Welcome back to another adventure at Key House with the Locke family. The last time we saw Kinsey and Tyler, they were getting Erin out of her mind and trying to find out how they could remember magic once they turned 18. Luckily episode three keeps the main plot moving and gives the audience a fun adventure in the middle.
1. Erin’s Moving In
So right from the jump of the episode, we get some context to when Erin was found unresponsive. We don’t exactly get the “how,” only that she was found at Key House 23 years ago by a cleaning lady who knocked the Head Key out of her, thus locking her in her mind. Now back to present-day awakening to an entirely new world, she gets to move into Key House until her trust fund kicks in, and she finds her own place. It’s pretty weird, right? Even Nina mentions it, out of earshot of the kids, her dead husband’s ex-girlfriend from when he was in high school is staying with them. It’s pretty weird but quickly is answered, story-wise, as she tries to get the kids to give her the keys to be destroyed. She is an expert on the keys and how their power can seduce anyone, yet Kinsey leads the charge of keeping the keys with the “We’re the Lockes” argument. For anyone at home keeping score, it is purely arguing with nothing substantial to back it up with. While the kids may not give up the keys to her, they’re still going to need her knowledge on how to use certain keys and what they can really do.
2. Small World Key
The first new key found this season, other than the Hercules found off-camera, is the Small Wonder Key. This key pairs up with the model of Key House that Mr. Barrett has at his house. Once the key is inserted into the front door, the model becomes a way to peek into what is happening in every room, and anything inserted in the model becomes the same size as the room. Example: Jamie Barrett accidentally leaves the key in the model, so when a spider starts putting webs all over the house, Bode and Tyler have to fight a spider the size of a small BMW. The spider chasing the kids around the house gave me a throwback to the old tv show Goosebumps.
It’s fun to see them play around with a new key without realizing the repercussions of them before it blows up in their faces. This season is a bit more serious and dark, which is a natural move for any show, but it’s also good to go back to a familiar trope of what made the show enjoyable in the first place.
3. Nina’s Date
Nina takes her first step into the dating world by asking Mr. Barrett during the playdate with Bode and Jamie. It’s kinda surprising that she goes through with it, not because of nerves but because she finds the model of Key House when the kids are playing with it. The two end up having a bowling date with some rom-com tropes with awkward silences and smiles, but it eventually leads to the conversation about how his wife died. It takes a bit of pulling by Nina, but it turns out to be a car accident. Although he doesn’t give specific details, he still looks like he may be hiding something. It ends with a first-date makeout session that offers hope to Nina in that something good maybe be coming her way.
4. Gabe’s Plan
As the distance grows between Gabe and Kinsey, he starts to become nervous about losing her and easy access to Key House. Gabe has Eden use the Music Box Key to make Scot beat him up while they’re arguing about the movie sequel. It’s a win-win for Gabe because not only does it get Kinsey pissed at Scot but also brings her back to him. It’s a “Bad Guy 101” kind of plan that goes off nearly without a hitch.
Reeling from being forced to punch Gabe, Scot mentions that he felt like he was being controlled or forced to do it and that instantly catches Kinsey’s ears to think about the music box. So we get another Scooby Doo esque scene where Eden is nearly caught by Duncan Locke when she sneaks into the house to put back the music box. Luckily she doesn’t get caught, but we get some light-hearted humor with her having to walk back to their cabin in the woods after Duncan takes the key with him.
5. Duncan’s Memories
Memories continuing to be a theme this season, Duncan’s come back into play, especially with Erin moving in with them. In her mind, Duncan is still a young kid, and she’s trying to get to know him as an adult, but to him, she is nothing but a stranger. The memories of him as a kid with the keys were taken from him to protect him from the dangers the keys brought and spare him from the idea that his brother killed one of his friends when it was really Dodge. However, after his memory gets wiped about the spider incident, he blows up at Erin for trying to re-connect with him, which prompts her to want to restore them. I think it’ll be a trippy situation for everyone because he’s getting a whole chunk of his life back and possibly the ability to remember the magic in the present day. Erin tells the kids that he was the one that made the key to help them remember magic as adults, so who knows what else Duncan’s memories have been hiding?
