'Locke & Key' Episode 5: Should we be more worried about Kinsey's fear or her complete lack of it?
Spoiler alert for 'Family Tree': Episode 3 of 'Locke & Key'
It's been two episodes since Kinsey (Emilia Jones) literally buried her fear out in the woods. And while it seems to have done her a world of good, the other shoe dropped this episode as she tortures a high school rival with some very disturbing mind control.
Eden Hawkins (Hallea Jones) might not be the nicest of people, but no teenager deserves public humiliation — especially not at an age where public humiliation has global reach.
Kinsey is playing with very dangerous forces here and it brings up the question of how good a person she really is if fear was the only thing keeping her from cruelty.
Kinsey's situation brings up a lot of interesting questions. She's in fascinating new psychological territory, here — what can be learned from plucking the fear out of one's head?
A fearless Kinsey has proven to be rather reckless, pursuing Scot with a bold directness, revealing the secrets of magic quite liberally, and, of course, the humiliation of Hawkins. What is fear connected to, and what is lost when it is removed?
It is also important to note that when Kinsey took out her fear, she didn't take away her pain. Her guilt over her father's death hasn't gone anywhere nor has the pain of his loss.
Fear is the thing that keeps a lot of the other wilder emotions in check — Kinsey may just be acting out over her feelings, lashing out at Eden out of a misplaced sense of anger.
Where a healthy amount of fear might have kept her other feelings in check, they're now running rampant. Kinsey might argue that she's just as rational as she was before she lost her fear, but teenagers were never the most rational people, to begin with.
What's more, as any good psychologist would tell you, burying your fears is nowhere near the same as getting rid of them. What Kinsey pulled out of her head wasn't a living, breathing creature — it was a metaphor, and those don't die quite as easily.
Buried feelings come to the surface sooner or later, and when it does, the Well-Lady (Laysla de Oliveira) might not be the show's biggest threat.
All episodes of Season 1 of 'Locke & Key' are currently available to stream on Netflix.