Line #5 YMMV/LockeAndKey2020


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2	%% As Season 3 is the final season, please do not add Seasonal Rot examples specific to Season 3 until six months after its release (February 10th, 2023).
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4	* AlternateCharacterInterpretation: Lucas/Dodge's actions [[AdaptationalJerkass are much more cartoonishly unpleasant]] than their cold and pragmatic comic-book counterpart almost to the point of self-sabotaging. Can they just not help it because of the demon's otherworldly understanding of right and wrong, or is there a part of Lucas deep down sabotaging them?
5	* CompleteMonster: [[AdaptationalVillainy Captain Frederick Gideon]], in life, was a [[SociopathicSoldier vicious war criminal]], massacring American colonists, killing the Locke family progenitor, and attempting to [[ManOnFire burn innocents alive]]. [[DemonicPossession Possessed]] by one of the mightiest demons, Gideon's echo returns in modern day and kills Dodge's old associate Eden. Constantly attempting to murder the Lockes and all with them, Gideon resorts to brutal torture to get his way in an attempt to unlock the gates to his home dimension. [[EvenEvilHasStandards Even the wicked Dodge is aghast]], knowing that Gideon will unleash the demons to annihilate every human, leaving nothing in his lust for destruction and conquest.
6	* DiagnosedByTheAudience:
7	** Rufus seems to have some developmental problems, sports childlike vocal patterns and a hyperfocus on certain topics, though his tendencies are not nearly as pronounced as they were in the comic. It's worth noting that the actor is autistic.
8	** Sam Lesser has obvious psychopathic behaviors, but a flashback in high school shows him as very socially awkward, hinted as [[AbusiveParents a result of a bad home life]]. [[spoiler: Using the head key on him gives him a MyGodWhatHaveIDone response, implying deep down he wasn't in control of himself]].
9	** Erin Voss is in a psychiatric hospital in a mostly catatonic state. It's never explained exactly what is wrong with her, but implied to be from head trauma. [[spoiler: Turns out that she accidentally got trapped inside her own mind while using the Head Key, leaving her body catatonic.]]
10	* FanNickname: Around Reddit, Captain Gideon has been dubbed "Elon Musket" on the grounds that he resembles an 18th-century Elon Musk. This gained additional hilarity in the finale of season three, when Gideon steals Josh's car and ends up crashing it so violently that it explodes, leading to numerous jokes across Reddit about Tesla's self-driving cars.
11	* HesJustHiding: Following the season 2 finale, some forums and subreddits insisted that [[spoiler: possessed Eden]] couldn't possibly be dead after being dropped down the well by Captain Gideon, theorizing that the character might just be trapped down there and would team up with the Lockes to stop Gideon. Season 3 conclusively proved this wrong by not only giving the audience a lingering look at [[spoiler: Eden]]'s frozen corpse at the bottom of the well, but also featuring an extended "burial" sequence in which the character's body is tipped off the edge of a cliff and into the ocean, as if to say, "they're not coming back, got it?"
12	* IncestYayShipping: Some fans and reviewers commented that Tyler and Kinsey's relationship seemed a little ''closer'' than siblings normally are (and indeed, Tyler/Kinsey is the second most popular ship in fandom, only surpassed by [[FoeYayShipping Dodge/Kinsey]]).
13	* JerkassWoobie:
14	** Sam Lesser is introduced as Rendall's murderer, but later context reveals that came from an abusive home and was manipulated by Dodge for her own ends. For good measure, she also ends up betraying him as well and [[spoiler: leaving him for dead]].
15	** Eden comes on kind of strong and doesn't exactly go out of her way to be nice to Kinsey, but she gets publicly humiliated with the Music Box Key while she has no idea why she can't control her body movements, then attacked by [[spoiler: Kinsey's escaped Fear]], is told that happened because [[spoiler: Kinsey is afraid of her]], a revelation she seems kind of hurt by, and finally, gets [[spoiler: possessed by one of the demons]] during the season finale after having been trying to help.
16	* MemeticLoser: The Locke Family's more... questionable actions have resulted in them being uniformly branded as an entire family of morons who can't make a simple cup of coffee without getting someone endangered, hurt, killed, or all of the above. Some memes on Reddit have gone so far as to claim that the world would be a utopia if anyone other than the Lockes had gotten their hands on the Keys.
17	* SeasonalRot: Season 3 is generally held to be the exact point in the show where the flawed elements that had been building throughout the show finally began overwhelming it, featuring record examples of senseless or recycled plot threads, failure to make effective use of the Keys, and extremely poor writing.
18	* TheyChangedItNowItSucks:
19	** Downplayed. Most of the changes have been greeted positively, but there are fans disappointed with the changes to Jackie's character (from Kinsey's best friend to Tyler's girlfriend) and the omission of Jordan. The absence of the ever-popular Giant Key, and the changes to Sam's arc and characters have also drawn a mixed reaction.
20	** Played straight with a development in season 3 that has earned the ire of both fans of the comic book ''and'' casual watchers: [[spoiler: Bode's possession by Dodge - or, more specifically, the cause of it. In the books, it happened because Dodge outsmarted Tyler, Kinsey, ''and'' Sam; in the show, it's because Bode was stupid enough to go back in time and taunt Dodge's past self. This has been greeted as one of the most boneheaded elements of the entire adaptation and a failure to convey even a third of the corresponding comic plotline's drama and menace.]]
21	** Also, the ultimate fate of Dodge [[spoiler: and their replacement by Captain Gideon]] has been met with a mixture of bewilderment, frustration, and outright disgust both on the grounds that it's a massive departure from the original comics, and on the grounds that [[spoiler: Gideon just doesn't have Dodge's menace, cunning, or connection to the Lockes.]]
22	* TheyWastedAPerfectlyGoodCharacter:
23	** Post season 2, audiences were disappointed to discover that [[spoiler: Lucas plays no further part in the story after being freed from the demon possessing him; quite apart from being a source of drama and even information on the demons behind the Black Door, he's effectively indestructible. But instead of staying in Matheson and helping the Lockes against Gideon, maybe even completing a variant of his comic-book arc, he just... leaves.]]
24	** Josh being a descendant of Captain Gideon immediately made him a big deal among watchers, with many suspecting him of manipulating the Lockes to learn more about the Black Door, expecting him to have some major interaction with Gideon in which he learns the true history of his family, or even wondering if he might be able to replicate his famous ancestor's inexplicable ability to open portals. As of season 3, all these expectations have been proved wrong: Josh barely interacts with Gideon beyond a few token scenes, forgets all about the supernatural without being given use of the Memory Key, abandons his lifelong goal of uncovering the mysteries over the course of a single episode, and was seemingly just there to become a new love interest to Nina - making Josh both a missed opportunity and ''incredibly boring.''
25	** The Wheeler Sisters of season 3 have prompted much confusion over how they ended up trapped in the snowglobe, who they were to the previous generations of the Locke family, or how they ended up getting possessed in the first place. Indeed, some audiences were expecting them to have a bigger role, if only so the mysteries would be answered eventually. But no: they stay just long enough to verify the existence of the keys to Gideon, and then end up trapped in the Mirror - never to be seen again.
26	* TheyWastedAPerfectlyGoodPlot:
27	** Viewers expecting to learn more about the true nature of demons, how they live beyond the Black Door, or what their society is actually like were left disappointed when - even after [[spoiler: Ellie had been trapped in their realm]] - nobody learns anything other than the vaguest details.
28	** In season 2, Captain Gideon appears to accidentally open the portal that will eventually become the Black Door; viewers were eager to learn more about why this happened, even speculating that Josh (Gideon's descendent) might have the same power after the Black Door opens during a cave-in just after he touches. To the disappointment of many viewers, Gideon's inexplicable power is never once explained, and Josh's "power" was just a spectacular coincidence - to the point that some viewers wondered why Josh had been introduced in the first place.
29	* TheScrappy:
30	** Viewers are not especially fond of Nina Locke, in no small part due to her disconcerting habit of [[StepfordSmiler inappropriately smiling at everything]]; critics remark that she appears to lack common sense and often comes across as an irresponsible parent even when she's sober. The fact that she's constantly being left in the dark about everything, even when the heroes have a means of allowing her to remember the supernatural, makes her plotlines deeply frustrating... and when she finally ''does'' become the recipient of the Memory Key, the first thing she does is nearly get Bode killed by playing around with the Snowglobe Key.
31	** Viewers are no less charitable in their regard for Carly, as all she does is follow Tyler all the way to Matheson from Montana, and contributes nothing to the plot beyond that.
32	* UncertainAudience: One point of contention among certain critics of the series is that the uneven tone makes it a bit vague as to who this was actually meant for. Bode's segments feature a lot of childlike whimsy that audiences who wanted a more adult story might be disappointed with; scenes focused on Tyler and Kinsey are more typically "teen drama" with the series' fantastic elements not included until much later, likely turning off viewers who wanted more magic and mystery; Dodge and the demons from beyond the Black Door bring in a lot of violence and horror elements that would probably scare off family viewers who were lured in by Bode's segments. Similarly, there's a lot of divergences from the original comics that have been met with confusion and annoyance, especially in season 3, so it doesn't entirely appeal to the fans either.
33	* UnintentionallyUnsympathetic:
34	** Ellie Whedon is meant to be seen as a victim of Dodge coerced into becoming their henchman... but unfortunately, she's directly responsible for bringing Dodge back via the Wellhouse, putting the blame for Rendell's murder squarely on her head. And unlike the comics, in which Ellie was under the influence of a fragment of Dodge's personality stuck in her brain and honestly didn't know what she was doing, Ellie's show incarnation was fully aware of the potential dangers but considered them acceptable risks in her quest to get in touch with her dead boyfriend - which hasn't endeared her to critics, especially given that [[NoYay Ellie is in her forties and Dodge can't be much older than seventeen]]. Plus, she continues to remain in Dodge's employ because of the threat to Rufus, even with ''Rufus himself'' encouraging her to seek help from the Lockes. [[spoiler: The fact that she ends up accidentally bringing Dodge the Shadow Key out of pure stupidity does not help.]]

Context YMMV / LockeAndKey2020