Summary
“Let Go Of Me” expands the worldbuilding a little as the kids get in way over their heads attempting to solve the mystery set up in the premiere.
This recap of the Netflix series Lockwood and Co Season 1 Episode 2, “Let Go Of Me”, contains spoilers.
The selling point of Lockwood & Co. — the agency, not the show itself — is that it’s independent, run entirely by children, and not answerable to any higher authority. But this, it turns out, isn’t strictly true. Enter DEPRAC. That rather ungainly acronym is important since it keeps a close eye on all paranormal agencies, including Lockwood and Co., and at the start of “Let Go Of Me”, one of its agents, Inspector Barnes, hands Anthony a bill of damages for £60,000 since he burned that poor old lady’s house down in Episode 1.
Lockwood and Co Season 1 Episode 2 Recap
What is DEPRAC?
So, DEPRAC stands for the Department of Psychical Research and Control and is a government organization devoted to tackling The Problem while maintaining control of the various agencies that are making a living off it, whether that’s for the state or independently. Lockwood and Co. only enjoys nominal independence. There are still rules to follow, with The Problem having been incorporated into society to such an extent that at this point it’s almost totally defined by the government, red tape, and official procedures.
But the kids are already not playing by the rules. Lucy, for instance, took that ring from the old lady’s house, and when she returns it to the office and the ghost follows, it turns out that the jewelry was the source of the angry ghoul, not the dead body, which seems to have belonged to a Hollywood starlet named Annabel.
What happened to Annabel?
Annabel was a big deal, and so was her death. She was an actress, and by all accounts a good one, and was making a name for herself in a production of Shakespeare’s Hamlet, which her real life began to unfortunately mirror. When Lucy bonds with her psychically, which is itself ill-advised, she deduces that she was strangled to death by a jealous, controlling lover, who seems to have been her co-star in Hamlet, Hugo Blake.
Somewhat crucial to “Let Go Of Me”, beyond the machinations of the plot, is the idea of celebrity. Lucy is kind of a celebrity herself; she’s well-known in paranormal circles to the extent that Barnes insists on Anthony firing her since she didn’t complete one of the grades at Fittes that was mandatory for her employment. But Anthony absolutely relishes the limelight and realizes that getting it might be the only way to solve the case. He makes a massive deal out of it in the press, including mentioning Lucy’s involvement despite her asking him not to, so that DEPRAC can’t be seen to be covering up the investigation. If the public are invested in the agency solving Annabel’s death, or so Anthony’s logic runs, the government will have to let them.
The ending
Huge Blake, it turns out, is very well-connected, and when Barnes takes Lucy to interrogate him, he’s mostly proving a point that the kids can’t just go about things however they like without facing consequences. As if to prove his point, when they get back home, they discover George tied up in the basement and a masked intruder inside, there to steal the ring. After a brief swordfight, he’s able to get away, apparently with the trinket, but it turns out Lucy had the real thing hidden in her locket. The stakes, though, seem to be heightening rather rapidly.
You can stream Lockwood and Co Season 1 Episode 2, “Let Go Of Me” exclusively on Netflix.
