‘Locke & Key’s Connor Jessup & Darby Stanchfield Tease ‘Explosive’ Season 2 & New Keys

‘Locke & Key’ is back for season 2. HL spoke EXCLUSIVELY with the cast and EPs about the ‘tension’ caused by the Dodge secret, new keys, Nina coming into the fold, and more.

Locke & Key returns with more questions looming and answers to be revealed. Who will find out Gabe is Dodge first? What’s this about new keys? The possibilities are endless. HollywoodLife spoke EXCLUSIVELY with Connor Jessup and Darby Stanchfield about the overlying “tension” in season 2.

“Well, a lot of the tension in season 2 comes from the fact that you as the audience know that Gabe is Dodge and you go with him and with Eden,” Connor said. “You follow them as they start to plot and as they start to work their evil against the Lockes. But we don’t know and Kinsey especially, who’s dating Gabe, doesn’t know. There’s a huge amount of tension that comes from waiting to see if they will slip up, if we will catch on to something, how that will be resolved. It builds and it builds and it builds and, without spoiling anything, it comes to a pretty explosive head.”

As for Nina, who struggled with alcoholism and Rendell’s death in the first season, will continue to grieve the loss of her husband. “The questions about Rendell Locke’s death continues to haunt her,” Darby told HollywoodLife. “There’s more mystery with the kids in their world that they have to discover and so many more questions are asked. But what the kids go through and what the stakes are and how it becomes more complicated and urgent and dangerous, Nina can’t help but sense it. Although she doesn’t maybe fully understand it, it definitely affects her world and is strained again. You see the reemergence of alcoholism in her and how she deals with that, that wanting to drink again. So there’s a lot that happens for Nina.”

The season 2 trailer hinted that new keys will be created in the episodes ahead. Connor noted that season 2 will explore the “history” of the keys. “As we get to know them more, as we find more of them, as we delve a little bit deeper into the history of them, it starts to become a question of: Can you make a key? Who can make them? How do you make a key? And why do the villains want to make one? As you saw in the trailer, that can’t be anything good. That becomes one of the real core questions of season 2, and all the characters are rushing at that question from their own direction,” he said.

The end of the first season revealed that Gabe is actually Dodge. Gabe/Dodge and Eden, who is a new demon, team up in season 2, but they don’t exactly get along. “Everything is kind of delicious and new to her, and she’s very reckless,” co-showrunner Meredith Averill told HL. “He does not like that so they have a fun dynamic to play off of, but Dodge has a mission this season. We’re going to see that play out and, at the same time, we’re going to see Dodge continuing to fool Kinsey not knowing, of course, that Gabe is actually Dodge for a period of time. I think there’s an enjoyment in the audience knowing that when he’s in scenes with Kinsey, it just kind of ups the tension of all of those scenes, but also seeing her be smart and start to put the pieces together.”

Ellie was seemingly lost forever when she was thrown through the Black Door while being disguised as Dodge. Co-showrunner Carlton Cuse promised we’ll find out what happened to her. “The answer is yes. I don’t want to say too much about it. But if you’re concerned about that, yes, you will get your answer,” he said. Locke & Key season 2 is now streaming on Netflix.