This recap of Locke & Key contains spoilers, so reader discretion is advised. Welcome back to another season two recap of Locke & Key, the show based on the comic book series by Joe Hill and Gabriel Rodríguez. In episode one, we learned the Locke was having a lot of fun after thinking they’d won against Dodge (Laysla De Oliveira). Meanwhile, Evil-den (Hallea Jones) and Godge (Griffin Gluck ) were on a mission for evil.
Related: Locke & Key Season Two Premiere Recap: (S02E01) The Premiere
“Di-id it work?”
Locke & Key Season Two, Episode Two, “The Head and the Heart,” opens at the dock and Evil-den’s wearing this fancy ball gown, acting all silent. A boater is extremely concerned for her. Oh, what a Siren. As the boater is trying to help her, Godge stabs the guy in the back with the Gremlin Key he made last episode. That’s not very nice.
Ewwww. The guy disintegrates into black goo. Guessing that’s not what Godge intended the key to do.
Godge and Evil-den are back at their cabin, goo-guy’s remains in hand. They feed him to their hostage, who is none other than Kinsey’s (Emilia Jones) fear. Good Lord.
Godge only has enough Whispering Iron left for one more Key. He can’t mess up. So, he’s going straight to the source.
“There’s a girl in my class who’s afraid of butterflies.”
Over at the source, they’re getting ready for the first day of school. I have serious breakfast envy. Tyler (Connor Jessup) is teasing Bode (Jackson Robert Scott) about his lack of friends, but lil dude is like, Umm. I was fighting demons last year. We can’t all multitask.
Nina (Darby Stanchfield), it seems, has a job now. And that job is at Tyler’s and Kinsey’s school. We know she’s frazzled about it because her hands are full of lunch, a coffee tumbler and drafting supplies.
Tyler and Kinsey head out to school, and Tyler is very sad because Jackie (Genevieve Kang) is forgetting the Key memories they share. Maybe it’s just me, but I would not want to visit a partner’s head? Like there’s close and then there’s claustrophobic …
Kinsey brings up that she’s never been in Godge’s head. And Tyler’s all, But you went into Scot’s (Petrice Jones) head, right? Hmm … are we talking bout something else here? Apparently, it’s just never come up with Godge. Kinsey wants to know if that’s weird. And Tyler, bless him, replies that it’s only weird if Kinsey finds it so.
“You wouldn’t cover the Hope Diamond in duct tape, would you?”
Speak of the demon, Godge meets Kinsey in the school courtyard and they walk inside, arm-in-arm. It’d be so cute if he weren’t secretly evil. Godge is on cloud nine because their lobster film is second only to The Lobster (which is not a good movie, in my humblest of opinions).
Over in the school’s theatre, Nina is prepping for some serious painting work when Josh Bennet A Mansplaining Weasel (Brendan Hines) walks in. He’s the school’s new history teacher and tries to impress her with his Cool Facts about the auditorium. Are they true? Who cares? Mansplaining Weasel sure doesn’t.
He lays into Nina about her putting down carpeting in a school auditorium. The shame of covering original chestnut! It’s pre-Colombian! Dude admonishes her for not showing the space respect and omg GO AWAY. Thankfully, Nina tells him the same.
“You can take your seat now.”
Meanwhile, in fifth grade, it’s show-and-tell. Bode and the new girl, Jamie (Liyou Abere) are bonding over how ridiculous their classmates are. For whatever reason, Bode decides to share with the class that he got super-human strength using the Hercules Key. Obviously, people think he’s kidding.
Jamie believes him, though. And Bode’s relieved to have someone his own age to talk to. It helps, too, that they can bond over having lost a parent.
Turns out, Mansplaining Weasel is Tyler’s and Jackie’s history teacher. And because he’s the worst, he quizzes them on their summer reading the first day back. Jackie freaks out because she doesn’t remember doing the reading. Or, rather that, Tyler tossed the book into her head. Jackie doesn’t believe him or even try to do the quiz. Lies! Someone as academically inclined as Jackie would at least try.
“Magic.”
Kinsey tells Abby (Leishe Meyboom) about the Keys via demonstration of the Hercules Key. Honestly, I cannot tell if Abby is under-or overwhelmed by learning about magic. Maybe she’s just whelmed. The Savini Squad doesn’t really give her much time to process, though. Zadie (Asha Bromfield) is all business. Gotta strike that lobster gold while the iron is hot. Sequel, baby.
When they ask Scot how his script’s coming along, he tells them about film boarding school. But first, Kinsey has to tellingly withdraw her hand from Godge’s.
Back with Bode, school’s out, and he and his new friend are still talking about the Keys. He recaps season one for her as he reminds her that it’s all a secret. Nina arrives to pick Bode up, just as Mansplaining Weasel arrives to pick Jamie up. That’s right — Bode’s new BFF is Mansplaining Weasel’s daughter.
“We have literal movie magic on our side.”
At dinner, Godge is doing probing, jealous boyfriend over the whole Scot thang. Godge seamlessly switches from that topic to probing about whether Kinsey knows how Keys are made. Kinsey pushes back and questions Godge about his family. He deflects.
Next, Kinsey and Godge are making out on her bed when she pauses to ask Godge if she can enter his Head. Apparently, he’s been in hers. He even has the One Direction concert to prove it. Godge tells her he doesn’t want her in his head; he’s nervous she won’t like him anymore, or that she might see something embarrassing.
Godge: Look, it’s nothing personal. I just don’t think I’m ready for that yet.
Kinsey: How could this not be personal?
Godge: Because, it’s not about you.
Kinsey: Gabe, I promise. I would never judge you.
Godge: No! No, just drop it.
So, like, obviously Godge is evading this because he’s an evil demon, and Kinsey would find out if she got inside his Head. But, assuming this was a relationship between two humans, Godge would be totally in the right here. And that’s whether we take this conversation at face value or as a metaphor for sex.
Kinsey kicks Godge out.
Meanwhile, at the school library, Jackie is Googling memory loss in teens. Tyler breaks it to her that the Keys recognize the modern legal age of adulthood as a magic eraser. They decide to film a video about all their Key memories as a way to remind Jackie of the good times, once she can’t remember for good. It’s a very sweet scene, and I wish Jackie were a more interesting character.
“I’m just trying to picture you in that wig.”
Kinsey and Scot meet up at school and talk about how there was no room for failure in his childhood. They don’t believe in his filmmaking dreams, they want him to be a barrister … Well, Scot, sometimes I’m sad my parents didn’t quash my film school dreams, so … the grass is always greener, I suppose.
And, like the creeper he is, Godge watches Kinsey and Scot from across the courtyard. He interrupts them just as they were about to get rul close. Kinsey’s still mad about the night before, and I’m not so happy with her myself.
Evil-den comes up to Godge and tells him that the bright side to Kinsey not knowing how to make Keys is that they can kill her. He gives that a hard no.
Meanwhile, Nina learns that her late husband, Rendell (Bill Heck), was a huge theatre nerd (and he nailed that Act 5 soliloquy). Then, Mansplaining Weasel is here to offer Nina an apology coffee. He owes her said apology because he found some old photos of the theatre, and there were, in fact, carpets back in the day. Dude, that’s not why you were in the wrong. But, she giggles, and they do a little walk and talk.
They bond over having lost their spouses. She excuses his rude behavior. And then she drops him off at his apartment at the dorms. They make a tentative playdate … for their kids.
Oh look at that, Mansplaining Weasel has a dollhouse-sized model of Keyhouse in his office. Cool cool cool.
“There has to be some way around this.”
Tyler calls Kinsey over to talk about what’s really bugging him — yeah, Jackie’s forgetting, but that means pretty soon, so will he. And he won’t be able to protect his sibs anymore (from what? As far you know, you killed the baddie). Then, pretty soon Kinsey will be 18. And it’ll be Bode all by his lonesome.
Godge is at Keyhouse, and Bode answers. Godge knew that Kinsey wouldn’t be there; she’d already told him she was visiting Erin Voss (Joy Tanner) at the hospital. Oh no, I must be confused, says Godge, super convincingly.
He then plies Bode with Dr.Pepper and Twizzlers. Ugh, it’s so uncomfortable. They play with the Keys, and bingo, Godge gets what he wants: The Ghost Key.
At the hospital, Kinsey is drawing Erin while talking out her relationship problems. While laying out her troubles, she remembers that Ellie (Sherri Saum ) told her the original Keepers of the Keys had found a way to remember. Kinsey calls Tyler to come join her.
“Don’t draw on my face with Sharpie or something/ Wow. I can’t believe I’ve never thought of that.”
Back to Godge and Bode. Bode gives him the ghost key and says “Take it!” (which I guess is different from the Lockes testing people by telling them “Try to take this from me”?)
So, Godge ghosts it up, with pure, overly innocent Bode wishing him a fun time. Ghost-Godge introduces himself to Ghost Chamberlain Locke (Chris Britton). When Godge turns around at one point, we see this leech-like thingie on his back. He feeds Chamberlain a story about how he wants to make a key for Kinsey as a gift.
The secret to making Keys is precise intention, it turns out. But, most importantly, blood. The secret sauce is blood. Armed with this new knowledge, Godge peaces out.
Over at the hospital, Tyler and Kinsey enter Erin’s Head to figure out how the Keepers remembered magic past its expiry date. Her Head is like The Secret Garden meets Stranger Things. As it turns out, Erin’s been in a catatonic state because she’s literally been stuck in her own mind.
Mind-Erin (Nicole James) tries to attack them and is very confused by everything Tyler and Kinsey are telling her. Like, pro-tip, if you ever come across your dad’s high school girlfriend inside her mind where she’s been trapped, maybe don’t introduce yourselves as his kids? But, anyway, Tyler and Kinsey free Erin.
We’re only two episodes into season two, and it already feels like a lot is going on! How are y’all feeling about things? Are you liking Evil-den and Godge as much as I am? Click below for the next recap.
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Both seasons of Locke & Key are available now on Netflix.
Author’s note:
My recaps for season two of Locke & Key were nearly complete by the time that Netflix leadership’s transphobia came to light. While it is absolutely true that all corporations are evil to varying degrees and that everyone has their “problematic faves,” in my opinion, this situation is quite different. Netflix is an international company with yearly revenue of $25 billion. Their behavior toward marginalized communities matters.
I am a nonbinary person. It was not an easy decision for me to post these recaps. I have canceled my personal Netflix subscription and following this season of Locke & Key recaps, will no longer be covering Netflix content, unless they change their ways. However, I believe that rather than staying silent, the most productive way to help my community at large is to publish these recaps and provide resources at the bottom of each article.
Thank you for reading.
More about the Netflix controversy:
- “Netflix trans employees and allies release a list of demands ahead of the walkout”
- “Netflix’s CEO Is Wrong. Transphobic Media Causes Real Harm“
Help save trans lives:
- Glaad’s trans resource page
- The Trevor Project
- National Black Trans Advocacy Coalition
- Transgender Law Center
- The Okra Project
https://www.geekgirlauthority.com/27-queer-content-creators-of-color-we-love-and-support/
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