelieving. He uses the Matchstick Key to convince them. Tyler, no matter how desperate you are, we don’t burn books, mmkay? Jackie peaces out because she needs a minute to process all this.
Eden is in the nurses’ office, being treated for a feral cat attack. Kinsey’s with her and Eden wants to know what the heck that monster was. Kinsey tells her it’s her Fear and attacks anything she’s afraid of.
Kinsey also comes clean to Scot (Petrice Jones) and Gabe (Griffin Gluck) about how her Fearlessness created their little love triangle. That doesn’t mean she’s ready to choose, though, and proposes she date them both. Saved by the phone! Ellie calls to tell Kinsey she’s changed her mind and wants to meet at Key House.
Later, Nina’s at a church, contemplating heading into an AA meeting, when Detective Daniel (Martin Roach) appears. He suggests they go for coffee, if she’s not feeling up for AA.
That night, at Key House, Ellie tells the Locke kids she was just doing what she thought was best for Rufus, but she’s not afraid anymore. Her Lucas is gone. Kinsey’s wondering what I’ve been wondering—how these adults remember the magic; Ellie ambiguously says they found a way. Also, she tells them that back after graduation, Rendell was obsessed with opening the black door, so they all went to the sea caves. When they opened it, bullet-like things shot out at them and one hit Lucas. He said he was fine…but then…well, Ellie’s just going to show us.
Head-Keyed Ellie time! Kinsey and Tyler follow her into her head while Rufus and Bode keep watch. They head down into the basement of the Key House of Ellie’s mind and a Young Ellie (Sabrina Saudin) wakes to the sound of what is now Lodge—when Lucas got hit, he became part demon—and Young Mark (André Dae Kim) fighting over the Omega Key. Then: Lodge throws Kim (Ellen Olivia Giddings) into some shelves and she falls to the ground, presumably dead. Lodge snaps Jeff’s (Aidan Shaw) neck. Just as he’s about to kill Young Erin (Nicole James), Young Rendell (Nick Dollan) gets him from behind with the hammer. Young Duncan (Owen Ois) walks in on the awful scene, so they remove and hide his memories. Then, the remaining friends create a story about their friends drowning…
They then divide up some of the keys and vow never to use them again. Mark hides most of the keys—the reason he killed himself in the pilot was so no one could use the Head Key on him to locate them. Ellie takes the Identity Key and the Echo Key, which can bring people back, but not the way she had thought…
Meanwhile, Bode remembers something important about his mom’s key ring and runs off to fetch it. Rufus follows. The Crown of Shadows Key is on the keyring. Huh. They were the keys to the kingdom.
Ellie’s still telling a dramatic tale about how she tried to move on with her life, but she hit her breaking point last year and went to the well house. We watch Past Ellie unlock the door with the Echo Key and speak Lucas’s name into the well. He appears next to her; they hug. But, he immediately starts asking for keys and isn’t the sweet boy she remembers. He says if she gets him the Anywhere Key, he can leave the well and be with her. However, she seems to realize something is off. Current Ellie berates herself for breaking her pact with the Keepers and using the key.

Back in Key House, Ellie exposits that Dodge can use the Identity Key to assume the form of anyone she wants and also, can’t be killed by normal means. They can trap her in the well, though. Bode shows them all the Shadow Key. Ellie says the wearer of the Crown of Shadows can control shadows and basically has the power to do whatever they want, such as force a demon echo into a well house. Ellie and Rufus go home to fetch the crown of deus ex machina. Because that’s gonna end well.
Of course, Lodge is at Casa de Ellie. He wants to know why they took his keys. Rufus picks up a screwdriver and stabs Lodge, which just makes him angry. He smashes Rufus over the table, grabs Ellie and finds the Shadow Key in her pocket. Seriously, people. Why do they just leave these keys so loosely in their pockets?
Lodge puts on the newly activated crown, shadows grow on the walls behind him and he literally says, “Hello darkness, my old friend.” Facepalm.
It’s always fun to have episodes like this, where we go and fill in events with information from someone else’s POV, especially when that POV is acted out by Sherri Saum. This felt like a penultimate episode. There was a sense of dread in our good guys as they geared up for battle. And Nina was blissfully uninvolved as ever.
What did you think of Ellie’s backstory? Do you think the Locke family will prevail? And seriously, what’s behind that door? Join me next time as I recap the season one finale of Locke & Key, here on Geek Girl Authority.
The first season of Locke & Key is available now on Netflix.
Catch all of our Locke & Key recaps, here!
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