Relationship status
- Did Lockwood and Holly have some sort of fling during Lucy's break with the agency? When she comes back to Portland Row, George and Lockwood mention that Holly has been staying at the house after jobs, and that she wasn't sleeping in Lucy's bed. When asked where she was sleeping, they hastily change the subject.
- George may have developed some feelings for Lucy. He seems just as upset as Lockwood about her leaving the agency, and apparently takes it a lot more personally; also, he remembers small details about her preferences (such as what sort of juice she likes) that Lockwood does not. This may have other reasons (worrying about the agency's stability, having good memory in general) but may also point to something deeper.
There is more to Jessica's death than Lockwood lets on.
Jessica's bedroom, where she died, is described as being decorated in a style fitting a much younger child than the fifteen-years-old Jessica; meanwhile, Lockwood's own bedroom is pointedly described as curiously impersonal. It seems the former may have been Lockwood's, a fact he is concealing for some reason, and may imply he had more to do with the incident than just playing outside when it happened. It was Marissa who caused Problem originally.
Either accidentally or willingly. And she doesn't want it to end, since it both grants her almost ultimate power over England, with Rotwell now gone, and it must be tied to her immortality somehow.- Confirmed in The Empty Grave.
The Orpheus Society is exploring how to enter the world of the dead, probably in order to cure The Problem at its source.
In Greek mythology, Orpheus was the greatest musician in... well, ever. (he also played the lyre, which is shaped a little like a harp, but small enough to carry, which explains why it's the symbol/logo of the Society) He's also the only person in Greek Mythology who actually got into the realm of the dead and out again without being horribly punished, and/or paying a huge price (the full story can be found elsewhere on this site or the Other Wiki). The Orpheus Society is trying to find out how to directly communicate with the Dead, and to enter the ghost realm in order to a) acquire knowledge and power b) seal off whatever's causing The Problem in the first place or c) both. After all, given the huge industry that's sprung up around iron and lavender, among other things, being able to increase/decrease the flow of ghosts could make you several fortunes. Things like the ghost-vision spectacles that the team got off Fairfax is a) a side benefit from all the research the Society is doing or b) a prototype, meant to be used on the eventual mission to the ghost realm- While the Orpheus Society may also be doing this, the Rotwell Agency definitely is.
- The Empty Grave shows that the Orpheus Society is doing this, but only at the behest of Marissa Fittes and they certainly have no interest in curing The Problem. They want the same thing she does, immortality, but don't understand how to properly go about it.
the Orpheus Society has been manipulating everyone, especially Lockwood & Co, from before the series started, as an extended audition for the above mission.
One way or another, Lockwood & Co are one of the strongest teams in ghost hunting (one of the main reasons they're still alive). Lockwood has not only all those artifacts around him, it's implied that he has exceptionally strong Sight. Lucy very clearly has exceptional (possibly bordering on Chosen One level) Hearing. it's implied that these two, at least, will be among the small percentage of ghost hunters strong enough to keep their powers in adulthood (it's rare, but it does happen. It's mentioned in the glossary at the back of every book) While his Sight isn't very strong, George borders on genius, and is an exceptional researcher. The blurb for book 4 says that Lockwood & Co will discover that someone has been pulling strings behind the scene all along. My theory is that the Orpheus Society has found/will find a way to open a gate to the ghost realm (perhaps inspired or otherwise guided by the Bone Glass from The Whispering Skull), and not wanting to risk their own necks has been secretly putting every agent in London through various trials to determine the team best able to get in and back... which will turn out to be Lockwood & Co. Who won't be given a choice on the matter.- Turns out the blurb is about the Rotwell Agency instead.
The Skull in the Jar is the very same Type 3 that Marissa Fittes claimed to have communicated with. In fact, it's not just a Type 3, it's something beyond that.
Not much proof for this... only that the only Type 3 that's ever been heard of is the one that Marissa Fittes spoke of - and most interestingly, there's never a description given; whether it appears as child or adult, male or female or anything specific. So maybe Type 3 isn't exactly a classification, because there's only one ghost that can do so... or perhaps because the Skull isn't exactly a ghost, it's something slightly different. Like maybe a Necromantic spirit, like Bob in The Dresden Files? Which might explain just how George managed to sneak it out of Fittes agency - either it was part of the testing process of the Orpheus Society (see above), or the Skull itself managed to find a way to manipulate/help George to do so? Listening isn't part of his abilities, but that might make him more vulnerable... like a posthypnotic suggestion. And George has enough pride in his intelligence that he'd never consider that he could be manipulated by a ghost.- As of The Creeping Shadow, the skull in the jar is confirmed to have communicated with Marissa Fittes.
- As it turns out, it is a Type 3 that she communicated with, but she never really had much interest in it, preferring her own personal pet Type 3, Ezekiel.
Lucy's Raised By Wolves upbringing means that she hasn't actually worked out that she's in love with Lockwood; George and/or Holly have, and have a bet going on about when she will figure it out.
From what we know of Lucy's childhood, her mother doesn't seem to have done much to actually raise her - in fact, she seems to have spent all of Lucy's childhood working and putting her hand out for Lucy's superior paycheck (can you tell I'm not a fan?). At the very least, she sent Lucy out to work in a highly dangerous environment from the second she was legally allowed to do so, whether Lucy wanted to or not; and possibly kept Lucy out of school in order to do so (if you read Lucy's narrative carefully, she shows a few signs of a distinct lack of education; balanced by being very bright and reading a lot). Lucy definitely doesn't mention her mother or siblings in the context of any life skills - like controlling or even understanding her own emotions. If you read The Hollow boy, in particular, with an eye to this, reading between the lines it seems quite clear how Lucy feels about Lockwood (and even in a platonic/familial way about George), but she hasn't connected it with the concept of romance... if Lucy's only context for romance is from romance novels, it would make sense that she doesn't connect the way she feels with it. Not many romance novels have characters with Lucy's practical nature, or lack of self-awareness where emotions are concerned. The reason why all the big ghost fighting companies have so many Supervisors 'clogging up the place' is because they have nowhere else to go
- These Supervisors spent their childhood learning about ghosts and fighting them, and hardly got the same education that other children their age had. By the time they're unable to see ghosts anymore, they have almost no job prospects. The Supervisor position was made so that their loyal employees who risked their lives every night for their sake (and are also children) wouldn't be on the street working dead end jobs.
The monks who haunted the Screaming Staircase were the predecessors to the Orpheus Society. Warning: Unmarked spoilers.
We know the monks were killed for "turning to the worship of dark things," and considering the power of their ghosts, which is comparable to other ghosts of people involved with the Other Side (Bickerstaff, Ezekiel, the skull,) it is not unreasonable to think that they may be the reason Fairfax, a member, owned the house.The best point to make against this is that Fairfax didn't already know the source of the haunting- at least he said he didn't, and he had no reason to lie at the time- but this can be explained by assuming that he was only an entry-level member of the Society, since he didn't mention anything about it. The scene seems to be that the Orpheus Society recruited him with unimportant secrets like the goggles in order to get to the house- either he already had it or they convinced him to- in order to find out more about the ghosts themselves. The Skull is the ghost of the "evil and malignant Boy" who helped Bickerstaff to collect Sources.
We know he was part of Bickerstaff's circle, as he refers to Bickerstaff as "master". He's also not the ghost of Mary or her friend - "neither of those fools" - and The Creeping Shadow reveals that he was pretty young when he died, as opposed to the rest of Bickerstaff's circle, who were adults. Those with especially strong or lasting psychic talents are the ones who become type three ghosts
Some evidince for this is Marrisa’s gambit, as well as the theory that the skull is the boy who was the psychic for bickerstaff, seeing ghosts even before the Problem began.also the skull telling Lucy that she will end up just like him in their first conversation.
The Fittes Agency boy who died 30 years before The Screaming Staircase really was a friend... of Marissa's
On my first read of the book, I thought this had to be a timeline error - if Marissa was a young teen/preteen 50 years ago, she should be around 60 now, which means her granddaughter Penelope should not have had a childhood friend who died 30 years ago unless there was some very funky business going on. Either Penelope was lying, the author had screwed up the timeline, or there was at least one preteen pregnancy involved. But while the timeline's wrong for him to be Penelope's friend and co-worker, he probably did know Marissa - at 30, she could have been still involved with agency business, and might have considered a promising young agent a "friend and co-worker". The letter there might have been a rare moment of honesty on Marissa's part, sincerely thanking them for giving her closure on what happened to him. (This doesn't explain why the characters don't recognize the red flag, of course, since presumably Penelope Fittes's age is publicly known; that sends us back to the "timeline error or extremely underage pregnancy" question.)
- The TV show pretty well resolves this issue - it's just a timeline error. In this version, it's Penelope's mother who was friends with Sam, which makes much better sense. Means everyone was having kids at about 20, but in a setting where a 13-year-old can be hired to risk their life fighting ghosts every night, that seems fairly reasonable.
The Lockwood family frequently used nicknames
It is noted that Lockwood is prone to use nicknames for the people around him, yet hates to be referred to by a nickname himself. A possible answer to this trait is that his family favoured using nicknames other full names when they were alive, causing Lockwood to pick up the trait himself, while being referred to by a nickname causes Lockwood to think about his family, which is why he dislikes it personally.