Locke & Key: Crown of Shadows #6 is the eighteenth issue of the series.
Synopsis[]
Beyond Repair[]
Nina Locke is drinking and watching an old home video of her husband when Bode Locke enters the room with a cut on his chin. Bode notices the video and is watching it as Nina mends his cut. Bode then tells Nina he got hurt trying to get a key down from above the toilet using her old cane. Nina then plucks down the key and they find it opens the Mending Cabinet, where Nina puts her old cane.
Later, Nina, still drinking, tries to show Bode how to juggle, using plates. When she fails, she grabs another few plates and breaks them as well, as the children watch. Kinsey Locke takes Bode to bed.
When Nina then goes to retrieve the cane from the cabinet, she finds it has been repaired. She understands and puts the broken stool in the Cabinet, and finds it whole again. She does the same to the broken plates.
She then decides to try it out with her husband's ashes. When it doesn't work, she gives it more time while she takes a shower and makes herself up. When she comes back she sees Tyler from behind, and in her grief and drunkenness believes he is Rendell.
When Tyler turns around she has a mental breakdown. She cries and screams at him before walking up to the cabinet and breaks her cane over it. As she takes the ashes back out, Tyler thinks it's best to take it away from her, but instead, they drop it. Tyler tries to talk sense into her, but can't. When Kinsey shows up and is rather harsh on her, Nina slaps her across the face. Bode shows up crying, asking them to stop fighting. Kinsey puts Bode back in bed.
Tyler then gives Nina a talking to about how terrible she's been lately. She reacts with more rage and tells him she wants him to get out of the house. After Tyler's left the room, she cries, falls to the floor, and says she didn't mean it.
When the kids clean up the next day, Tyler finds the Omega Key in his dad's ashes.
Variant Covers[]
Trivia[]
- On page 6, Kinsey tells Jackie Veda about Zack's first encounter with a cell phone, which is developed on in Keys to the Kingdom 2.
- On page 7, Nina says "Everything gets fucked up and smashed." while looking in the mirror. "fucked up" and "smashed" are both expressions for being extremely drunk, which may be intentional.
- In Locke & Key: Welcome to Lovecraft #1, when trying to find the Omega Key, Sam told Rendell to "cough it up". Rendell responded that the phrase was almost funny, but he couldn't remember why. The revealed location of the Omega Key in this issue explains what Rendell was trying to remember.
Analysis[]
Throughout the issue, Nina has a very casual reaction to the mending cabinet. She's confused and surprised by it, but not much more than one might be the first time one sees a dishwasher. She seems to think of it not as magic, but as just some unusual appliance.
On page 20, Nina falling to the floor and the picture showing the broken bottle and plates is probably a metaphor for her being as broken as them. Just the same, the title of the issue, "Beyond Repair" probably refers to her, rather than Rendell.