Netflix’s Locked In includes many twists throughout its tense plot and leaves viewers with several unanswered questions to discuss as the credits roll. Locked In’s cast of characters features a complicated family consisting of widowed, former actress, Katherine; her stepson, Jamie; her adopted daughter and daughter-in-law, Lina; and their family doctor, Robert. When Katherine falls victim to a hit-and-run and is unable to speak — leaving her in a state her nurse refers to as “locked in” — the nurse attending to her tries to uncover the truth about what really happened to her and why.
What unfolds is a suspenseful thriller full of murder, betrayal, and complicated loyalties. While many shocking revelations are made throughout the film, some mysteries are left unexplained. It encourages viewers to speculate about what truly happened after the ending of Locked Inand what the characters’ true intentions were all along.
How Did Jamie’s Father Die?
Katherine (and Robert) May Have Plotted His Death.
Early on in the film, the audience learns through flashbacks and through Lina’s narration that when Katherine’s husband died, he wrote her out of his will and, instead, left the estate they lived on to his son, (Katherine’s stepson) Jamie. This led Katherine to resent Jamie for having inheritance over the home instead of her. This off-screen death, which happened before the start of the events of the film, is an inciting incident for much of the conflict seen throughout the film. A central conflict in Locked In is Katherine and Lina’s battle to secure inheritance over the estate.
Being such an important event and source of conflict, questions surrounding the death of Jamie’s father could reveal that plots to secure inheritance over his estate could have been in motion for many years before the start of the film, perhaps even while he was still alive. Little is revealed about the relationship between Katherine and Jamie’s father. The film hints, however, that things turned sour between them shortly before his death, leading him to write Katherine out of his will.
Considering that Katherine felt entitled to the estate, it’s possible that Jamie’s father saw that Katherine was plotting (perhaps along with Robert) to secure his house for herself, which hurt their relationship and led him to disinherit her out of spite. It’s possible, too, that Katherine murdered her husband in an attempt to secure his estate, only to discover that he had disinherited her. After all, Katherine is capable of plotting and covering up a murder. She was complicit in, or at least knew about, Jamie’s death and she tried to kill Lina before having a change of heart.
What Was Lina’s Mother Really Like?
Her Character Has Implications on Lina and Katherine’s Relationship.
In a tense conversation during Katherine’s birthday dinner, Katherine describes how her and Lina’s mother, Danielle, were childhood friends, practically like sisters. She claims that Danielle grew jealous of Katherine after she achieved wealth as a Hollywood actress, destroying their friendship. Lina is angered by this, claiming her mother wasn’t a jealous person. Katherine claims that Lina hated living in poverty with her mother, that she wanted to live with Katherine, and that she would have ended up in foster care if Katherine hadn’t adopted her.
The question of what Danielle was really like has massive implications for the relationship between Katherine and Lina. If Katherine is right, then it makes sense why she suspected that Lina was a gold digger who only married Jamie so that she could legally inherit the house. Katherine may have suspected that Lina was a jealous person, like her mother, who would’ve done anything to secure the wealth that would’ve allowed her to live a life different from the one she lived with Danielle.
As Katherine claims, this would also explain why Lina felt guilty for her mother’s death: because she didn’t want to live with her anymore. Perhaps Lina felt like she left Danielle vulnerable to whatever — or whoever — ended her life. Perhaps Lina projected this guilt onto Katherine when she claimed that Katherine abandoned Danielle by becoming famous and moving to America.
If Lina is right, and Danielle was not jealous of Katherine, then it does not make sense why Katherine suspected that Lina was a gold digger after Jamie’s wealth. Perhaps Katherine was, instead, projecting her own greed and desire to inherit the estate onto Lina, when all Lina wanted was to live a happy life with Jamie and Katherine — the only family she had left and the only life she knew after Danielle died. Leaving the truth of what Danielle was really like a mystery helpsmaintain suspense in the film regarding what different characters’ true intentions are.
Who Killed Lina’s Mother?
Her Suspicious Death Raises More Questions About Who She Really Was.
Just like how the death of Jamie’s father and the disposition of Danielle is kept a mystery in the film, Danielle’s death is also mysterious. In an argument one night between Jamie and Lina, Jamie explains that Lina’s mother was murdered. He uses this as a way to manipulate Lina into staying with him by claiming that the world is a dangerous place where people, such as Danielle, get killed. He says that he and Lina are better off staying secluded in the home, isolated from the dangers of the outside world.
Nothing more is ever revealed about the circumstances of Danielle’s death. This raises even more questions as to who Danielle really was and what kind of impact she had on her daughter, Lina. Perhaps Danielle was surrounded by her own cast of suspicious and murderous characters who eventually betrayed her, much like the characters seen throughout Locked In. Perhaps her death was just a random, tragic event. Either way, in a film filled with murder, greed, complicated loyalties, and betrayal, it’s an interesting choice on the part of the filmmakers to give Danielle a mysterious and violent death which raises even more questions about the true nature of the characters.
How Long Were Katherine and Robert Plotting Together For?
It Could Have Been for Months, Years, or Even a Decade.
In a flashback sequence towards the end of the film, Katherine is seen telling Robert that they should not kill Lina because they have her diary, in which she confesses to wanting to drown Jamie. This implicates her in Jamie’s death, meaning it can be used as leverage to allow Robert and Katherine to take ownership of the house away from Lina.
This scene reveals that Katherine was either complicit with Robert in the plan to kill Jamie or that she at least knew that he was murdered, meaning they had been plotting together since at least before Jamie’s death. Perhaps, however, they had been plotting for long before this. If Katherine did murder her husband in an attempt to take his inheritance, perhaps she plotted this with Robert. If she had been harboring resentment towards Jamie from the moment his father died, perhaps she and Robert had been plotting Jamie’s murder for years.
Most likely, however, is that the two didn’t begin plotting until Jamie and Lina got engaged. At Jamie and Lina’s wedding, Jamie says that Katherine did not begin mistreating Lina until Lina got engaged to Jamie. At this point, she began perceiving Lina as a gold digger intent on marrying Jamie in order to gain his inheritance of the house. It’s possible that Katherine’s feelings towards Lina changed so suddenly because this is when Robert seduced and began manipulating Katherine. Perhaps Robert used the engagement to influence Katherine into seeing Lina as a threat to Katherine’s inheritance of the house, persuading her into plotting Lina and Jamie’s deaths with him.
Why Did Katherine Save Lina’s Life?
Out of Greed or Out of Love?
Perhaps one of the biggest unanswered questions from the film is why Katherine changed her mind about killing Lina — per her and Robert’s plan — and, instead, decided to spare her, leading Robert to run over Katherine in an attempt to kill her. Because there are many questions regarding what different characters’ true intentions were throughout the film, this, too, is an interesting question with many possible answers.
Perhaps Katherine saved her out of greed. If all Katherine wanted was the inheritance of the house — which she believed was rightfully hers — perhaps Katherine thought it would be easier to keep Lina alive and use the leverage of her diary to manipulate her into giving Katherine ownership of the house, rather than staging another murder and believable cover-up, as she and Robert did with Jamie.
Perhaps Katherine saved her out of love. It seems that Lina and Katherine had a loving relationship before Lina got engaged to Jamie. They are seen embracing each other fondly early in the film. Lina admitted that she idolized Katherine’s fame, wealth, and beauty and wanted nothing more than Katherine’s love. Katherine also claims to have loved Lina. According to her, she maintained her relationship with Lina’s mother, Danielle, in an attempt to give Lina a better life by eventually adopting her.
It seems that Katherine and Lina had genuine love for each other and that they didn’t begin to turn against each other until they both fell victim to Robert’s manipulation. Perhaps Katherine realized this, leading her to turn against Robert, save Lina’s life, and suffer Robert’s murderous wrath as a result. Not only were they both victims of Robert, but they had similar, unhealthy relationships with Jamie.
While Jamie did have a medical condition, they were both aware that Jamie could in some ways control or cause his own seizures and that he did so as a way of shaming Katherine and Lina for desiring independence. Perhaps Katherine felt a sense of understanding between herself and Lina because of their shared experiences with Robert and Jamie, renewing her love for Lina and leading her to spare her.
What Did The Nurse Tell The Police?
It’s Unclear How Much She Knows.
By the end of the film, it seems that Katherine has revealed to the nurse caring for her, Nicky, that Robert tried to kill her after she tried to spare Lina. Nicky tells Lina this, which leads to Lina killing Robert and sparing Katherine. Also, through Nicky’s conversations with Lina throughout the film, she figures out that Lina and Robert killed Jamie together. She encourages Lina not to be controlled by Robert anymore and to not protect him from the police.
Nicky seems to recognize Robert as the main villain of the story. She seems to understand the influence Robert had on both Katherine and Lina. She also knows that he was deliberately over-prescribing medication to his patient, Jamie, likely in an attempt to weaken or kill him in hopes of gaining his inheritance.
Considering this, it’s possible that she will protect Lina and Katherine by not revealing their role in any of Robert’s murderous schemes to the police. It’s also possible, however, that she will tell the police everything she knows, which could include enough to implicate Katherine and Lina in Jamie’s death and have them arrested. Locked In ends on this unanswered question, leaving audiences with a tense, ambiguous ending that invites speculation and theorizing.
