Locke & Key season 1, episode 8 recap: Ray of F**king Sunshine

The Locke & Key villain reveals her sinister plan in episode 8 of the show. How are the Locke family to protect themselves and everyone around them against such a powerful being?

By the end of episode 7 of Netflix’s Locke & Key, Dodge was in possession of every single key that the Locke children had managed to uncover. She was powerful and terrifying enough before, but now, she’s unstoppable.

In episode 8, we finally learn what she needs with all those keys—her endgame is sinister, and her desperation to get there will leave bodies in her wake. How are the Locke children going to win this battle?

Content warning: addiction

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Renewed Nina

Following Sam Lesser’s second attack on the Locke family, Nina is shaken and goes back to an old vice—alcohol. Kinsey and Tyler see an immediate change in her—she’s more spritely, energetic, and more put-together.

Nina takes an active interest in helping to clean up the house after Lesser’s mess, and she rambles happily when she meets her children’s friends for the first time. Everyone else is getting a favorable impression of her but Tyler isn’t as quick to rejoice.

The giddy joy that accompanies Nina’s first foray into drinking in years is only step one of her addiction battles. The joy will be followed by sorrow, a relentless need for more, and will eventually lead to her driving away her children.

But at the moment, none of that is going to come to pass because Nina has found a new tool to obsess about.

The Cabinet

Nina had found an old wooden cabinet and thought to restore it. But instead of being pragmatic about the restoration, Nina ends up putting her favorite mug, broken when she thought she saw her mirror version and finds the mug put together again just by closing the door.

What the children know, but Nina doesn’t, is that magic is a very real part of their lives—Lesser had been asking for keys, but Nina hadn’t known what for. With the restored mug in her hand, Nina demonstrates the cabinet’s power by placing Kinsey’s favorite toy, Sally, inside. She too is repaired.

The next logical step is obvious—Nina takes the urn with Rendell’s ashes and places it inside. But despite earlier successes, the cabinet does nothing to bring Rendell back.

Distraught, Nina breaks the vase, shattering it and sending ashes and debris around the room. The price of knowing about magic is that your perception changes entirely while those around you fail to see it.

But how is Nina able to recall magic, when just a short while ago, she would forget things instantly? Turns out, the alcohol in her system is dropping her inhibitions and pulling back the curtain on the magic around her.

Nina remembers being inside the mirror and needing to be rescued. What else has she been unexpectedly seeing?

But while Kinsey is desperate to be on the same page as her mother, Tyler suggests caution. Nina’s drinking habit is likely to get worse under stressful circumstances. And she isn’t really present for the children when alcohol is her poison of choice.

If Nina stops drinking, the children lose a valuable ally in their fight against Dodge. If she continues, Nina will likely lose her soul. It’s a horrible catch-22 for the family.

An Unusual Visitor

Despite their falling out in the previous episode of Locke & Key, Nina and Ellie makeup following the Lesser attack. They had been bonding well, and now with Joe Ridgeway gone, Ellie is Nina’s only friend and ally.

Kinsey catches Ellie in the house and asks if she has had any unusual visitors lately—Kinsey describes the woman and Ellie immediately looks relieved. But why?

Ellie and Rufus have a house-guest who turns out to be Lucas Carvaggio, Ellie’s high school sweetheart and the boy long-believed dead. Lucas hasn’t settled into Ellie’s house well—Rufus is wary of him and asks his mother when Lucas will leave. There is no straight-forward answer to that.

Lucas keeps to himself most of the time but he does appear when Rufus and Bode are playing in the shed. They are very uncomfortable around him and he seems to like that.

Ellie is desperate to find out whether Lucas had anything to do with the Lesser attack—obviously, he denies it, but we know better.

Plus, we learn how Lucas/ Dodge has been getting around without being noticed—he uses what is either the Gender Key or the key that allows the user to look like whoever they want to change into Dodge or back to Lucas whenever they want.

Ellie doesn’t know about Dodge, however. She believes Lucas is staying with her—but she doesn’t question why Lucas still looks like a teenager. Love really is blind.

The Omega Symbol

Kinsey had found the Black Door in the sea-caves and she takes Tyler there, as well. They realize there is an Omega Key to open the door, but have no idea where to find it. They do see a sign for the ‘Keepers of the Keys’, signed by Rendell and his friends.

Kinsey decides that since Ellie is no help, she must meet with Erin Vos, no matter how little she knows. Unfortunately, Kinsey is too late—Dodge has already arrived and has used the Head Key on Erin.

Erin’s mind is laid out like Matheson Academy but it’s empty except for a library where Erin’s memories are stored. A younger version of Erin appears in her mind—it turns out Erin is trapped in her memories’ vault and can’t get out—hence the catatonic state.

But Dodge is after one particular memory and she finds it—Erin and Rendell discussing the safe keeping of the Omega Key and Rendell using the Head Key to hide it inside his mind.

Dodge may think she’s come to a dead-end, but in truth, she hasn’t. Because when Nina broke the urn, she unwittingly brought forth the Omega Key, which had been hidden all this while.

Tyler and Kinsey are now in possession of the Omega Key, but can they keep it safe from Dodge?

Final Thoughts

This was one of the best episodes of Locke & Key yet. A number of the more exciting story elements from the books are appearing on the show, making it vastly more exciting and engaging.

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It’s good to see Nina and Ellie become friends again—female friendships are hard to come by so this is important. Mother and daughter reconciling is the polar opposite of their arc in the books. There, Nina’s alcoholism was detrimental to the character and Kinsey had no sympathy for her mother. This major change in the series is refreshing.

The appearance of the Omega Key should speed the plot up to an epic season finale—viewers are going to enjoy the last few episodes.

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