Kinsey Locke

Kinsey Locke is a member of the Savini Squad and the Keepers of the Keys and the protagonist/main character of the Netflix show Locke & Key. An extremely talented artist, she is gifted but also emotionally delicate, teased for her sullen and cantankerous personality during her school life. Feeling inadequate and wishing to prove herself, she is initially skeptical when in their new home inherited from their ancestors, her little brother introduces her to the mysterious keys there. As Kinsey already has a latent desire to make the world sit up and notice her, she is eventually forced to witness the power of the keys firsthand by the barbarous criminal that killed her father and the anti-heroine who has unintentionally enabled it. In a turn of fate, she becomes not only her filming crewmate but the gay love of her life until she betrays her and becomes complacent in her murder. She later mellows out a bit and turns out to be the one to destroy the destructive and tyrannical Frederick Gideon once and for all. She is played by .
==Biography==
===Past===
On Kinsey's eighth birthday, Rendell took her to the aquarium.
===Season One===
====Moving to Matheson====
When Sam Lesser turned up at Kinsey's house, he assaulted Rendell with a pistol. Kinsey hid Bode under a tarp and covered his mouth while Sam proceeded to murder Rendell in cold blood. Subsequently, Kinsey witnessed Nina incapacitating Sam so he could be placed in juvenile prison. This led to her and her family moving to Matheson. Kinsey initially struggles to adapt to her new life at Keyhouse Manor, including attending a new school. Just before school started, Kinsey tried to lighten her stressed mother's load by turning in a document of medical consent for Tyler's permission to join the hockey team, forging Nina's signature, and she also sent an e-mail to the Assistant Head from Nina's account so they could catch up. Nina was mildly displeased, however, and Kinsey took off with Tyler but not before bidding Duncan goodbye. Arriving at Matheson Academy, she overhears a conversation about a party, and while a popular student named Jackie Veda suggests inviting Kinsey, Eden Hawkins oversees the popular opinion of categorically deciding against it. All of this causes her to eat lunch on her own multiple times, given Tyler makes new friends and does not wish to eat with her. Eventually, Scot Cavendish begins sitting with her, to her initial dismay as he is coming on too hard and seems sexually interested in her. Nevertheless, the two grow closer and closer, and he eventually asks if she would like to be a member of his friend group, which is called the Savini Squad.
After learning that their manor is filled with mysterious keys imbued with magical powers, Bode informs Kinsey, but she irritably dismisses him. He does, however, find one of the keys hidden within a bracelet of hers given by Rendell years ago. However, Kinsey is roused when Bode later uses a second key to attempt to communicate with his father, Rendell, with Nina becoming trapped as someone else had instructed him to be supervised by an adult. Suggesting they use a long piece of rope in the Well House, Kinsey sends Tyler into a parallel universe to save Nina, with her keeping him tethered to the Earthly Plane until they can be reunited.
====Struggling to move forward====
Overnight, Kinsey suspects mold hallucinations, conveying this in the morning. Javi drove her and Tyler to school, but she was ungrateful and sullenly stormed out as Javi asked Tyler why she showed him unprovoked bitterness. The academic day began and ended, and in the evening Eden quit the movie they're making, so Kinsey was handed her role, although she was reluctant at first. She was also introduced to Gabe; the two got on well. Still, she struggles with the premise of the movie. After Gabe drenches her in food coloring made to look like blood, Douglas Brazelle hits the tarp which triggered a flashback to the trauma her family endured at the hands of Sam Lesser. This makes her want to quit the movie, and she returns home in tears. Ultimately, she decides against it and the movie goes ahead. It is revealed much later that Scot never cut the specific scene in which Kinsey has a break down as he believes it brings character to the movie.
====Removing her own fear====
Later, Kinsey uses the key with Tyler to show him some of her memories. Her memories are represented as a Mall, with each of the storefronts representing a different memory. She shows Tyler a particular memory of their father telling a story, and they finally agree on the story's ending. The memory quickly changes, however, and they find themselves in a memory of the day their father was killed by Sam. Tyler is attacked by a figure in her head — later revealed to be her fear — and they promptly leave, although Tyler is still injured in the physical world. Kinsey returns later and drags the figure from her head, burying it, but eliminating her fear in the process. The first effects of Kinsey's partial exorcism become prominent when she cooks the family breakfast. She did not tell Nina or Bode what happened, yet as they arrived at school she confessed to Tyler that she removed her fear. Tyler was horrified, aware of Kinsey's ignorance of what damage could be caused in the near future.
====Tormenting Eden Hawkins====
Tyler and Kinsey find the Music Box Key shortly after and, pairing it with the Music Box, they discover that it has the ability to control people. She uses the box on Eden Hawkins, manipulating her into embarrassing herself in front of the whole school canteen. However, Eden passes it off as deliberate physical comedy and Dodge arrives, having witnessed the connection between magic and human behavior. Kinsey allows her to experiment with the key; this causes a rift between Scot and Kinsey because he does not think Eden's comeuppance is as deserved as the other two believe, possibly because he has known her the longest.
====Rescued by a demoness====
Unfortunately, Doug brings bad news — the Savinis have lost their shot to film some of their scenes at the Matheson Docks. After he suggests building a set of their own and Dodge suggests making bathtub miniatures, Kinsey suggests filming at the Drowning Caves, following an urge to visit them for numerous days previously. Dodge is immediately in approval of her idea, and the Savinis agree to go. They arrive at the Drowning Cave, and Kinsey insists that they should venture deeper, as she follows the mystical whispers. She comes upon a large door with an omega symbol surrounding it, becoming fixated upon the key hole. Dodge shows up in a panic and tells her that the Savini Squad must leave the caves, as the tide is rising and they may drown and die. She heroically pulls her to safety. Her relationship with Scot and the Savini Squad is fractured, however, as they lose all of their equipment thanks to Kinsey's idea.
====Sam Lesser's quest====
She later finds herself thrown back into a previous experience when Sam Lesser returns to Keyhouse and threatens the family with a gun, demanding the Head Key. Kinsey and Bode are able to hide the key, however, but Sam eventually gets his hands on it. While Kinsey and Bode remained in the forest a little while longer, Sam was killed by Dodge who took the key from him, leaving the Locke Family surprised, but relieved.
====Studying the Keepers of the Keys====
Although she wanted to put her fear back, the absence of the Head Key prevented this. She led Tyler into the sea caves, where they learned the names of the former Keepers of the Keys.
====Continuation====
After confessing to Scot and Dodge, Kinsey suggested that she could date them both, confusing them both. Ultimately, Scot told her that he disagreed with her suggestion and the two could both be platonic.
====Showdown at Keyhouse Manor====
As they waited, Kinsey became restless about Ellie's timing, but then Dodge arrived ahead of time and put on the Crown of Shadows. Realizing Dodge had taken the key from Ellie by force, Kinsey swore apprehensively. As a band of demons began swarming Keyhouse, Kinsey prepared to barricade the door, only for the demons to phase through the wall and overturn Rendell's urn. She rushed forward as a transmuted decoy demon — whom Kinsey assumed was Dodge herself — pinned Tyler to the wall and demanded to know where the Omega Key had been relocated to. However, Bode realized the lights kept them away and confirmed the key was safe. As more demons stormed the mansion, Kinsey rushed downstairs to reactivate the fuse box, but a demon tripped her on the way, and her face came down hard upon the pavement. She rushed for the flashlight, but two demons yanked her backward and behind the fuse box, proceeding to advance forward and attack her. She managed to reactivate the fuse box just as her girlfriend was leaving Keyhouse Manor, arriving upstairs to greet the others.
The trio believed they had subdued Dodge after Bode attempted to murder her with the Matchstick Key. Hence, they hatched a plan to throw her through the Black Door and seal it shut. They were successful in this plan, however little do they know that they have actually thrown Ellie Whedon through the door, nor that the real Dodge was her girlfriend, or that it was the Lockes' alleged nemesis who had saved her from death not once, but twice. Bode names the Locke Children the new "Keepers of the Keys".
===Season Two===
====The Premiere====
Kinsey reappears in the second season of Locke & Key, eventually stepping away from a fancy boat and standing atop the water in a fashion comparable to Jesus of Nazareth in a dimension within her head. She continues to interact with the Savinis, including her girlfriend who helps her promote the upcoming premiere of The Splattering.
====Romantic tensions====
To be added.
====The bittersweet truth====
Kinsey breaks into Eden's head and betrays and plots to murder Dodge upon learning she is both an unbelievably attractive woman and a benevolent extra-dimensional entity, since Bode had been playing everyone for months, although her dumbstruck and homicidal responses also derived from Dodge faking her own death in order to get even with Ellie Whedon, whose alleged demise Kinsey considered sickening, due to the middle-aged schoolteacher having hurt Dodge more badly than anyone else in the show up to that point. Kinsey's homicidal fantasies became even more lurid when Dodge killed Erin Voss in self-defense, proclaiming that she was hellbent on satisfying her bitterness by murdering her ex-girlfriend despite a lack of provocation to do so.
====Cliffside carnage====
To be added.
===Season Three===
Kinsey Locke fights Frederick Gideon alongside the other Lockes, eventually striking him with the Alpha Key.
==Appearance==
Kinsey is a short-statured and average-looking teenage girl; being slender, but not at all muscular, with blonde hair with a pink streak, brown eyes, and fair skin. Despite her unpleasant facial complexion, she has a surprisingly keen sense of style; generally wearing cargo-type pants and loose jeans with colorful tops and loose, stylish jackets. Ironically, this keen fashion sense makes her very similar to Dodge, who she dates and proceeds to betray. Despite this, she was not objectively as pretty as her, or Eden Hawkins, or even Jackie Veda, however; with Scot Cavendish being the only character ever to acknowledge her alleged physical beauty (as Dodge loves her exclusively as a person).
==Personality==
At times, Kinsey Locke can come off as extremely toxic, negative, wrathful, bitter, cynical, narcissistic, and selfish. In reality, she is a more complex adolescent whose scathing temperament and emotional sensitivity are not remotely abnormal for her age and she has repeatedly tried to keep her bitter and wrathful traits in check so she can be considerate of other people and better herself in general. Personality-wise, she is very similar to Dodge and Bode Locke and sharply contrasts Tyler Locke and Eden Hawkins: she shares Dodge's artistic and ambiverted personality and Bode's impulsive yet clever temperament; sharply contrasting Tyler and Eden's boisterous, extroverted, and unacademic personalities. At school, she struggled to fit in, and came to develop a latent desire for recognition, having long harbored a desire to sit up and make people notice her. And while she does strive to appreciate what the Savinis have done for her and appreciate their company, she occasionally ends up being a hindrance, especially when she destroys all of their gear and endangers their lives just to investigate something personal in their new filming location. However, it's implied she's generally a help in their filming projects and they genuinely like her. Despite this, Kinsey is not unintelligent; she is actually quite resourceful, using a lasso to ensure Bode's fortunate predicament in the dimension opened by the Mirror Key. Kinsey is very protective of her family, refraining from smashing Sam Lesser's head with a poker when he murdered their father and from grabbing his gun solely so she could flee with her defenseless little brother. She is also genuinely determined to thwart Frederick Gideon's evil devices and ultimately strikes him with the Demon Key, saving billions of lives in the process. She is also very talented, strongly impressing people with her artistic and musical aptitude every single time it becomes relevant.
Kinsey is immensely rigid when it comes to dating, gender notwithstanding. While she does not initially get on well with Scot as he is overbearing and falsely comes across as being perversely sexually interested in her due to his own social ineptness, she comes to trust him as he is all she has on a social level along with the other Savinis. They awkwardly bond on a romantic level (to the point he's the first person she ever tells about the keys), but ultimately decide to remain as friends temporarily. However, she gets on better with Dodge (having no idea they are the same sex) as despite Dodge being considerably stronger and more mature than her, they still seem to balance each other out reasonably well. She has lingering feelings for Scot, however, as she later suggests she can date two people at once, hinting at a desire for polyamory that is never elaborated on. Kinsey was so invested in the Lockes' longstanding prejudice against the Black Door that when learning Dodge originated from that realm, she immediately betrayed her for Scot; yet her recklessness persisted as she left Scot at Eden's mercy despite him implying she may remember having her thoughts invaded. After playing with Dodge's feelings several times and being defeated by the demonic entity, she grew exasperated and demanded Dodge forfeit the upper hand in favor of more mindless fighting, only for Dodge to remind her what she was giving up because of her own immaturity and inability to see the bigger picture regarding demons. Despite this, she wasn't homophobic as she sincerely considered Dodge's offer to come back into the picture and was happy to perform at her uncle's gay wedding with Brian Rogan. Additionally, Kinsey is extremely impulsive and has a tendency to jump to action without thinking of the consequences, which is never more prominent than when she attempts to permanently remove and destroy her fear. This has come back to bite her, such as nearly drowning inside the Sea Caves when the tide came in as mentioned earlier, and being stunned when her fear manifests later as a physical threat to people like Eden.
Despite her faults, she was still just a teenager on the crossroads between childlike and mature temperaments, especially considering Dodge and Tyler both assured her she would make everything right with her friends; their counsel ultimately proved correct. She is also very brave, viciously impaling the omnicidal madman Frederick Gideon without any hesitation even when he was about to warp her into his home dimension. While she showed no remorse for what she did to Dodge, she did regret Eden's fate and tenderly sang to her as the Savinis cremated her.
Kinsey listens to less known musical artists such as Sarah Rebecca and Loud Hound.
As far as her diet goes, Kinsey likes tea and is vegetarian, as she ate falogna at school and emphasized this to Sam in regards to chopped-up leftover turkey. It's also possible she subverted this since she never mentioned it once after Sam's attack.
==Abilities==
*Gifted intellect: Kinsey is reasonably intelligent, as she thought to lasso Tyler in a parallel universe so he could reach the base of the mirror and distracted Dodge long enough for Tyler to exorcise Lucas.
*Expert artist: While humble about her greatest talent, Kinsey was an extremely skillful artist. She applied to Parsons, which notably impressed Dodge, although she never got accepted.
*Expert cook: In spite of being underage, Kinsey was just as gifted a cook as her mother was. Upon removing her fear, she was able to cook things such as pancakes and bacon in rapid succession, evidently without a cookbook, and without anyone's assistance. She also offered to cook for Duncan when he was trying to process his new memories.
*Gifted swimmer: While not on Scot or Dodge's level, Kinsey was an adequate swimmer, although without Dodge, she never would have escaped the raging waters of the Drowning Caves alive.
==Weaknesses==
*Transparency: Kinsey's greatest weakness by far is that she consistently lacks the inclination nor ability to hide her thoughts and emotions at all, and this gives her a very predictable personality, which almost lets Dodge choke her to death and Gideon cast her into his home realm since they know exactly how she responds to certain situations. Even Tyler immediately realized she used the Music Box on Eden.
*Impulsiveness: Kinsey is inclined to behave without forethought and this almost gets her and the Savinis killed in the Drowning Caves and forced Dodge to rescue her while Scot, Doug, and Zadie made their own escape. However, this weakness of hers is not as prominent when she has her fear.
==Possessions==
Bracelet: Rendell gifted Kinsey the Anywhere Key in a gold bracelet worn around her wrist.
==Trivia==
*Kinsey Locke is the main protagonist in Locke & Key because Tyler has far less character development, being two-dimensional in spite of how cool he is, and Bode has far less screentime, only appearing every once in a while throughout the three seasons.
*Kinsey describes going to "Coachella and back for a day" when recounting her experiences with magic. However, it is unclear whether she meant using the Anywhere Key to travel between Massachusetts and California or the Head Key to relive the experience, as it is unclear when she could have used the Anywhere Key since that key was in Dodge's possession between each season.
==Gallery==
Kinsey in her sweater.png
Kinsey Locke.png
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