Locke & Key – Season 2 Episode 3 “Small World” Recap & Review

Small World

Episode 3 of Locke and Key Season 2 begins 23 years ago. Erin is completely out of it and sits motionless in Keyhouse. The housekeeper stumbles upon her and rocks Erin, trying to wake her. Only, this happens to knock the key out the back of her neck, which explains why she’s been subdued all this time.

Back in the present, Erin arrives back at Keyhouse. Kinsey and Tyler show her around but there’s a bigger problem afoot. Erin pleads with the kids to hand over the keys, warning of their seductive power. She also admits that they’re not going to survive if they continue down this path.

Bode meanwhile finds another key, a tiny one that doesn’t seem to open any of the locks in the house. Or does it? When he finds the old dollhouse during his playdate with Jamie, it appears this key actually works on the front door.

As the lights turn on, Bode watches as it appears the dollhouse shows what everyone is doing in real-time. When Nina finds out about this miniature (minus the magic powers of course), alarm bells ring. Josh claims he picked it up from an antique store and even encourages Nina to take it with her. Nina decides not to but as she and Bode walk away, Josh’s expression seems to hint at something more sinister going on.

Over in Keyhouse, Tyler learns from Erin that the Keepers of the Keys actually made a key to help them retain their memories. She doesn’t divulge much more than that, telling him to drop it.

When Bode heads back, he notices that his bed is broken and the wardrobe knocked over; the effects of him messing about with the dollhouse. Now, it would appear that whatever happens to the dollhouse also happens inside Keyhouse. So who else is betting that rat skull is a result of someone dropping a mouse inside the house? Kinsey and Tyler certainly think so when they discuss it later in the episode.

Meanwhile, Gabe has plans to win over Kinsey again who is very clearly smitten with Scot. Only, Scot is going through the motions, having trouble getting his creative juices flowing on his script. So naturally Eden uses one of the keys to force Scot into knocking out Gabe after he asks about the film.

Kinsey immediately believes that Scot is being controlled but Gabe does his best to try and dissuade her. Kinsey is not convinced though and asks Duncan to check in her room for the key. Gabe is wise to Kinsey’s suspicions and tasks Eden with putting the music box and the key back in her room.

Now, thanks to Eden dropping off the Anywhere Key, she’s had no choice but to trek back to the cabin. When Gabe finds out, he’s initially annoyed but soon calms when he realizes he doesn’t need it.

Remember the dollhouse? Well, a spider crawls inside and immediately shows up at Keyhouse. Bode and Tyler both head out their rooms and notice the entire house covered in cobwebs. Uh oh…

It doesn’t take long before the gang find themselves contending with the giant spider. Eek! When they grab Erin and pull her into the kitchen, she realizes this stems from the Small World key. With Duncan joining and the quartet trapped, Bode rings Jamie and manages to enlist her help to bring the spider out. Or, squash it, as the case may be.

Duncan unfortunately loses his memory of the incident, prompting Erin to show and talk to the kids in their room. Now, it turns out Rendell became obsessed with opening the black door. He wanted to use the magic but upon opening it, stumbled upon strange lead pieces. One hit Lucas and turned him into a maniacal demon. The rest of the lead pieces are, presumably, with Gabe.

Duncan is the one who’s able to craft these keys from scratch but he’s obviously lost his memories. Erin has a plan though. She intends to use a new key to bring his memories back.

The Episode Review

With more details of the past exuded and Gabe’s true purpose appearing to be linked to this dark portal, Locke and Key is just starting to ramp up the tension. Things are getting much more interesting now, with the Small World key and the giant spider working well to inject some much-needed action into this series.

There’s still the ongoing love triangle and the angst from the kids that graces large swathes of this series but when things do eventually turn back to fantasy again, Locke and Key is all the stronger for it.

Nina and Josh’s subplot, heading out bowling together, is pretty insignificant in the grand scheme of things, although it could well be that Josh has a bigger purpose to play in all this. We shall see.

In the meantime, the quest to retrieve Duncan’s memories is on and quite what this means for our ensemble is anyone’s guess.