Summary
Locke & Key Season 1, Episode 3, “Head Game” provides further insight into the Locke children as they delve into their own memories.
This recap of Netflix Series Locke & Key Season 1, Episode 3, “Head Game” contains significant spoilers.
- Read the Season 1 review.
- Read the recap of Episode 4.
- Read the recap of the previous episode (2).
- Access the archive of all the episode recaps.
Locke & Key Season 1, Episode 3, “Head Game” provides the characters with a chance to explore their childhood and their demons. Episode 3 opens up with Kinsey and Tyler entering Bode’s room. They enter the box which is a pathway to a huge colourful room — they are inside Bode’s head. They experience memories of Rendell at a time when he told bedtime stories about the sea monster and the fisherman to Bode. Bode takes the key out after he shows his siblings the experience of using it. As Tyler and Kinsey discuss ways of protecting the keys, Bode reveals the truth about the echo lady.
As for Echo, we see her no-mercy approach while she’s on her mission. She finds a kid with another kid. She takes the key off this kid and throws him under a train on the other side of the world. I was not expecting such brutality — Echo does not care whatsoever.
Tyler’s world is still crumbling in Episode 3, “Head Game”. After a hockey game, he gets into a fight with a fellow player as a way of protecting his sister. He takes it too far by throwing too many punches. A flashback shows Tyler having a conversation with Sam Lesser and he wished death on his father — it’s obvious that the death of Rendell is consuming Tyler with guilt.
Kinsey has troubles of her own in “Head Game’, and the pressure of going on a potential date with Scot is making her extra-insecure. Kinsey decides to use the Head Key herself with Tyler offering his support. Her head looks like a funky mall with memory stores organized neatly. She finds her memories to do with her father and we learn of the ending of the fisherman and the sea monster story — it was a nice ending. But then the memories keep jumping. It shows us a memory of Tyler hitting the player from hockey but it looks more brutal than the event itself. Kinsey’s memories jump again, showing the time she was protecting Bode under the table away from Sam Lesser — hiding away from trouble. Suddenly, a creature attacks Tyler and Kinsey manages to fight it away. When the siblings leave Kinsey’s head, Tyler is actually hurt. Tyler reveals he remembers the same bedtime story with his father, but it had a way darker ending.
Another key emerges in Episode 3; Bode hears a series of whispers and finds a new key with a skull on it. Bode turns the key in a door and his spirit leaves his body. Bode floats through the air and enjoys flying the night air like a ghost. He meets a man at the cemetery — Chamberlain Locke, who was Rendell’s great grandfather. Bode then catches Ellie at the well house — she is shouting down the well asking for a person named Lucas. When Tyler returns home, he finds his brother Bode on the floor looking dead, but then Bode returns to his body and makes Tyler jump. When Tyler questions Bode’s promise to not use the keys, Bode explains he was trying to find his father.
As we near the end of “Head Game” Kinsey tells her mother Nina that she is not going on a date with Scot because she’s afraid she will ruin it. She doesn’t want to disappoint Scot. Nina convinces Kinsey to go but as she heads to the date, she looks at the Head Key and turns around.
Kinsey enters her head again, but this time alone.
Locke & Key Season 1, Episode 3, “Head Game” ends with Nina looking through graduation books; she learns that Sam Lesser was at the same school where Rendell was a guidance counselor. Kinsey removes the creature from her head, kills it and then buries it. Echo watches from a distance.
Additional Notes:
- Kinsey attempts to make friends with Eden and co.
- Nina has been 6 years sober. She tells Ellie about it and how Bode has found the well house. Ellie looked irked.
- While out flying, Bode finds a sea cave.
