Locke & Key – Season 2 Episode 5 “Past is Prologue” Recap & Review

Past is Prologue

Episode 5 of Locke and Key Season 2 starts with Eden and Gabe together and deciding to use the music box to control Kinsey. With Eden sitting tight for now, Gabe cycles up to Keyhouse. When he arrives, Bode happens to be sitting outside reading a letter from his friend Rufus.

Gabe heads upstairs to find Kinsey acting standoffish and suspicious of what’s going on with him and Eden. Gabe brushes off his involvement with Eden as simple tutoring sessions, apologizing for not telling her sooner. Tyler shows though and mentions what’s happening to Duncan and his scrambled memories regarding the keys.

Realizing that he could kill two birds with one stone, Gabe immediately perks up and chooses to help Tyler, knowing that Duncan could be the key (no pun intended) to helping his plan come to fruition.

Unfortunately, using the Anywhere Key is out the question, as Duncan hands it to Bode instead. He’s going to Nebraska to see Rufus for a few hours.

While they catch up, Tyler enlists Logan’s help to break into the school after-hours and retrace the moments from Erin’s memories. This eventually leads them outside, where Tyler uses the Hercules key to lift up the bench completely and uncover the Memory Key, courtesy of the whispering showing the way.

While all this is going on, the subplot involving Nina and Josh continues, with the pair skipping out on dinner and going straight for dessert.

Another party going on is that involving all the kids, who show up for Javi’s birthday bash. Kinsey immediately talks to Scot, intending to clear the air. It doesn’t go great but with Eden scoring numerous wins at arm wrestling and drinking heavily, both Kinsey and Jackie sense there’s something weird going on with her. Eden only compounds that suspicion further when she slips up with the tutoring lie.

Having heard enough, Kinsey ultimately enlists the help of Scot to try and uncover what’s really going on.

At the same time, Bode too starts to uncover more of the past. Rufus mentions how he noticed two versions of Dodge and this immediately piques his interest. While they get talking, we cut back to Jackie’s party where Eden passes out on the bed. Just before she slips into a drunken stupor, she mutters that she’s going to kill Kinsey. So naturally, Kinsey uses the Memory Key to try and learn the truth.

There’s a beautifully surreal scene that ensues here, as Kinsley goes hunting through Eden’s memory. With vials of perfume set up and each holding a memory of the past, Kinsley finally learns the truth. With Scot by her side, they learn that Eden is being possessed by a demon. Even worse, she finds out that Gabe is actually Dodge.

As the truth hits hard, all the mannequins suddenly come to life and grab Kinsey and Scot. Some quick thinking allows Kinsey to burn one, as the pair skip across the makeshift ladder and scramble to safety.

Kinsey realizes the family are in danger and rushes back to tell them. While she does, Josh realizes his piece of Whispering Iron has been stolen and frantically searches around his office for clues. Interestingly, a picture of the Black Door sits on his desk.

Back at Keyhouse, Tyler comes armed with the Memory Key and sits down Duncan, promising to make him feel better. Using the key, he taps into Duncan’s subconscious, helping to descramble his memories as everything comes flooding back.

Kinsey comes flying into the room, breathing heavily, and revealing everything about Gabe and Eden. They soon realize that they never actually killed Dodge. So who did they throw into the Black Door? Before they can answer that, Gabe knocks at the front door.

The Episode Review

The midway point of Locke and Key sees big secrets about Gabe and Eden come crashing home as Kinsey and the other kids learn what’s really going on.

It’s taken a while, what with Gabe sneaking about and giving the Locke’s the run-around but finally it seems like we’re getting somewhere with the story. Coupled with Duncan retrieving his memory, it does look like the second half of this show is about to step it up a gear.

Meanwhile, Josh and Nina continue to grow closer and one can’t help but feel Josh is hiding something. Between the dollhouse and the Black Door, right the way through to the piece of Whispering Iron he has, there’s way too much coincidence surrounding this guy. Could he be connected to Ellie in some way?

We’ll have to wait and see but this is definitely a step in the right direction.