‘Locke & Key’: Connor Jessup Explains Why Tyler Is “Moving On”

Of all the members of the Locke family on Netflix’s Locke & Key, Tyler (Connor Jessup) arguably goes through the biggest change over the course of Season 2. Spoilers past this point, but through ten episodes, Tyler goes from casually using the magic of the keys littered around his house to ultimately — at least in part — rejecting that magic, as he decides to take a potentially memory erasing road trip when the season finale ends.

“Tyler, he’s gone through a big journey in terms of his relationship with the magic,” Jessup told Decider. “In Season 1, he really is the most reluctant of everyone to come around to it. He’s the most wary. And in Season 2, he’s had a total about-face. He’s now on board. He’s using these keys for fun. He is a believer.”

The turning point for Tyler, and his motivating force throughout the season, is that his girlfriend Jackie (Genevieve Kang) is turning 18. And when she does, she’ll forget that magic exists, as well as all the good times she and Tyler have had using the magic keys. Tyler ends up hunting down the Memory Key, a backdoor into this magical, mind-erasing rule… Which Jackie ultimately ends up rejecting.

“Throughout Season 2, he’s trying to convince Jackie that it’s worth keeping these memories and she thinks it’s too painful,” Jessup continued. “She thinks it’s okay to move on, that that’s part of growing up and he just doesn’t get that.”

For the showrunners, Tyler was the obvious character to hand this plotline, because of his age. “We really love exploring the thematic of, well, what does it mean to grow up?” co-showrunner Carlton Cuse explained. “And what are the consequences of growing up? And Tyler is the character most poised for that story to play out in a poignant way, because he’s just about to turn 18. His girlfriend is about to turn 18. The magic is something that is only experienced by kids. It was something that organically was just right there for us. And we love Connor as an actor, and we wanted to really give him, we really wanted to explore some of those thematics through his character and through his relationships.”

Unfortunately for Tyler, though, things turn extremely dark when Jackie is infected by the Demon Key, which attaches a parasitic entity to her spine and makes her loyal to the show’s Season 2 villain, Gabe (Griffin Gluck). To save her, Tyler creates the Alpha Key, which is used to unlock demons from their hosts. And the key works… To a point. The side effect? The demon kills them when they’re taken over, and removing the demon momentarily frees the host, before they die for real. So when we last see Jackie, she has died in Tyler’s arms — something that only motivates his final decisions in the season.

“He loses her and he has this enormous wound, and this enormous pain that enters his life, which in a way is similar to the pain of losing his dad,” Jessup noted. “It’s like it’s a new wound, but it’s also a reopening of an older, emotional wound, and… In that moment, he can’t live with that, and that he can’t bear the thought of that weighing on him forever.”

After beating Gabe in the season finale, Tyler hands several of the keys over to his sister Kinsey (Emilia Jones), and heads off on a road trip. As his younger brother Bode (Jackson Robert Scott) points out, though, by the time he’s back from his trip he may have already turned 18, and forgotten magic entirely. For Tyler, that’s the point.

“He frames it to himself in terms of growing up and in terms of letting things go,” Jessup said. “Whether that’s true or not, that’s the question for the next season, but I think that’s what he tells himself.”

And as for those who might be worried that with Tyler (potentially) forgetting about the keys, and driving off into the sunset, that might be a series wrap on Connor Jessup? Stop worrying. Jessup — and Tyler — will be back for the already filmed Locke & Key Season 3.

“I don’t think when he leaves at the end of Season 2 that his story is over,” Jessup said. “To me, it felt like a new chapter, but it didn’t feel like a resolution. So, there’s still more for Tyler.”

Locke & Key Season 2 is currently streaming on Netflix.

Where to watch Locke & Key