Locke & Key season 1 finale recap: Crown of Shadows

The final episode of Locke & Key season one brought the plot to an unexpected end. Or did it?

Season one of Locke & Key comes to an end with a stressful, emotional, and riveting finale. The multiple plot points are brought together for a heart-pumping conclusion—which then takes a very unexpected turn.

We recap the finale and share some thoughts about what we could see in a possible second season.

Attack on Key House

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Following Lucas’ victory over Ellie and Rufus Whedon in the previous episode of Locke & Key, it looks like evil is about to defeat good in this finale.

The Locke children, still unaware of what’s gone down in the Whedon home, await Ellie’s return. Only to find Dodge in the driveway, wearing the Crown of Shadows, commanding an army of shadows to attack Key House, and dissolving into a shadow version of herself.

The Lockes are severely short-handed without the Whedons but they hold their own. Bode grabs a glow-sword, to which he attaches the Matchstick Key while Tyler and Kinsey search for flashlights. They soon realize that turning on the lights send the shadows away.

That plan only works as long as the lights are on—but Key House is old and can’t handle the load of so many lights. The fuse blows, plunging the house in darkness, and leaving the Locke children vulnerable.

Tyler looks for more flashlights upstairs, while Kinsey tackles the fuse box in the basement—both are overcome by the shadows. Bode is the only one who seems to be holding his own, and he decides to take on Shadow-Dodge. The Matchstick Key makes contact with the shadow, setting Dodge alight.

Moments later, Kinsey is able to overcome her attackers using matches and turns the fuse back on. She returns upstairs to find Dodge unconscious on the floor. Now’s the chance to end this evil forever.

Bode’s Mission

Tyler and Kinsey refuse to let Bode help them, so he goes on his own mission. The Whedons haven’t been heard from so Bode goes to check on them—Rufus is his friend and he won’t abandon him.

When he arrives at the house, Bode finds Rufus badly hurt from his fight with Lucas. Bode immediately calls the police, which brings Detective Daniel Matuko (Martin Roach)—Nina’s new friend—to the house.

Rufus is hurt but he will be okay. But there is sadly no sign of Ellie. What did Lucas do with her? In the ambulance, Bode and Rufus comfort each other and Rufus entrusts the Head Key with Bode—they have become good friends and their shared nightmare has brought them even closer.

But Bode eventually has to leave Rufus as the paramedics—played by Locke & Key comic creators Gabriel Rodriguez and Joe Hill, no less—have to take him to get stitched up.

Demon Disposal Unit

Meanwhile, Tyler and Kinsey call their friends—Scot, Gabe, Jackie, and Eden—to help them dispose of Dodge. The plan is simple—take Dodge back to the Black Door, where she first came from and rid the living world of her evil.

The Omega Key—which Dodge was so desperate to get her hands on—was hidden in the magical cabinet. The Locke children retrieve it and get down to work.

It takes all the friends to carry Dodge—especially as Eden mans a flashlight behind the team instead of helping. Getting to the sea caves isn’t easy and by the time they reach the Black Door, there is a very real threat of the tides coming in and drowning them.

Not the best of times for Kinsey to have a change of heart—but she feels that something is not right and that opening the Black Door will only make things worse.

Unfortunately, there’s no time to change the plan—they need to get rid of Dodge now or lose their chance forever.

Kinsey opens the door, while the others hold it open, and Tyler sends Dodge through to the other side. Dodge wakes up moments before and grabs onto Tyler, almost dragging him in—she’s terrified, a new look for Dodge—but Tyler manages to get free.

There are demons flying out, desperate to attach to someone. The group closes the door as quickly as they can before history repeats itself.

Aftermath

With Dodge finally gone, life can go back to normal. Scot tells Kinsey that he isn’t down with the throuple idea, but he’s happy to be Kinsey’s friend.

Nina and Detective Matoku are becoming close and he is helping her through recovery—but it leads to Nina wondering whether she had made a mistake by relocating the family to Matheson.

But when she places an alternative to her family, including Duncan, the reaction surprises her. Nina plans to upend their lives again by selling Key House and taking the family back to Seattle.

Surprisingly, the family doesn’t like the idea. They hated having to move to Key House but they now like it here and don’t want to leave. Nina is relieved and the family starts working on their new life.

Bode writes to Rufus, who is now living with his aunt and uncle in Nebraska. Nina and Detective Matoku keep up their search for Ellie, but nobody knows where she’s gone.

Meanwhile, Tyler and Jackie get back together, and Kinsey continues life at school and her relationship with Gabe. The keys live in a jewelry box, untouched and unneeded.

Going South

It all sounds wonderful, doesn’t it? Of course, it’s too good to last.

We see Gabe driving through beautiful Matheson reminiscing about his first meetings with Kinsey, how they bonded over their near-death experience in the sea-caves and learned about magic together.

And then when he left Kinsey that day, he used the Identity Key to change back into Dodge and seduce Tyler, albeit unsuccessfully.

Not only has Gabe been Dodge this whole time but after Lucas used the Crown of Shadows, he used the Identity Key on himself and on Ellie, changing her into Dodge’s lookalike before knocking her out.

While the Lockes fought off Dodge’s shadows, the real Dodge brought Ellie into the house. It was Ellie that the Locke children and their friends unwittingly sent through the Black Door. That was why she was so afraid and desperately tried to cling on to Tyler.

It gets worse—the Lockes believe their friends got out of the sea-caves unscathed but they were wrong. The teens had managed to avoid being hit by any of the demons up until the very last minute when one demon managed to attach itself to Eden.

Gabe/ Dodge witnesses this and nods to his new companion. He meets up with Eden/ Demon at a restaurant where the two of them gorge themselves on everything on the menu.

The Lockes haven’t won anything—they’ve instead brought another menace into their world and lost an ally.

Final Thoughts

The finale of Locke & Key did not turn out as expected, and that is wonderful. For readers of the comic series, it seemed like everything was proceeding as planned, so to be surprised is a great experience.

The Gabe reveal has roots in the source material—in the books, Dodge goes back to school as Zach Wells to woo Kinsey. The change of name threw fans of the book series, and that was great thinking on the part of the showrunners.

Ellie’s demise is vastly different from the books where she is violently murdered by Dodge—her end in this series is just as horrid. Poor woman can’t catch a break in any medium.

Eden becoming a demon is a departure from the comics—Scot and Jackie were briefly possessed in the books.

However, this episode does set up quite an unusual second season—if Netflix makes that choice—with the possibility of more demonic action and more keys.

This was a thoroughly enjoyable first season, though the opening episodes did take a while to stick. The strongest episodes were the ones that moved away from the Lockes, which begs the question: are the protagonists really the strongest personalities here?

Hopefully, season two will be even more expansive with its cast and explore the rest of the world of Matheson and Key House.