Why [SPOILER] Died In Locke & Key Season 2

Warning! SPOILERS ahead for Locke & Key season 2.

Locke & Key season 2 killed off Tyler’s girlfriend Jackie, played by Genevieve Kang, in a shocking twist. The relationship between Tyler and Jackie is at the center of Locke & Key season 2, as the couple grapples with the central challenge of growing old. In the world of Locke & Key, when you become an adult you lose the ability to retain the memory of magic—a creative decision that has the added benefit of explaining why the Keyhouse is still a secret. Desperate to continue their relationship, Tyler seeks out the Memory Key, but Jackie ultimately makes the heartbreaking decision not to use it. She rightly concluded that magic involves as much horror as it does beauty, and that she would rather forget it.

But magic cannot be escaped when you’re in a relationship with the Locke family. Dodge forces Duncan to forge the new Demon Key—which could be used to summon a demon capable of possessing a human being—and begings to gather an army around them. Naturally, this also means ensuring that people close to the Locke family are possessed, and Dodge soon has the opportunity to use the Demon Key on Jackie. Tyler barely escapes the wrath of the demon-possessed girl he loves, and he is understandably motivated to find a solution—a way of freeing Jackie. He finds a last piece of whispering iron, and forges it into another new season 2 key: the Alpha Key.

Related: Locke & Key Season 2 Ending & Future Setup Explained

Tragically, Tyler fails to test the Alpha Key before using it on Jackie. Although the Alpha Key does indeed cast the demon out of her, potentially even destroying it, Jackie’s human mind is unable to cope with the experience of being freed with it. She suffers an aneurysm, and Jackie dies in Tyler’s arms. The precise cause of Jackie’s death is uncertain; it’s possible nobody can survive being freed from a demon with the Alpha Key. Alternatively, although Tyler does not consider this possibility, it could also be that Jackie needed him to use the Memory Key as well. Locke & Key season 2 has already proven that a human mind can be damaged by a direct experience of magic, without use of the Memory Key, and it’s hard to get much more direct than demon possession.

Jackie’s death set up major changes for Locke & Key season 3, with Tyler understanding, as Jackie had done before him, that magic is both beautiful and terrible, horrific and wondrous. He decides to leave the Keyhouse and travel the country until after his eighteenth birthday, by which time all memory of magic will have faded. Kinsey and Bode are left to serve as the Keepers of the Keys without him—although to be fair to Tyler, by that point he truly believes all the potential threats have been dealt with and they will be safe. Actor Connor Jessup is confirmed to return for Locke & Key season 3, so it remains to be seen whether he’ll be allowed to forget magic for long.

While this arc makes narrative sense, Jackie’s death veers a little too close to the “Women in Refrigerator” trope, when a love interest is killed purely to cause a main (usually male) character pain. In the case of Locke & Key, it’s likely Tyler’s actions after Jackie’s death are motivated in part by guilt, because he is the one who forges the Alpha Key and uses it on her in the first place. No doubt as he leaves the Keyhouse behind, his mind will accept the non-magical explanation that she suffered an aneurysm, which is a lot more guiltless.

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Thomas Bacon
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Tom Bacon is one of Screen Rant’s staff writers, as well as a Peer Mentor for new writers and a member of the Care Team, offering support and a listening ear to members of the Comics group. A lifelong fan of major franchises including Star Wars, Doctor Who, and Marvel, Tom is delighted his childhood is back – and this time it’s cool. You can find him on Twitter @TomABacon.

A graduate of Edge Hill University, Tom remains strongly connected with his alma mater as a volunteer chaplain. He’s heavily involved with his local church, and anyone who checks him out on Twitter will swiftly learn he’s into British politics too.

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