Locke and Key season 3 recap guide: All 8 episodes explained

Locke and Key season 3, episode 7 recap: Curtain

Locke and Key season 3, episode 7 takes us back to Matheson in 1995 when Rendell and the other Keepers of the Keys were still teenagers. We find out that the final key is known as the Creation Key, which was actually mentioned by one of the Wheeler sister demons back in the first episode. It brings drawings to life.

In 1995, Rendell used the key to create Caliban from Shakespeare play The Tempest, en lieu of making a puppet for the school’s production, why not make the real thing? But Caliban is a handful and gets loose. Enter Gordie Shaw, who is kind of an outcast and wants nothing more than to be friends with Rendell’s group. He sees Caliban and actually gets bitten by it.

Well, the Keepers can’t have that so they later trick Gordie and use the Mind Key to go inside his head and take back the memory of Caliban and the memory of the Mind Key, too. While inside, Ellie hides the Creation Key. It’s not really explicit as to why she does, but I think we can assume she thinks it could be too dangerous. Either way, Ellie never told anyone where that key was and it has remained tucked inside Gordie’s mind ever since.

Gideon forces Ellie to take him to Gordie’s house in the car. There’s kind of an awkward scene that I guess is supposed to be humorous of Gideon being amused by how fast the car can go. Ellie uses it to her advantage to try and make a break for it, but it doesn’t work. Gideon catches her and takes her to Gordie’s house. Gordie assumes he’s being robbed and has absolutely no idea what’s going on.

He certainly doesn’t understand why Ellie wants to stick a key in his head. An impatient Gideon stabs him instead. Now Ellie has no choice but to get the key and pray Gordie doesn’t die while they’re stuck inside his head. Gordie’s mind palace comes to life as a vibrant theatrical world complete with red velvet curtains as the entryway.

Back at Keyhouse, Nina has a hard time adjusting to the idea of letting Sam help them, but Kinsey, Tyler and Bode argue that it’s for the best right now. Sam has been helping them in secret for awhile now and right now, they need all the help they can get.

From there, they decide that Sam (in Bolton’s body), Tyler, Rufus and Kinsey will go to Gordie’s to help Ellie and Bode and Nina will stay behind to try and break into the Harlequin chest without the key. As you might expect, nothing works. Power tools and fire aren’t going to break through an impenetrable, indestructible, magical chest, guys.

They do have one clever idea, to put the chest inside Wellhouse. If they can trick Gideon into going back inside there it would solve all of their problems. But it doesn’t work. The chest magically reappears inside Keyhouse once they leave it.

Once at Gordie’s, Rufus opts to stay behind and attempt to tend to Gordie’s wound and call the paramedics while Tyler, Kinsey and Sam rush into Gordie’s head after Ellie. They meet up with her pretty fast as Ellie uses her knowledge of Gordie’s mind to trap Gideon in a basement full of Gordie’s fear and hatred.

With Gideon occupied, the group goes in search of the Creation Key. But it’s not where Ellie left it. A flashback shows us that Erin actually moved it after Ellie stuck in a coat pocket as she didn’t think the location was secure enough. Kinsey suggests they try listening for the whispers to lead them to it. But as Gordie gets closer to death, they begin running out of time. The interior of Gordie’s mind begins falling apart, blood oozing out of corners and the lights in the theater dimming.

They find Gideon center-stage playing a piano and have their final showdown there. Kinsey realizes the key is hidden in one of the piano keys after it makes a different noise than the rest. Everything starts to disintegrate and fall apart around them. Now that they have the Creation Key, Sam tells Ellie, Tyler and Kinsey to run and get out of there as he stays behind to fight Gideon.

And let’s take a second to discuss Gordie, what a tragic character. As the group is running around inside his head, we see various excerpts of Gordie’s memory. Gordie’s gay and he was never accepted by his mother for it. He was always ostracized and overlooked in high school, too.

At one point, Rendell auditioned for a play as a joke and the director demoted Gordie to understudy so Rendell could take his place. You can’t help but feel bad for the guy. On top of all that, now he’s dying because Ellie stuck a key in his head and didn’t consider the repercussions of that over the years. He got stuck in a situation he had no control or choice in.

As the Locke and Key season 3, episode 7 comes to a close, we see the entryway to Gordie’s mind start to blink in and out of existence as Ellie, Kinsey and Tyler race to get back before it’s too late. Poor Rufus is stuck trying to tend to one of Gordie’s bodies (the one with the key in it, so the real one I assume) while the paramedic tends to the other duplicate Gordie.