The Key and the Clock

The Key and the Clock is the premier episode of the SciFi Channel mini-series, The Lost Room.

Plot

==="The Key"===
At the Braddock Hills Pawnshop in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, manager Jake Squillo and employee Ignacio Losa attempt to purchase a Key from Marco Cordova; before handing over the money Squillo tests his purchase using a small portable door, which opens to a warm golden glow. Satisfied, Squillo reports success to Braddock owner Karl Kreutzfeld, but the transaction is interrupted by the Weasel, who kills Squillo and Cordova using only his Pen.

While investigating the double homicide, Pittsburgh detectives Joe Miller and Lou Destefano track Ignacio, who has the Key to Room 10 of the Sunshine Motel; Pittsburgh PD forensic scientist Dr. Martin Ruber examines the crime scene. Destefano picks up Ignacio from his mother's house and Miller interrogates him until Ignacio steals the Key back and escapes from custody; surveillance footage indicates that though Ignacio opened the door inside Miller's office, the door did not open on the other side. Miller and Destefano visit Kreutzfeld during a birthday party for Karl's son Isaac, and question him regarding Squillo, Ignacio, the pawnshop and the Key.

Ignacio tries to contact Jennifer Bloom of the Legion while bodyguards in Kreutzfeld's employ track him to retrieve the Key. Ignacio is shot while escaping into Room 10, and flees to Miller's house where he turns the Key over to Miller before dying. Remembering Ignacio's earlier disappearances, Miller tries the Key on his closet door and discovers Room 10. Meanwhile, Ruber compares Squillo and Cordova's murder to a similar case from 1968.

Later in the day, Anna discovers the Key and Room 10, and determines that any ordinary item will disappear if it is left in the room and any changes made to the items in the room will be reset when the door is closed; Miller makes Anna promise to keep silent on the Key and Room 10. Miller visits Destefano and demonstrates the Key to show him Room 10; they use the room to attend a Penn State football game. Jennifer Bloom of the Legion poses as Ignacio's half-sister to retrieve the Key; the attempt fails, but Bloom uses the Nail File to render Miller unconscious.

Miller takes Anna to a court-appointed psychologist as part of his custody dispute with his ex-wife, Vanessa; during her appointment, Miller visits the coffee shop in the hospital and meets Wally Jabrowski, who uses the Bus Ticket to send Miller to an abandoned shack on Route 66 outside Gallup, New Mexico. Using the Key, Miller returns to the hospital and eventually subdues Jabrowski. Miller takes Jabrowski to Lindy's Diner to question him about the Key and the Bus Ticket, and learns that they are two of more than a hundred Objects that came from Room 10 of the Sunshine Motel. Wally mentions the Pencil and the Umbrella by way of examples.

Jabrowski explains several theories regarding the creation of the Objects, but warns Miller that there are people willing to hurt Miller's family to find the Key. Miller rushes back to the psychologist's office to discover that Anna has already been picked up by the Weasel, who offers to trade Anna for the Key. Miller meets the Weasel at a rail-station off Route 8 to make the exchange, but when a brawl breaks out, Anna uses the Key and disappears during a reset of Room 10 without the Key. Miller retrieves the Key from the Weasel and escapes into Room 10.

==="The Clock"===
Detectives Lee Bridgewater and Destefano investigate the incident at the rail-station, and Ruber finds Anna's blood on the door she used to access Room 10. Miller leaves a note in Room 10 for Anna, then exits at the abandoned shack outside Gallup to call Destefano and have him run a background check on the Weasel. Moments later, a man appears on Route 66 claiming to be from Texas, and Miller uses the Key to find Jabrowski at a bar in El Paso; Miller and Jabrowski enter Room 10, and Jabrowski suggests that it may be possible to rescue Anna by using a group of Objects - they exhibit new properties when used in combination.

Kreutzfeld, while using the Watch to boil an egg, learns about Miller and Anna's disappearances. At Pittsburgh PD headquarters, Destefano convinces Ruber to lose Anna's blood report for 24 hours; Ruber gets a call about a compilation of burn-victim cases, and visits a psychiatric hospital to meet with Milton Vrang, who was burned in 1993. Vrang claims to have once belonged to the Order of the Reunification, which was dedicated to finding the Objects because it believed that reuniting them will lead a path to the mind of God.

Miller uses the Key to gain access to his house, which is under surveillance, and collect supplies including a handgun, a flashlight, and one of Anna's stuffed animals. He also finds a photograph of a house with one of Jennifer Bloom's business cards attached to it and the address Locust Ridge Road #8, Pittsburgh, PA 15237.

Miller uses the Key to visit Bloom, who is trying to identify the Radio with the aid of a sledgehammer; she informs Miller that the Objects are indestructible in the real world. Bloom also explains that she belongs to the Legion, whose purpose is to find and destroy the Objects, and implores Miller to join the cause; Miller refuses, taking the Nail File from Bloom. Ruber calls Vrang's former associates and gets in contact with Peter Wills, but receives a static shock through the phone when he mentions the Order. Miller and Destefano review the file on the Weasel — Howard Montague — and Destefano entreats Miller to make a statement, but Miller refuses.

Miller tracks Montague and corners him in Room 10. Miller confiscates the Pen and quickly deduces a method of identifying Objects - he takes Montague to a gas-station bathroom in Kansas to change clothes before putting Montague's old clothes and Pen in Room 10 and resetting the room; the clothes disappear, but the Pen survives the reset, moving from the floor to the desk. Miller and Montague use the Key to visit Montague's apartment, which is strewn with philosophy texts (including Jean-Paul Sartre's "Being and Nothingness") and Object paraphernalia; Montague shows Miller a chart of Object interrelations, and claims that the Clock is the Prime Object that, when used in tandem with the Key, should bring Anna out of Room 10.

Miller and Montague run surveillance on Kreutzfeld, who currently owns the Clock. Ruber gets a letter instructing him to appear at the corner of Smithfield and Liberty at 4:30pm on Thursday; he arrives at the assigned location, and is instructed by a stranger to stop making phone calls about the Order, but rather to bring them an Object if he wants answers. Miller and Montague study the plans to Kreutzfeld's house, which contains only sliding doors, making the Key useless. Comparing the revised plans with the original plans, Miller finds two doors with pin-tumbler locks that no longer exist. Outside Kreutzfeld's house, Miller calls to tell Kreutzfeld that he wants to trade Montague and that he has the Glass Eye.

After the house is cleared, Miller and Montague use the Key to enter through the door of the miniature castle from Isaac's birthday and head to the third floor where they subdue Kreutzfeld's bodyguard Anthony and use his keycard to access Kreutzfeld's private office. Inside, Miller and Montague find the Toothbrush, the Bible, and the Pack of Cigarettes on display, but discover that the Clock is locked in a safe. Miller uses an axe to break through a wall, where one of the pin-tumbler doors was built over, and hurries to install a doorknob with a lock while Kreutzfeld has the bulletproof-glass doors to the office broken down.

Miller successfully opens the door to Room 10, and Montague drags the safe into the motel room just before Kreutzfeld's men break into the office; during the confusion, Montague covertly steals the Pen. At the gas-station bathroom in Kansas, Miller and Montague leave the room with the safe inside and reset the room, making the safe disappear and returning the Clock to the bedside table. Miller retrieves the Clock and tries to use it with the Key to retrieve Anna, but is unsuccessful; when Miller tries to leave Montague behind, Montague lunges into the Room after him and tries to kill him with the Pen, but discovers that the Objects don't work inside the Room. Miller throws Montague back out into Kreutzfeld's office.

Miller agrees with Destefano to give a statement and open an active case on Anna's disappearance, but the two get a call from Ruber and stop at the forensic's house. Ruber explains Vrang's theory about the Objects and asks to see the Key, which Miller demonstrates; Ruber claims that they have to keep the Key to themselves, but Miller insists that he has to use it to rescue Anna. Ruber pulls a gun and demands the Key before shooting and killing Destefano, but Miller uses the Nail File to render Ruber unconscious. Helen Ruber walks in on Miller over Destefano and her husband, and Miller flees into Room 10; when Ruber wakes, he falsely reports to 911 that Miller murdered Destefano.

Objects

The following objects are introduced in this episode:

The Motel Key: Using the Key on any lock leads the user to the Lost Room, room 10 of the Sunshine Motel, Gallup, New Mexico

The Bus Ticket: Touching anyone with the Bus Ticket causes them to appear in the air above a deserted road just outside the town of Gallup, New Mexico. Although anyone so transported seems to appear about 50 feet up, the fall to the ground does not cause any obvious damage.

The Pen: With the tip extended, scorches whatever it touches with a large burst of microwave energy.

The Umbrella: Causes anyone seeing the user to think they know him, whether they do or not.

The Clock: Has the ability to sublimate (turn from solid to gas) brass.

The Nail File: Showing the nail file to someone renders the victim unconscious.

The Pencil: Produces a 1961 US Penny when tapped.

The Watch: Hard-boils an egg placed within the band.

The Knife: When used in conjunction with the Watch, grants "a kind of telepathy". The Knife's own inherent power is not specified.

The Radio: Supposedly makes the user three inches taller if tuned to the right station.

The Toothbrush: Use unknown, but currently in the possession of Karl Kreutzfeld.

The Bible: Use unknown, but currently in the possession of Karl Kreutzfeld.

The Pack of Cigarettes: Use unknown, but currently in the possession of Karl Kreutzfeld.

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See Also

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