WARNING: The following article contains major spoilers for Locke & Key Season 1, streaming now on Netflix.
Locke & Key Season 2 is right around the corner and just in time for Halloween. While Season 2 appears to be starting a new chapter in the Locke family legacy, it also appears to be continuing some of the themes and storylines first explored in Season 1. One of those themes is the inability of most adults to remember the keys and their magic.
The story that began in Season 1 saw the Locke family move from Seattle, Washington to Matheson, Massachusetts, following the violent murder of Rendell Locke, their patriarch. The family made the move as a way of getting a fresh start, but also to find out the reason for Rendell's murder. When the family moved into the Locke family mansion, Keyhouse, many of the family's dark secrets started to gradually reveal themselves through magical keys only the Locke siblings could detect, but not their mother or uncle. The only adult revealed to know about the Locke magic keys is Ellie, Rendell's childhood friend.
In Locke & Key, Most Adults Can't See the Effects of the Keys
No concrete explanation is given in Season 1 as to why only the kids and teenagers are able to detect the magic keys and remember their power, but not the adults. However, it is speculated by Bode Locke that the reason adults immediately forget the keys after being exposed to their power is that they no longer have impressionable minds. Given that adults are more likely to find logical explanations for most events, they're less likely to believe in magic.
There is some evidence for Bode's reasoning throughout Season 1. When his mother, Nina, is sober, she immediately forgets the power of the mirror key just seconds after almost being killed in the key's mirror dimension. When she starts drinking again, however, her mind becomes more vulnerable under the influence and more readily believes the key's powers. This is why she is able to discover and remember the power of the mending key when she uses it to repair her mug and a few other items in her house. Once she sobers up again, she once again forgets the power of the keys.
One of the few adults that is aware of the power of the keys is Ellie, most likely due to the fact she became aware of the keys' magic when she was still a minor. Since her mind at the time was more susceptible to believing the impossible, like the Locke siblings, she marveled at their abilities. Another possible reason she hasn't forgotten about the keys' magical abilities is the fact they're tied to a traumatic event in her life, in this case, the tragic deaths of her friends.
Three of Ellie's friends died fresh after high school graduation and one ended up in a psychiatric hospital. Years later, Rendell was murdered in Seattle and another friend committed suicide shortly after. This left her and the friend in the psychiatric hospital as the sole survivors of their group. The more likely explanation for why Ellie remembers the keys, however, may have something to do with a rule that has yet to be named in the Netflix series but exists in the comic book series.
The Riffel Rule in Locke & Key Comics Explains Why Adults Can't Recall Magic
In Locke & Key: Clockworks #4 -- which is part of the Clockworks series -- an explanation is given for why adults can't remember the keys or their magic. Sometime during World War II, Hans Riffel made a new key using the same whispering iron that was used to make the other magical keys. His key would be used as the front door key and would immediately inhibit an adult's ability to detect magic.
For the Riffel Rule to take effect, Riffel defined an adult as a person that has reached 18 years of age or has graduated high school. His reasoning for inhibiting adults' ability to detect magic is to prevent them from abusing the keys' powers as tools of war. Another effect of the Riffel Rule is that the younger a child is the more sensitive they are to the keys' magic. If they are especially pure of heart, the keys will call out to them as they are unlikely to use the keys' powers with malicious intent.
There are, of course, exceptions to the Riffel Rule. One way adults are able to detect the keys' magic is if they are drunk, as in the case of Nina and Rendell in the comics. Once they sober up, however, the Riffel Rule once again takes effect. Another way an adult is able to remember the keys' magic is if they've used the head key to alter their memories, as was the case with Ellie in the comics. The Riffel Rule is also not the only way an adult can forget about the key's magic, as Duncan Locke proves.
Duncan Can't Remember His Childhood - for a Different Reason
In Season 1 of Locke & Key, Kinsey and Tyler Locke discover the plant key in the Locke family cemetery, where they also discover jars containing their Uncle Duncan's memories. One of the memories depicts Rendell -- their father -- bludgeoning his friend Lucas to death, which horrifies them both. When they try to use the jars to ask Duncan about the murder, he is unable to recall the event, except very faintly. It's not until Ellie comes clean about that fateful night that the Locke siblings learn the truth about what really happened and why Duncan can't recall the memories.
Sometime after their high school graduation, Rendell, Ellie, Lucas and a few other friends went down to the Drowning Caves, where they used the omega key on its corresponding door within. The group soon discovered the door was actually a portal to another dimension that shot "glowing bullets." One of those bullets hit Lucas, who then became possessed by the demonic entity known as Dodge.
Lucas went on to murder two of their friends as a way of coercing Rendell into surrendering the omega key, but Rendell killed him instead. Duncan, unfortunately, witnessed the murder. To protect Duncan from a traumatizing experience, Rendell and his friends used the head key to remove those memories from Duncan's head and placed them in the jars Kinsey and Tyler later found in the cemetery.