Locke and Key – Season 3 Episode 8 Recap, Review & Ending Explained

Farewell

Episode 8 of Locke and Key Season 3 marks this finale with a dramatic turnaround. Godie is flatlining in the ambulance and it seems all hope is lost. Only, he’s brought back from the brink with enough time for Kinsey, Ellie and Tyler to bust through to the other side with the Creation Key.

The two cops inside the house notice them and frisk all three. However, they also bear witness to Gideon springing forth too. He takes down both cops, but not before taking a whole bunch of bullets to the chest. Unfortunately, Sam is lost to Godie’s memories as, despite restarting his heart momentarily, Godie eventually passes away.

Ellie hurriedly explains to Kinsey how the Creation Key works and encourages them to run. As for her and Rufus, they intend to go the other way. Gideon follows Kinsey and Tyler through town where they use the Creation key and basically show every single person in a bar how it works, drawing a lock that suddenly comes to life. They scramble through the other side, draw a lock and hurry on.

Kinsey continues to use this deus ex machina device to get out of trouble, springing forth a bike by drawing it on the ground to leave. As for Josh, he arrives from the hospital and runs down Gideon who’s catching up fast, knocking him out and buying the kids precious moments to escape. Unfortunately, Gideon takes Josh’s car and narrowly misses Josh’s head. as he drives off.

Gideon loses control of the car and it eventually goes up in flames. Gideon survives the ensuing crash and pursues them on foot instead. By the time he stumbles to Key House, it’s late at night and he follows Tyler to the Well, where he and the other Locke’s have concocted a plan to use the Creation key to conjure forth an excavator. With Bode driving it because… reasons I guess?

Bode controls the machine and attempts to push Gideon through the gap but he’s too strong. The excavator arm breaks and Gideon goes all “Hulk smash”, ripping off the bars and eventually destroying the well completely.

Meanwhile, Kinsey uses the Creation Key to make a door at the top of the Harlequin unbreakable chest to break in and snatch up the Alpha Key. Even though we were told nothing would break into it, I guess this is a good enough loophole to exploit.

Anyway, the swirling portal in the living room is still there and Nina springs out of nowhere and pushes Gideon into it. Realizing that the keys are the *ahem* key to all this, Tyler decides to toss all of them inside so they can be rid of them forever.

Everyone is in agreement except for Bode, who wants to keep the keys. Of course he does! He wants the keys for one final purpose and that comes from visiting their dad.

The whole family show up to meet Rendell, embracing him and hanging out in the back garden. Kinsey, Tyler and Bode all mention key moments in their life as Rendell eventually tells them he’s proud of the kids. He implores them to go on and live their lives.

Apparently, Rendell won’t remember any of this when they go back, so when time runs out, they eventually head back to Key house and chuck each of the keys in the portal.

With the keys gone, the kids get back to their normal lives. The Splattering 2 releases in theatres, Kinsey contemplates leaving to study abroad while the whole family gather for a big meal at Locke house.

Bode comes around to Josh dating his mum, while the dead body floating down the river is never found… presumably! Tyler also starts dating Carly, while Kinsey is on talking terms and texting her too. So it’s a happy ending all round guys… if you exclude the whispering coming from the house when the gang shut the doors!

The Episode Review

So Locke and Key bows out its third season with a rather anticlimactic fight with Gideon and hurriedly wrapping up a lot of its plotlines. The character arcs have been pretty poor this season too, typified by the simple but underdeveloped issues between characters.

Tyler and Carly barely had any screen time to develop their relationship while Bode and Josh are now best buds after so much animosity from Bode. Even a chat from Josh telling him that he’s not replacing Rendell would have sufficed. Instead we get…not much at all.

Speaking of Bode, he’s basically the catalyst for everything bad that happens this season, minus Nina locking him outside in the snow globe. Well, I guess he learned that from his mother!

The actual story has been pushed forward mostly on the pretense of these characters acting stupidly and rushing headfirst into situations they really shouldn’t. The panful length of time it took anyone to realize Bode wasn’t himself is one such example and a definite blemish on this season.

Likewise, the whole Timeshift Key meddling has caused problems throughout the continuity of how time travel works in this show. Although we learn that everyone forgets by the time they re-enter the original time period, we don’t really see much resolution when it comes to Dodge.

It’s assumed that the timeline goes back to how it was but the rules were pretty hazy up to this point and I genuinely thought at one point that Gideon would get his portal, destroy the world and then we’d jump back in time and stop that happening using the key. And just to add fuel to the fire, couldn’t the gang have used the Timeshift Key and stopped Gideon in the past and killed him to prevent any of this happening?

Ultimately, this third season ends with a whimper rather than a roar, and you can understand why they’ve saved the Creation key (aka. the deus ex machina device) until last. This Key could have literally saved everyone but instead they show off the magic to a whole bar full of people!

Although hardcore fans will probably enjoy this season, there are numerous issues across the board that are hard to ignore. Sadly, this third season fails to come close to the first in terms of quality. Still, at least we get an ending and not another cliffhanger doomed to cancellation hell!