Five Minutes Past
Episode 3 of Locke and Key Season 3 starts with Bode following more whispers around the house, where he finds the exact key he’s looking for to open the Harlequin Chest in the basement. What are the odds, eh? With this in hand, Kinsey brings Bode out to the Well, where they express concern about the broken bars on the window. They deduce that it must have been a demon of some kind that’s opened it. Alone, Kinsey ends up seeing Eden’s dead body at the bottom of the well. Snapping a picture, Kinsey shows her friends (minus Bodie and Kinsey) and they deduce getting the police involved is not an option. To get the ball rolling on their plan, the group manage to lift Eden out of the well and sing for her passing. After a lovely song, they then unceremoniously toss her body into the water, deciding this is the best option, with the body presumably washing up on shore further down the line and launching a big police investigation anyway. Sorry, getting ahead of ourselves here! Back in Locke House, Bode speaks to Nina and wants to use the Time Shift Key to go back through time to see their father. Nina refuses, believing it to be danger. Instead, she comes up with the idea of using the Head Key to conjure forth memories of his father. Unfortunately, just prior to this Bode lashes out at his mother, claiming that everyone is moving on and that Nina doesn’t care about their deceased father (honestly, this kid is getting more annoying as the episodes progress). Nina is pretty patient with the kid and brings him out to where they experience memories of Rendell at the campfire. Nina realizes things are about to get bad so she tasks Bode with leaving hurriedly. The truth is, Nina was a big drinker and she almost caused chaos with Bode. There’s certainly a rift between Rendell and Nina thanks to the latter’s drinking, and she even misses Kinsey’s play. Of course, as a result of taking a trip down memory lane, Nina is reserved and Bode comes to Kinsey for help. She tells Bode exactly what we’ve all been thinking thus far (“don’t be such an a**hole”) but unfortunately, while Nina is stuck inside her own head, Bode finds the Time key. Kinsey heads in and confronts her mother, wanting to know what’s going on. It’s here, Nina admits the truth about her drinking and how damaging it’s been. Kinsey tells her mother not to slip into a relapse, pointing out that these bad memories aren’t helping anyone. Nina shrugs those concerns off and points out she needs to work through this herself. So Kinsey leaves. As for Gideon and his cronies, they use the Anywhere Key to grab a whole bunch of clothes and gear. Their latest plan is to blend in and learn what they can before striking when the Locke’s least expect it. Part of that plan involves breaking in and taking old revolution weapons. As well as killing the clerk on duty of course when he questions what they’re doing. Meanwhile, Tyler head to the police station to follow up on the report made about the break-in. Of course, none of them actually reported this so the police don’t have a record of anything. Tyler confronts Kinsey and demands to know why she’s lying. It’s painful for Kinsey to take, especially as she’s still trying to keep his promise and not reveal exactly what’s going on with the keys and the magic As for Bode, he uses the Time Key and messes about with the grandfather clock. He sets a timer of 5 minutes and jumps back through time. Bode ends up jumping to a pivotal moment involving Dodge and Eden, with Bode proudly proclaiming how the future has already been written and they’re going to be stopped. Bode, of course, is an absolute idiot and changes the past thanks to his ignorance. The time goes off, he runs away from Dodge but when he awakens, Bode finds Dodge has followed him. She outsmarts Bode, managing to take over his body and trapping the kid outside in his ghostly form. As Hermione Granger would say “What an idiot.”
The Episode Review
Honestly, it’s frustrating to watch Locke and Key sometimes because the character decisions are ultimately the catalyst for all the bad things happening. Bode jumping back through time and taunting Dodge is probably one of the dumbest decisions any character has made across 3 seasons. Not only has Bode been pretty insufferable this year (guilt-tripping his mum about Josh not withstanding) but his time jumping may have just caused irreversible damage to the timeline . But then, why does this change things but not the other instances? How badly can these timelines be messed up? I said in the last recap that introducing time travel can be a difficult thing to get right, and unless you have a solid writer at the helm, numerous plot holes can crop up as a result. Alas, that’s the case here. With Nina lost in her own memories and Tyler still scrambling to piece together his own fractured memories, a lot of this season has seen busywork at the forefront as we gear up for the final fight with Gideon. But by now it’s clear to see that Locke and Key is running on fumes. Let’s hope I’ve proven wrong and the future episodes pick up the pace.
