Locke & Key: Why Do Adults Forget Keys And Magic Explained? What Do We Know So Far
In Locke & Key, at the center of the plot are the keys, the powers that come from them and the magic that permeates the entire Keyhouse. We know, however, that the magical world is only experienced by children and adolescents and that adults have a hard time remembering it.
Produced from 2020 and in its second season – the third season is in production – Locke & Key introduced us to the brothers Locke, Tyler (Connor Jessup), Kinsey (Emilia Jones) and Bode (Jackson Robert Scott) , keepers of some magic keys .
After the murder of their father Rendell (Bill Heck) they and their mother Nina (Darby Stanchfield) move to Keyhouse their family home in Matheson , Massachusetts . This is where they discover the magical keys that each offer a different power. Of course, there can be no Good without Evil and a demon, Dodge (Laysla De Oliveira) is willing to do anything to get them.
The brothers begin to explore the world of magic, keys and their uses. In the first season, we learn that magic and keys are not remembered by adults: Nina, for example, has no memory of stepping into a mirror, in episode 1×01 Welcome to Matheson (Welcome to Matheson). One of the main questions related to the series – created by Joe Hill and based on the comic series of the same name – remains, therefore, this: why do adults forget the keys and the magic? Let’s take stock of the situation on Locke & Key.
Memories Of Adults In The First Season Of Locke & Key
In the first season of Locke & Key, we are not given concrete explanations as to why adults forget magic and the existence of keys and why only children and adolescents remember them. An assumption is made by Bode: the child believes that the reason must be sought in the minds of adults who, as less impressionable, find rational explanations for everything, which is why it is more difficult for them to believe in magic.
For example, when Nina is nearly killed inside the mirror where she got trapped by the Mirror Key she forgets about it sober, but remembers it perfectly if drunk: his mind, more vulnerable and open, is able to believe and remember, therefore, what he experienced. In some scenes, we even see her use the Mending Key to repair some objects in the house.
Who Remembers in Locke & Key?
In addition to Tyler, Kinsey and Bode only Ellie Whedon (Sherri Saum) and Erin Voss (Joy Tanner) both adults and childhood friends of Rendell remember the power of the keys.
Ellie and Erin used the magic keys together with Rendell and other friends when they were teenagers. The problems, however, were not long in coming and – as we know – the situation got out of hand when Lucas Caravaggio (Felix Mallard) was possessed by Dodge and killed Kim Topher (Ellen Olivia Giddings) and Jeff Ellis (Aidan Shaw).
Rendell, then, was forced to kill Lucas – only to be murdered in Seattle, years later – another friend committed suicide and Erin spent many years of her life in a psychiatric clinic, imprisoned in her own mind by the Open Head Key (Head Key): it’s Tyler and Kinsey who free her. As mentioned, as adults, Ellie and Erin have not forgotten the magic: initially, it could be assumed that it was because the keys are linked to the traumatic event of the death of their friends but, in the second season we discover the existence of the Memory Key (Memory Key).
The Use of The Memory Key
In Locke & Key 2 it is revealed to us that the Key of Memory was created by Duncan (Aaron Ashmore) Rendell’s brother, to allow anyone who wants to keep the memories of the magic keys even as adults. We discover, in fact, that the magic keys can be forged by the Locke. To confirm a hypothesis that was already hovering in the air is Erin, who helps the boys – even later – in the fight against Dodge, as well as to find the Memory Key.
As he approaches eighteen, Tyler fears that he will lose his memories of magic and that he will no longer be able to help his sister and brother if they need to. Likewise, when Kinsey comes of age, Bode will be completely alone.
The first to show signs of letting up is Tyler’s girlfriend, Jackie Veda (Genevive Kang) who has already started to get confused and empty as her birthday approaches. The boy wants, therefore, to make sure that she does not forget, that none of them ever forget. After finally finding the Key of Memory, the Locke decide to use it to definitively restore the memories of magic to Uncle Duncan too: these had been removed by his brother, to protect him from the trauma of having witnessed the murder committed.
The Riffel Rule Because Adults Don’t Remember Keys And Magic?
The second season of Locke & Key ends with Tyler getting even closer to eighteen, he knows he will lose all his magical memories. The boy, however – after the latest dramatic events – changes his mind and decides not to use the Key of Memory, choosing to live a life as normal as possible.
Bode, for his part, uses the Memory Key on his mother so as to allow her to remember the magic forever. But why don’t adults remember magic, then? The answer could be in the comics from which the series is taken: Riffel Rule.
In Clockworks #4 we find the possible explanation in a key created by Hans Riffel in 1942, during the Second World War: this was created to try to put an end to the use of keys by adults who, provided with malice and interest from to pursue, they can prove extremely dangerous with so much power at their disposal.
The Rule inhibits, precisely, the ability of an adult to remember magic: by adult, we mean a person who has turned eighteen years old or has graduated from high school. On the contrary, the smaller you are, the more sensitive you are to the call of the keys. The key in question, therefore, was given the power to prevent adults from remembering the magic: this is activated by entering Keyhouse, being the key to the front door of the house. At the moment, it’s unclear if Locke & Key will be talking about the Riffel Rule like in the comics or if the story will be tweaked a bit.
