A lot about the TV show Locke & Key has felt like utter nonsense. This is the episode that proved that maybe if I was patient, my questions would have been answered. But that doesn’t address the underlying problems with how the show has chosen to present this story. So in some ways “Echoes” is a good episode of Locke & Key, it definitely checks a bunch of important plot boxes. But in another way that makes it all the more frustrating. Let’s get into it.
1. Many months ago
We begin with a flashback, one that has me saying: “Oooooh, so Ellie was a track coach after all!” Last week I was going crazy; Ellie seems to have a lot of time to do sketchy stuff, and it looked like her teenage(??)(more on this in a bit) son was supporting them. It turns out this is not the case. And then we get hit with another flashback and this one has me saying: “Oooooh, so that cold open in the first episode of Mark killing himself was… because Ellie called him! It all makes sense now!” Actually, it doesn’t.
It turns out there is a reason Mark killed himself, but we won’t find out until a line of dialogue later in the episode. This leads me to criticism number one with the reveals in this. A lot of information is withheld from the viewer, as if the show has earned a modicum of trust. And it hasn’t. Plenty of creative choices are never going to be justified- I will never be satisfied with why Tyler let Sam Lesser get his hands on the Head Key two episodes ago. So this left me feeling empty about the phone call between Mark and Ellie the entire episode, until the “makes sense” box was checked by Ellie’s episode ending exposition expose. (It turns out, Mark was the only one who remembered where the keys were hidden, so he had to take the secret to the grave). What is served by seeming to half explain that mystery for most of the episode? Nothing
The Ellie and Lucas reunion scene brings up issue number two: nothing is filmed in a way that has any impact whatsoever. It means one thing to her (the return of her ageless, dead, high school boyfriend), another to us as viewers (he’s really a monster!), and that’s where dramatic tension comes from. But it just sort of happened. I’d describe the tone of the scene as “mild shock.” Again, later in the episode we sort of get an explanation when we see her use the Echo Key, but what’s the point in designing the situation to make their reunion so toothless the first time around? Each choice by the writers removes the impact from each scene, only to sort of explain it later, after the emotions of the moment have been forgotten. It’s awful.
2. Questions for groundskeeper Rufus
Coby Bird, the actor who plays Rufus is 17 or so. If Rufus is supposed to be the same age, then is it weird that he has this groundskeeper job? The only groundskeepers I’ve known in my life have been on the elderly side, and had some history to the land they were working on. But I guess every groundskeeper had to start at some age. This has kind of been bothering me all season. Did Rufus drop out of high school? Is this a part time gig? If no one has been living in Keyhouse for a generation, who signs his checks? How did that interview process go? Is all of this just an excuse to have a disabled person see and know things so other people won’t believe him, and treat him like crap? Why are they going halfway with showing Dodge being cruel to Rufus (calling him “brainless” and “empty headed”) but not really acknowledging the prejudice faced by people on the spectrum? Why is everything about Rufus written to be so limp?
3. Dodge/Lucas/Echo/Well Lady/Whatever
OK, I know the deal with Dodge, Lucas, Echo, Well Lady, and whatever you want to call him/her/it/them. And I find the way this mystery is playing out to be pretty tedious. It’s one of those mysteries that mostly functions on miscommunication, and those don’t do much for me. Is it compelling for people who don’t know all the answers? To me it feels like a lot of confusing misdirection for no reason.
Again, it’s the kind of thing where we don’t find out the reason for certain things for a long time, and the mysteries never pay off as mysteries, even when the explanations are somewhat satisfying. Why did Rendell seem like he was killing his best friend? Because he was possessed by a demon! Why is the monster living with Ellie and controlling her? Because Ellie got lonely one cloudy afternoon and attempted a resurrection which went wrong. I like the story, I know I do. It’s the story from my favorite comic. But by structuring it like a TV mystery and not like a character-based horror story, some really cool reveals are turned into meaningless checkboxes.
4. The fear game
Kinsey’s fear zombie thing scared to pants offa me. So points to that. I screamed in my living room. And I did enjoy Logan recusing Eden with a lacrosse stick.
Actually, involving Logan and Jackie in the actual story is bringing some things to light for me. It turns out those actors have actually been charismatic the whole time. I like them a fair sight better than every non-Scot member of the Sabini Squad. I’ve hated everything we’ve done with them all season- Logan has been a non-entity and Jackie has just been there to be objectified by Tyler and then mistreated- but the actors clearly deserve better. All these actors deserve better.
5. All keys on the table
The second Ellie called Kinsey I said out loud, “I hope Kinsey is smart enough to know this is a trap.” Turns out the idiot… was me! Kinsey’s pointed words were enough to turn Ellie around and we got an entire parlor-room reveal scene. And it brings all those problems to a head. As I’ve been insisting, these explanations don’t work because they’ve botched the initial emotional reaction of every single item on their list. I don’t care about Mark’s suicide because I don’t know anything about Mark. I don’t care about Rendell killing Lucas because neither of them have been presented as interesting characters. Some of the logistics of how Mr. Ridgeway was murdered are interesting, but I don’t really care that much about that either.
So though it’s nice that the plot of this show makes sense, it’s not being directed in a way that makes me care one iota of all the information that Ellie is un-cinematically reciting for me, the viewer. At least next week is the finale, and we get the Crown of Shadows, my absolute favorite key. Here’s to hoping we end on a high note.
