Head Games

This article is about the arc from the graphic novels. You may be looking for the episode from the Netflix adaptation.

Welcome to Lovecraft • Head Games • Crown of Shadows
Keys to the Kingdom • Clockworks • Omega • Alpha • Golden Age

Locke & Key: Head Games is the second volume of the Locke & Key series. Issue #1 was originally published January 28, 2009, and ran until Issue #6 on July 1, 2009.

Cover Art

Standard Edition Cover Art by Gabriel Rodriguez.

Issue List

Head Games #1, "Intermission"

Head Games #2, "Chapter One"

Head Games #3, "Chapter Two"

Head Games #4, "Chapter Three"

Head Games #5, "Chapter Four"

Head Games #6, "Army of One"

First Appearances

Characters

• Callie Ridgeway
• Scot Kavanaugh
• Jamal Saturday
• Jordan Gates
• Brinker Martin
• Joe Ridgeway
• Lucas Caravaggio (flashback)
• Brian Rogan
• Candice Whedon

Keys

• Timeshift Key
• Echo Key

Synopsis

A few weeks after the death of Sam Lesser, Professor Joe Ridgeway is walking through the halls of Lovecraft Academy when he sees Zack Wells walking with Tyler Locke. Joe hesitates, recognizing Zack's appearance as being identical to Lucas Caravaggio, a boy who died in 1988.

Dodge informs Ellie Whedon that Joe recognized him. He uses the Anywhere Key to enter the police station, steals a gun, and enters Joe's house. Dodge confirms that he was once Lucas, and claims he is back to "finish something". He offers Joe a bottle of pills, which Joe declines. Joe attacks Dodge, breaking a glass on his face, and Dodge shoots Joe in the chest, killing him. Dodge returns to the Whedon household, where he has Ellie help him stage Joe's death as a suicide.

At Keyhouse, Bode Locke explores the grounds for where to use the Head Key.

Kinsey Locke is distraught after learning of Joe's death, and runs away from school, despite Jackie Veda's attempts to console her. Kinsey heads to the beach, where she is approached by Tyler and Dodge, who comfort her. While there, Tyler briefly meets Jordan Gates, and is invited to join the school's hockey team by Brinker Martin.

Duncan Locke prepares to return to Provincetown, and says his goodbyes to Nina Locke, Kinsey, and Bode. When he speaks to Tyler, he is introduced to Dodge, and hesitates, wondering how he recognizes him.

Dodge returns to Ellie, and tells her that Duncan remembered him, despite not having seen him since Duncan was eight years old.

Bode gathers Tyler and Kinsey, having discovered that the Head Key fit into a keyhole in the back of his neck. He opens his head, to Tyler and Kinsey's horror.

Tyler and Kinsey stare in disbelief at Bode's open head. Nina walks by, seemingly unbothered by Bode's state. At Bode's insistence, Tyler and Kinsey look inside his head to see colorful interpretations of memories. They realize they can put things in to instantly gain information, by putting a cookbook into Bode's head. They also learn they can remove memories by pulling them out, but the physical forms of the memories are not always reliable or accurate.

Tyler, falling behind in his schoolwork, uses the Head Key to learn the material from his class, while Kinsey considers taking something out of her own head. The next day at school, Tyler invites Dodge and Jordan over to show them how he got caught up with the class's readings.

In Provincetown, Duncan teaches an art class as he recalls when he was a child, and he followed Rendell Locke and his friends into the Drowning Cave. When he was discovered, Duncan was escorted out by Lucas Caravaggio. As his class ends, he is phoned by his boyfriend, Brian Rogan, and invited out for a drink.

At Keyhouse, Kinsey is furious with Tyler for having invited people over to show them the Head Key. When he uses it, Jordan runs away, horrified, while Dodge feigns ignorance.

Duncan and Brian go to a bar, where they are assaulted by two homophobic patrons. Duncan is knocked out when he is struck with a beer bottle. He comes to in his home, where, delirious, he tells Brian that Duncan needs to phone Tyler, claiming he is in trouble.

Kinsey has Tyler use the Head Key on her, and instructs him to remove her fear, and her ability to cry. He does so, and places the two, each manifested a small monster, in a glass bottle.

When Tyler falls asleep that night, Dodge takes the Head Key from Kinsey's room, and uses the Anywhere Key to enter Duncan's home. He removes Duncan's memories of Lucas, and soon is discovered by Brian. Dodge threatens Brian at gunpoint, causing Brian to run outside where he is hit by a car driven by their attackers from the bar.

Dodge then uses the Anywhere Key to enter the Whedon house. He uses it to remove a "part of [him]" that had been inside Ellie for the last several months that had kept Ellie in line. They recall how the previous Spring, Ellie found a jar in her bathroom containing the Gender Key, a fragment of Dodge, and the Echo Key, with a note reading "LOCKE'S WELLHOUSE Say my secret Name."

After an unsuccessful attempt to kill her abusive mother, Ellie had entered the Wellhouse, where she said Dodge's name. Dodge rose from the well and killed Ellie's mother, though Ellie was unable to process what exactly had happened, since "grown-ups never believe".

After removing Ellie's memories of Lucas, Dodge went to Rufus's room, but no keyhole appeared on his neck to insert the Head Key. Dismissing Rufus as being insignificant, Dodge left, though Rufus was aware of the situation, thinking of Dodge as a "replicant".

Dodge returns the Head Key to Kinsey's room. She wakes up, and he claims to just have been looking at the Tears and Fears she removed from her head. She confesses her attraction to him, and they share a kiss.