Netflix’sLocke And Key, a show revolving around the Locke family and their mystical ancestral home, Keyhouse, is at times whimsical, and other times quite grim. Its scenes of magicalkeyswith a variety of astounding abilities, such as opening a door to anywhere or giving its user angel wings, are rounded out with countless and irreversible deaths.
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From those close to the Locke family, to those in their peripheral, death whispers around the Lockes far more than the keys do. With the series having been concluded, let’s take out the tissues and mourn the tensaddest deathsin this dark, fantastical tale.
Spoilers ahead!
10Rendell Locke
The belovedfatherand husband’s death is what sets the Lockes’ return to Keyhouse into motion. The viewer only sees Rendell in flashbacks (and one key-induced farewell trip to the past) but from those past moments, Rendell’s kindness is apparent. He dotes on his kids, supports his wife in her struggle with alcoholism, and dedicates his life to guiding struggling teens.
It is easy to understand why his death leaves such a hole in the life of the Lockes. It also reminds both the Lockes and the viewers that there are some things that even magic can’t change (though it doesn’t quite make sense why).
9Sam Lesser
Sam is easily one of the most complex characters in the series. He commits the heinous murder of Rendell and terrorizes the Locke family, all to appease Dodge. But while Sam is still responsible for the pain he’s wreaked on the Lockes, it’s undeniable that malevolent factors were at play with Dodge whispering in his ear and his father’s abuse leaving himemotionally unstable.
It’s hard to decide which of his deaths is sadder, the one he suffers when Dodge stabs him both literally and figuratively, or the one he accepts after saving the Lockes and finally achieving some form of redemption for his sins.
8Joe Ridgeway
This adored principal and English teacher meets his demise when he stumbles on Dodge’s true identity as Lucas, Rendell’s high school friend who supposedly died twenty-five years ago in a sea-cave accident. Joe was kind and supportive to all he met but he had a particular bond with Nina, acting as her chief confidant.
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He not only gave her advice but also listened to her suspicions about the mysteries surrounding Keyhouse, though his support in her endeavors would lead to his murder. However, like Joe had faith in Nina, she has faith in him and refuses to accept his death was a suicide which Lucas set it up to appear as.
7Jackie Veda
Tylerfalls forJackie instantaneously upon meeting her, and much of his personal story arcs revolve around her, so her passing is keenly felt within the show. Jackie’s death especially stings because viewers initially thought Tyler had successfully saved her from a fate as a demon’s vessel with a newly created Alpha Key.
However, that joy is quickly cut short by the reveal that while the Alpha Key removed the demon, the process causes Jackie to suffer a deadly brain aneurysm. Tyler’s inability to save Jackie haunts him, pushing him to leave Keyhouse and his memories of magic behind.
6Erin Voss
Rendell’s high school girlfriend and one of the Keepers of the Keys, Erin spends over twenty years in a catatonic state after an accident with the Head Key leads her to be trapped in her own mind. The Lockes eventually free Erin from her mental prison but Erin’s days of freedom don’t last long. Feeling responsible for protecting the keys as the last Keeper alive (or so she believes), Erin attempts to defeat Dodge on her own. Unfortunately, Dodge gains the upper hand and kills Erin.
If Erin dying when she just got her life back wasn’t upsetting enough, Dodge uses the Plant Key to dispose of Erin’s body. Unable to give her a proper burial, the Lockes burn a duffel bag of her things both to erase evidence of her unexplainable murder and to say farewell.
5Peter Locke
The only onscreen Locke family member to never have experienced the magical keys that would become of his family for centuries, his life is taken byBritish Captain Gideon. His murder indirectly leads to the creation of keys, since his allies chase Gideon down to the sea cave where the Whispering Iron is eventually discovered.
Peter only appears in one episode but his goodhearted nature is evident through his inability to stab Gideon, unable to bear the thought of taking a human life. Though this decision dooms him, he dies a good man, in sharp contrast to his murderer.
4Eden Hawkins
Eden is Matheson’s resident mean girl and has a habit of being particularly unpleasant. Despite her callous nature, when the Lockes ask for her assistance in returning who they think is Dodge to the Omega Door, she agrees even though Kinsey’s fear monster had recently attacked her. As Kinsey later remarks, this selfless decision would be Eden’s undoing as she is hit with a demon bullet before the group can close the Omega Door.
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Eden spends the rest of the series possessed, causing her notoriously cruel behavior to escalate. All the characters, even her former best friend Jackie, turn away from her and when she finally dies as a demon, she dies alone. Her former allies do take the time to mourn her after finding her body, remembering how she chose to help them and her incredible chicness.
3Mark Cho
Considered by his friends to have been the most trustworthy of the Keepers of the Keys, Mark opens the series with his fiery sacrifice. It is later revealed that Mark’s actions were fueled by a determination to keep the locations of the key he’d hidden inside Keyhouse a secret since he had been tasked with hiding the majority of them.
Mark is rarely mentioned in the show, which is a shame given how bravely and willingly he offered up his life to keep the keys safe.
2Lucas Caravaggio
Lucas is reduced to the “meat bag” of Dodge, a demon who enters his body when he and the rest of the Keepers of the Keys open the Omega Door. Their curiosity proves fatal as Dodge’s pursual of the keys leads him to murder two of them before Rendell, forced to kill hisbest friend, stops him.
Although all three deaths of the young Keeper of the Keys are tragic, there is a certain melancholy in Lucas’ last moments. Unlike the rest of his friends, he goes out as a villain, not a hero.
1Gordie Shaw
The “background character” who stole viewers’ hearts, Gordie’s slow death takes place over course of nearly an entire episode as the characters scour his mind for a hidden key. Gordie’s death is particularly poignant not only because it is drawn out but because it feels that Gordie dies without ever truly achieving his dreams which were to be center stage for once in his life.
Before his lights go out, Gordie recites a beautifulmonologuereferencing death from Shakespeare’sTempestand in that moment, the viewer sees the star Gordie could’ve been had he been appreciated for who he was.
