#;;george cubbins

[lockwccdandco]

rpcdev trick or treat - day 3

"Oh, well, this is just LOVELY. How very romantic of Lockwood to bring you here of all places. Are we going for a picnic?"

"Shut up! This is a job, not a social outing!" Lucy snaps quietly, giving the rucksack on her back a firm shake. She isn't interested in the Skull's commentary on the location. The path they're following isn't easy to keep track of and every half formed corner seems the same as every other. How Lockwood seems to know exactly where he's going is infuriating. Well, maybe he's just making it up. 

"No? Then why have you packed more than your usual amount of sandwiches and tea? And biscuits. You know, they're all right in here with me, I can see them..."

"I said, shut up!" Lucy huffs, ignoring the curious look George shoots her over his shoulder.

"Skull again?" he asks quietly, his inattention to where he was going causing him to almost immediately trip over a snarl of overgrown fern laying across the path.

Snorting inelegantly, Lucy reaches forward and grabs his shoulder, helping to steady him. "Yeah... he's in fine form tonight despite the fact that he KNOWS we're trying to concentrate on this job." Huffing quietly as she hauls George back onto the path, Lucy shakes her head as she steps over the same fern with ease. 

“Everything all right back there?” 

Lockwood’s voice cuts through the moment, snapping Lucy’s attention back to the job at hand. “Yes. Fine,” she replies quickly, straightening slightly as the sound of echoing snickers come from the rucksack weighing down on her shoulders. “We are… actually going to find a place, right? This isn’t just some… wild goose chase, is it? You DO know where you’re going?”

“Of course! Why would you think otherwise? I– uh… no, it’s this way…” 

The abrupt turn from what could have been a path and what could have been a deer run or just simply a space between a couple of the trees does… not inspire much confidence. Nor does it help the looming dread starting to make her heart skip about. There’s no way there’s an actual job all the way out here in the middle of nowhere. That or Lockwood has gotten them irreparably lost. Either option doesn’t bode well as the already dark forest path grows dimmer. A quick glance at her watch tells Lucy that the sun is likely beginning to set. 

“I told him three times on the way out here… you tell him, then.”

George’s voice cuts through the spiraling her mind has started and snaps Lucy back to the moment. She’s about to make a retort when her own feet tangle up in something and send her careening off balance. Thankfully… or perhaps not so thankfully, right into George. It does keep her from falling entirely, though it leaves her clinging to him like some sort of damsel in distress on the covers of the trashy novels her mother always used to read. She very purposefully ignores the titters of pure mirth coming from her rucksack as she straightens and pushes her hair back from her face. Clearing her throat, Lucy lifts her chin almost defiantly, though even she can’t say what she’s in defiance OF, per se. Stepping forward, she takes longer strides to catch up with the lanky form of their leader as he pokes his way through the tangle of brush.

“Lockwood. You’ve gotten us lost, haven’t you?”

“No.” He looks at her, but then quickly glances away again upon seeing the accusatory stare. “Yes.”

“You said it was a shortcut!”

“Yes, well… it is… see how quickly we got lost?”

He flashes her that winning smile, but its usual effects are significantly dampened by the chill creeping into the air as things start taking on a grey hue in the fading light. “George… I don’t suppose you thought to bring a compass? Or anything… like that?”

“Lucky for you, I did. Because if I hadn’t, I reckon the look Lucy’s giving you would be enough to kill you. We’ve been traveling North-North-West for at least twenty minutes. I reckon I can get us back to the road, at least.”

“Yes. Good. Let’s… find the road and get our bearings. That will sort us.”

“Don’t act like you have any idea what you’re doing out here, charging into… what did you call it? A small stand of trees on the edge of the property? Come on and sit down, if we’re going to be hiking another twenty minutes just to find the road, we might as well have a biscuit first. Keep our energy up.” Sighing softly, Lucy swings her rucksack down and fishes out the extra biscuits and spare thermos to pour them each a small cup of tea, passing them around easily.

“You packed… extra? Luce, you’re—”

“Shut up, you’re still in trouble for this mess.”

[hiddenvioletsgrow]

My favorite thing about Lockwood is the fact that he tries so hard to be cool but he is literally an actual human disaster and sixteen, so whenever he makes a slick one liner he’s internally going “yessss that was SO cool, I nailed that” and then Lucy and George are cheering in the background because they also think he’s So cool. But Holly and Kipps both absolutely do not, because they are full legal adults so they’re like “oh my gosh the cringe rn, I can’t believe this is my boss”

[skullism]

powerpoint night at 35 portland row

[thirtyfiveportlandrow]

branching out from incorrect quotes 💪💪

[eliwithab]

i . im so soooooooooooooooo normal about lockwood and co. Do not Speak to me. I HATE NETFLIX. . OK. normal.

Fun fact i have redrawn this FOUR TIMES since 2022. TWO YEARS!!!! AND I COULD NOT FINISH IT TIL NOW!

[juneneedsabreak]

[maarigolds]

"What happened?!"

"Fought off a load of thugs, fell down the catafalque hole, battled a bunch of ghosts. You know, the usual sort of thing"

The main trio in Lockwood and Co. (2023-)

[kallezandra]

Portland Row is my home. You and George.

[genniearts]

baaaabyyyy i’m dancing in the dark youyuu between my arms

[brekkerholmes]

netflix cancelling shadow and bone and lockwood & co. the same year is my villain origin story

[gigawatt-smile]

He's so fucked up <3

[sideralatheneum]

Ghost hunters take their tea very seriously

[vangoghsmissingearr]

I'm so normal about them

[cinno2]

lockwood & co… brainworms activated

[this-is-mycrisis]

lucy absolutely demolishing the biscuit at the start of her interview bc she hasn't had anything to eat for who knows how long

george and lockwood deciding then and then that they are adopting this feral alley cat of a girl

[desos-records]

The part I appreciate the most in the Lockwood and Co show is how it handles depression and suicidal thoughts in teenagers. As a theme, it’s not often (ever) done well. Lockwood and Co is the only story I can think of that depicts it in a nuanced, realistic, non-romanticized way

but first, before I get into it: [if you’re in crisis or need someone to talk to and don’t want to/can’t use your national hotline, highly recommend Samaritans, genuinely saved my life] okay, let’s go

Lockwood is the most obvious, with his general disregard for his own life and admitted suicidal ideation. Lucy struggles with her self-worth and the intensity of the emotions she’s subjected to. George worries that he doesn’t belong, that there’s something useless or wrong about him. The show depicts these thoughts and feelings in a way that isn’t overblown or dramatized, it’s all but casual. Which is how it happens. Depression or suicidal thoughts don’t crash into you all at once, they creep into your life without you noticing

But more importantly (and again, something I’ve never seen anywhere else), the show also offers counterpoints to those thoughts and feelings. It shows that there is a way out, even though you may feel trapped and hopeless. This is crucial for the show’s target demographic. Bad media depictions of depression or suicide get internalized, contribute to the stigma, and make it harder for people to ask for help. This show doesn’t do that. This show tells its audience that, yes, things are scary and painful and it fucking sucks, but it’s not hopeless. And it says it so well

In the second episode, when Lucy wants to quit, she admits something that I’m almost certain she’s never told anyone

“sometimes I just think I’d be better off dead”

And when I watched this the first time, I expected Lockwood to react the way I’ve seen people react in my own life; with silence or panic or downright dismissal. But he didn’t. He stays calm and he says something that is so so important to hear when you’re struggling under the weight of feelings like this

“I understand that”

Saying this tells someone several things: that you’re on their side, they aren’t strange or monstrous for feeling like this, and that you’re not going to attack or abandon them because of it. And you can see the impact it has on Lucy, the way her face clears. She went from struggling to breathe and near tears to calm and steady. It’s no mistake that in this moment we hear his and Lucy’s theme for the first time (those simple, beautiful guitar strings)

The next thing he says is also important

“and it’s not true”

Simple, to the point, directly addressing her feelings, and (the most common mistake) doesn’t make it about him. Telling someone that you love them or that they’d be upset to lose you might sound nice, and it can be later on in the conversation, but in a moment like this, it’s infinitely more helpful to confront the thought itself

A similar moment in the first book stuck with me too, when they’re underneath Combe Carey Hall and Lucy almost steps into the well. What she’s hearing in her head (and the general phenomenon of malaise that ghosts produce) is very similar to depressive or suicidal thoughts. Before she can fall, Lockwood pulls her back

“no, Lucy, that’s not the way it’s going to be”

Depressive and suicidal thoughts deal in absolutes, so sometimes it takes an absolute to counter it

In the last episode, George has that heart-breaking moment where he says all the awful things he thinks about himself, partly because of the influence of the boneglass and Bickerstaff, but it’s also been building up, there in the background. Increasingly, it’s Lockwood and Lucy working together and George working on his own, which picks at old wounds (engineer, engineer, engineer, weirdo). He bonds with Joplin because he feels like she understands him in a way the others don’t

“it’s nice to have someone to show off to”

But Lucy pushes back against all that because she sees herself in all the ugly things George is saying, because she’s felt that way too. She understands that. She’s so surprised and horrified to hear him saying those things, resigning himself to dying down there, she’s not going to let him go on believing them

“you’re not a third wheel or an oddball or whatever it is that you think you are”

“you’re the best of us”

“we are not losing you, Georgie”

Flo called him that earlier too, but Lucy wasn’t there for that and coming unprompted from her it sounds so much like something you might call your slightly annoying younger brother. She’s so absolute about it all, with no opening for doubt, and you can see something like surprise on George’s face (but also pain because now Lucy’s in danger too)

For all Lucy knows, the boneglass will kill her. I don’t think for a second she genuinely believes her talent will protect her; she told Joplin that to protect George. It’s unclear when exactly she came up with the plan to use the skull, but she was willing to risk it anyway. And she knows, she knows, George will blame himself for this (because she would too, if it were the other way around), but even then, she’s very clear

“this isn’t your fault”

Their whole scene down in the catacombs is two kids trying to keep each other alive, physically obviously, but on the inside as well. And, oh god, George almost crashing down next to Lucy after he’s knocked over the boneglass, trying to wake her up. His voice

“Lucy, Lucy, it’s me, it’s me, say something, speak to me”

I think it’s down in those catacombs that George and Lucy really understand each other for the first time. In their own ways, they’re both curious and suspicious about the Problem and what causes it, trying to learn more about it (and stressing Lockwood out in the process). They both left their families; they both struggle with feeling strange and different than everyone around them. That connection pulls them both back from the edge

Lockwood, for all his confidence, is practically in crisis or was fairly recently (I suspect living with George helped). It’s fairly common, actually, for someone suicidal to overcompensate with an exterior shell to hide it, which can manifest in different ways depending on the person (they may not even realize they’re doing it, I didn’t)

And I love how the show handles it. He’s not made into this dark, tragic figure. He’s so full of life it hurts. He jokes around with George and Flo, fights with Kipps, admires Fairfax. He has dreams (plans) for the future. He’s struggling with trauma, they all are, but he’s not Broken™ in the way similar leading characters are often made out to be, in the way we often fear we are

And, of course, there’s Lucy, a wreaking ball through the precarious balance of Lockwood’s life. It’s not so much that she gives him a reason to live (although she definitely helps), but she holds him accountable in a way no one else does. This is the difficult part of recovery that no one talks about. Having people care for you (George) and sympathize with you (Flo) is great and necessary, especially early on. But at some point, you have to take responsibility for yourself and the noise in your head (you have to open your door on the landing)

What that looks like is complicated and messy and different for every person, but seeing it played out in a story is remarkable. I’ve never seen anything like it. This is a difficult thing for anyone to learn (many adults never even try)

That shot of George, Lucy, Lockwood (and Kipps) rising up on the catafalque sums it all up for me. Each of them fell into darkness alone and rose out of it together. They inspired each other to fight and win their individual battles, even when they couldn’t be there to help