‘Locke & Key’ Season 2’s Time-Twisting Ending, Explained

Already binged all of Locke & Key Season 2? Confused about what exactly happened in the season finale, titled “Cliffhanger”? And are you wondering whether any of this will be picked up in a Season 3? Don’t worry, we’ve got you covered.

Based on the comics by Joe Hill and Gabriel Rodriguez, Locke & Key follows the Locke family after they move to their deceased father’s ancestral home in Matheson, Massachusetts. There they discover the house is filled with magical keys, each with their own purpose and power. On the trail of those keys, though, is an entity named Dodge (Laysla de Oliveira), who wants the keys to get access to a portal called The Black Door.

In Season 1, the Locke kids thought they beat Dodge and saved Matheson. They were very, very wrong because it turned out they actually tossed their gym teacher Ellie (Sherri Saum) through the Black Door, disguised as Dodge. Meanwhile, Dodge was disguised as local teen Gabe (Griffin Gluck), and began to hatch a devious plan with fellow demonic entity Eden (Hallea Jones).

So that’s the first season, but what about the second? And what’s up with that twisty ending? And will there be a Season 3??? Again, I already said this: we’ve got you covered. Calm down. Also, spoiler warning past this point, though you hopefully already figured that out.

LOCKE & KEY SEASON 2 PLOT SUMMARY:

There were two big plots being followed over the course of Locke & Key Season 2. The first was Gabe and Eden’s plan to take over Matheson — and the world! The other was that once you turn 18, you forget the magic of the keys. Let’s deal with the second one, first.

In a panic that his girlfriend Jackie (Genevieve Kang) was turning 18 and would forget most of the good times they had together, Tyler Locke (Connor Jessup) discovered the Memory Key, something created by his Uncle Duncan Locke (Aaron Ashmore) to help his father, Aaron’s brother Rendell (Bill Heck) remember magic into adulthood. Jackie didn’t want to use the key, because it would make her remember bad times as well as good; but ultimately that key ended up in the Lockes’ possession. More on that in a second.

Meanwhile, Gabe came up with a plan to forge a new key, called the Demon Key. With it, he was able to infect Matheson locals with demons without bringing them to the Black Door. And as a bonus, those demon-infected residents were completely loyal to Gabe. The one big hold out? Kinsey Locke (Emilia Jones), who was dating Gabe prior to finding out he was an evil demon. Gabe told Kinsey that he wanted her to join him by choice; but also said he’d kill her mom Nina (Darby Stanchfield) if she didn’t comply. So, not much of a choice.

While gunning for Kinsey, Gabe rejected Eden, who enacted a plan of her own, recruiting new Matheson history teacher Josh (Brendan Hines), presumably to open the Black Door and create a demon army loyal to her. That didn’t quite work out when Gabe discovered them, bringing a rockslide down on Josh’s head. He survived, but seemed to sour on the whole “help Eden” plan.

In order to combat Gabe’s demon army, Tyler, along with Duncan, forged a new key: the Alpha Key, which was designed to “unlock” demons from their hosts. Tyler tried the key first on Jackie, and it worked — to a point. The side effect? Those people were essentially already dead, with only the demon keeping them alive. Once it leaks out of their orifices, they die for real. Tyler, of course, is devastated; but Jackie’s death is used as fuel to keep him fighting against Gabe.

Oh, and one last vitally important part of the plot to mention. Way back in 1775, Captain Frederick Gideon (Kevin Durand), a sadistic soldier in the British army, ransacked the Lockes’ house looking for guns used to fuel the revolution. In the process, he was chased by a bunch of American soldiers into the sea caves, discovered the portal to the demon dimension, and was infected himself. Gideon was captured and locked in the well house outside of Keyhouse (the Lockes’ home), and presumably died of fatal wounds he got during the conflict.

WHAT IS THE LOCKE & KEY SEASON 2 ENDING EXPLAINED?

Ready? Here we go. During a climactic battle at Gabe’s stronghold, Gabe transforms back into Dodge, his “original” form. While Kinsey keeps Dodge distracted, Tyler sneaks up behind her and jams her with the Alpha Key, destroying the demon inside of her.

As the house — which was built on a cliff — crashes down around them (get it? The episode is titled “Cliffhanger”?), Kinsey flies herself and Tyler to safety thanks to the Angel Key which, like Red Bull, gives you wings. That’s when the first surprising twist happens. A figure manages to climb up from the wreckage, but it’s not Dodge, or Gabe… It’s Lucas Caravaggio (Felix Mallard).

Who is Lucas, you might ask? Great question. Lucas was a friend of Rendell’s and boyfriend of Ellie’s who was the first of their group to get infected by a demon. Rendell’s group — The Keepers of the Keys — killed the now evil Lucas. Years later, Ellie brought Lucas back using the Echo Key… Only she brought back the Lucas who had been infected with a demon. Essentially, Lucas is Dodge is Gabe. They’re all the same thing, which is an echo of the original Lucas, who died as a teen.

This Lucas, though? This is the Lucas Echo without the demon attached. When Tyler used the Alpha Key, it killed the Dodge/Gabe demon, but left Lucas’ spirit intact. So he’s alive-ish again, albeit will never age. And if he ever walks through the front door to the well house, where echoes come from, he’ll disappear for good.

When the whole gang arrives back at Keyhouse, they’re presented with a second twist. That would be Ellie, who somehow survived being locked in the demon dimension for months, in the form of Dodge. Why is she not infected with a million demons? Uh, no idea. But regardless, she uses the Identity Key to change back into Ellie, hugs Lucas, and then heads off to emotionally reconnect with her extremely tall son Rufus (Coby Bird).

After all the reunions are done, it’s time for a goodbye. Tyler, after everything he’s gone through, decides to take a road trip to get space and figure things out. But he also decides not to use the Memory Key before he goes, which means that most likely by the time he returns after his eighteenth birthday, he won’t remember the magic of the keys. He also gives Kinsey the main keys — the Alpha Key, the Demon Key, and the Omega Key (which opens the Black Door) — and leaves in a car gifted to him by Duncan.

Upset by these events, young Bode Locke (Jackson Robert Scott) gives his mom a gift: using the Head Key, he takes her inside her own memories to relive the day she and Rendell discovered they were going to have Bode. And in the brief moments while Nina remembers the magic, Bode gives her the choice to also use the Memory Key. Though we don’t get to see what happens, Nina now probably knows about magic, too. (When Decider asked Stanchfield about this, she answered, “That’s really something left for the next season.” So, stay tuned).

There’s one last, big twist though. Though it’s not 100% clear, when Ellie left the sea caves in the form of Dodge, it looked like the light went out behind the Black Door, meaning the portal to the demon dimension was potentially closed down. Eden has a plan, though, and heads to the well house. Once there, she uses the Echo Key to summon none other than Frederick Gideon, a man she found out about thanks to Josh. This is why history is bad, and we should never learn from it.

Eden’s plan is to use Gideon just how Gabe used her — as a lackey. But upon seeing the bloodied redcoat, she notices something surprising.

“Oh my god, it’s you. I thought I was just conjuring some old, evil soldier dude,” Eden says. “Didn’t know you possessed him. That is so much better.”

If you were confused — and it is a little confusing — let co-showrunner Meredith Averill explain it to you.

“It’s something else we’ll find out about next season,” Averill said when asked about how Eden seemingly knows the demon inside Gideon. “It is not the same demon that possessed Lucas, that demon was the demon that we refer to as Dodge in the show. But what you’re going to learn is that there is a bigger, badder demon than Dodge, that comes from that other side. And so that is what the demon that Eden recognizes is inhabiting Frederick Gideon in that moment.”

After that, Eden uses the Anywhere Key to open up a door back to the Matheson Academy dorms, and is ready to coerce Gideon into opening the portal in the sea caves, just as he did in the 1700s. Only Gideon has other ideas, throwing her down the well and killing her. As Mesa’s “Bring The Lion Out” plays, Gideon takes the Anywhere Key, smiles, and disappears. Yuh-oh.

WILL THERE BE A LOCKE & KEY SEASON 3?

Sure will! In fact, Locke & Key Season 3 was already greenlit well before Season 2 even premiered. And not only that: they finished filming it last month. Though we don’t have a Season 3 premiere date yet, there was a six month gap between finishing production on Season 2, and Season 3’s release date. So best guess? Locke & Key Season 3 may premiere in March, 2022.

But stay tuned, because Gideon is going to need some time to hatch his villainous plans. And as co-showrunner Carlton Cuse explained, things are about to get real bad for Matheson.

“It’s a lot of havoc,” Cuse said. “I would say it’s like an eight on the havoc scale, possibly even a ten, by the end of the season. Kevin Durand is a wonderful actor, and really formidable. And we wanted to figure out, how do we raise the stakes? I mean, the Dodge storyline felt to us like we played that out, but it was time to see… Let’s see who the ultimate bad guy is, and what happens to our characters when they’re confronted with him.”

Yikes. Hopefully Tyler makes it back to town in time, because it’s all Lockes on deck for this one.

Where to watch Locke & Key