Locke & Key - Head Games

The third episode of Locke & Key offers the exploration of the Head Key as Kinsey (Emilia Jones) and Tyler (Connor Jessup) get a look inside the colorful mind of Bode (Jackson Robert Scott). Nina's attempt to look inside her own mind turns out to be a darker journey as her fear overwhelms her and even attacks Tyler directly. Nina's experience may help explain Echo's (Laysla De Oliveira) interest in the key, not to explore her own memories but to unlock something dark in those of someone else. Kinsey's use of the key, an attempt to remove her irrational fear completely from her mind, is likely to have some consequences (especially when Echo observes the girl's attempt to bury the fear in the woods outside the house). Echo also picks up a new key of her own in the Matchstick Key, the first that was teased in the series' opening sequence.

The other key discovered in "Head Games" is the Ghost Key which finally explains the odd locked door inside Keyhouse Manor where the key can be used to turn the user into a ghost and allow their spirit to soar around the neighboring countryside. Although it freaks Tyler out to find his apparently dead brother's body, the experience does offer Bode a chance to fly around his home as well as a new introduction to an ancestor who may be able to offer some insight into the keys, the manor, and their father. One of the strengths of the episode is exploring how each of the children remember their father through a similar memory involving a bedtime story which is likely far more autobiographical than he made it out to be. For Bode it's adventurous, for Kinsey it's bittersweet, but for Tyler it's dark and tragic (not unlike his father's hidden past involving the keys).