The Peripheral has a habit of overcomplicating the narrative with futuristic technology, complex jargon, and enough time paradoxes to leave a theoretical physicist scratching their head. This reaches its convoluted peak in Season 1 Episode 1 where the characters discuss alternate realities and neural adjustment mechanisms in casual conversation. In contrast to this futuristic wizardry, the characters in the 2032 timeline are just as confused as us, referring to the magical weaponry as thingamabobs and doodads.
The Peripheral Season 1 Episode 7 Recap – What Has Been Stolen From Cherise?
Deputy Sheriff Tommy Constantine is the one who refers to the sonic gun as a doodad, as he searches for this evidence down at the station. Poor Tommy is seen as a crazy person by his fellow colleagues now when talking about invisible cars and these unusual weapons.
But Tommy suspects foul play and hunts out the disappearing evidence without any assistance. Down at the yard, he finds the impounded car and the missing guns. He accidentally fires off the sonic gun, just before the Sheriff calls him up. He may be on paid leave, but Tommy is needed at Corbell’s pad.
Meanwhile, Ella Fisher’s vision goes again, and one of Burton’s guards, Reece, escorts her to the local doctors. Assassin Bob follows them there, hoping to force the Fisher siblings out into the open with a hostage situation. He violently stabs and chokes Reece to death, taking Ella and doctor Dee Dee as prisoners. The hired hitman has his reasons for killing Flynne and Burton, but the mother tries to talk him around anyway.
Tommy heads to Corbell’s mansion, where he discovers the untouched crime scene. He finds Corbell’s wife dead, surrounded by shattered glass, and the bloody footprints from Bob, leaving the building. Tommy then spots the Sheriff and Corbell in a heated debate by the pool, clearly in some sort of collusion together.
Sheriff Jackman tells his side of the story, but Tommy doesn’t believe a word he says. Sensing corruption, Tommy considers arresting the criminals on the spot, but Jackman talks him out of it, informing the Deputy of the very real consequences of these foolish actions. No one would believe Tommy, and he may lose his job in the process. They offer him a promotion instead. Tommy leaves without making a final decision, angered by the injustice of it all.
Over in the future timeline, Inspector Lowbeer is updated on all of Flynne’s misadventures. She asks to take the three peripherals aside to interrogate them in private. Lowbeer takes them to a Met Police training facility, called the Zoo.
Here Burton and Conner are thrown into a training exercise, whilst Lowbeer questions Flynne further. Burton and Conner are given a chance to test out their new bodies, taking on Koids (robots) in this safe, but exciting environment. Robot Beatrice leads this mission, as they work their way up the levels, taking on more and more robots with each completed floor.
Alone with Flynne, Lowbeer discusses the Aunties (there’s that jargon again), which are the Met’s data sorting algorithms. These Aunties have discovered that the stub (Flynne’s timeline) was actually opened at least a decade earlier than everyone had previously assumed.
In Lowbeer’s past, Conner didn’t lose his limbs. The haptic technology wasn’t invented yet, Conner and Burton fought in a different war as common soldiers, but Burton died. Flynne married Tommy and had two children. In Flynne’s current timeline, it would seem the apocalyptic Jackpot is occurring at an accelerated rate, which the Research Institute is to blame for.
Lowbeer starts to ask Flynne some personal questions and then Flynne flips the conversation and interrogates the Inspector instead. Burton and Conner fight their way to the rooftop, where Beatrice battles them both at once, killing each soldier with ease. Lowbeer terminates the conversation with Flynne too when asked a tricky question.
All three of the peripherals wake in their timeline. Burton notices a message from Reece, their mother is unwell. They all immediately head over to the doctors.
Beatrice is impressed with Burton and Conner’s fighting skills, but her discussion with Lowbeer is interrupted before they explain their reasons for the exercise. Cherise is here to pay the Inspector a visit.
Cherise explains how there was a data breach at her company. Aelita and Burton broke in and stole some important data, which she calls a neural adjustment mechanism, the technology to manipulate an individual’s emotions. She implores that this would be extremely dangerous in the wrong hands.
Then, Cherise asks Lowbeer to destroy Lev and Flynne’s families in both the current timeline and the Stub, to eradicate them all completely from history. This would in turn stop anyone from spreading or using the technology. Lowbeer is shocked by the proposal but doesn’t exactly say no to the villain. Is she actually considering this as a viable option?
The Peripheral Season 1 Episode 7 Ending
While Lev’s future hangs in the balance, his assistants Ossian and Ash are stealing from him. Lev reveals that he can understand their secret language though, and he knows all about their plans to con him. He threatens Ossian with a knife and asks Ash to reveal her plan in full.
Ash explains how Aelita was planning to download stolen files from the Research Institute and place them into Burton’s haptic implants, where they would be untraceable in the other timeline.
But Aelita was unaware that Flynne was piloting the peripheral at the time. The headset translated the data into bacterial DNA instead, which is now consuming Flynne’s brain. Ash wanted to sell the data and destroy the world in the process. Lev is intrigued by this proposition and spares the traitors for now.
Back in sunny America, Burton senses a trap and stakes out the building before rushing in to save his mother. Using their heat signature technology, they notice that there are three figures inside the doctors and acknowledge that Reece is clearly dead.
Leon synchs up with Reece’s body and causes the corpse to twitch. This forces Bob to investigate, and Burton shoots the assassin from a safe distance. They head in, and Burton finishes the job, executing Bob.
At the end of episode 7, Tommy returns to Corbell’s mansion. He talks of a new story and shoots Sheriff Jackman with Bob’s weapon. Corbell is shocked by Tommy’s actions and tries to calm the shooter down before he comes to a similar fate.
Corbell states that Tommy doesn’t have enough bullets to finish him off though. Corbell dives for Jackman’s weapon, and Tommy fires the doodad instead, knocking Corbell flying.
The Peripheral Season 1 Episode 8 Recap – What Happened to Aelita?
The Peripheral Season 1 (Credit – Amazon Prime Video)
In a flashback to 2028, Flynne talks to Conner after his life-altering accident. Conner is filled with regret about his foolish decision to try and save that dog’s life, and he now must live with the consequences of his actions. Conner wishes he could reboot to just before he made that stupid choice, just like in a video game. But life has no reboots. Flynne will try and defy the odds and use this notion to save everyone’s lives in her present.
Back in that very present, Tommy leaves Corbell’s mansion after killing two of the town’s most notorious men. He places the weapons back in their evidence bags and calls in the crime. An ambulance is dispatched, and the home becomes a crime scene.
Tommy wipes the blood off his boot, and an officer informs him that of course Corbell is still breathing. There’s also word of shots being fired at the medical center, and Tommy races over. His fiancée is safe, and the couple hug, but she is shaken to hear of Jackman’s passing.
Lowbeer continues to interrogate the three peripherals in future London. The Inspector assumes that they want Cherise to be stopped, and they decide to form an alliance. Lowbeer is aware that Flynne’s timeline is very close to its own doom, as the Jackpot closes in on them. She wants to help, but asks if there are any demands before finalizing the agreement.
Flynne wants her mother saving, but Lowbeer admits, Lev’s people have done all they can. Flynne feels used and hurt, returning to her own world as a heartbroken mess. They promised Ella’s survival, but it was all just a ruse.
Flynne and Burton explain the circumstances to their mother and she seems to accept them most humbly. Her only hopes are that Flynne will now live her life to its fullest, without her mother as a burden.
Ash meets with Cherise in secret to form her own alliance. She explains the location of the stolen data – it is planted in Flynne’s brain. Ash warns Cherise about Lev and states that he knows all about the data’s whereabouts, adding that Lowbeer cannot be trusted either, she has her own agenda.
Ash proposes stopping Lev once and for all, with Cherise’s aid. Cherise thinks the only way to stop this data ever getting into the wrong hands is to completely wipe it out of existence. This will inevitably destroy Flynne and her entire family though.
Flynne heads to the future to speak with Wilf, possibly for the last time. He regrets setting Flynne up and the couple hold hands. Wilf talks of confused memories from his past and how he believes Aelita must be dead by now. Wilf wants to tell Flynne some vital information, but fears they are being watched.
Flynne suggests synching up instead, so she can feel his responses. They synch up and Flynne asks Wilf questions, then Wilf reciprocates. It’s a subtle scene that delicately handles their love for one another in a professional manner. Flynne has a brainwave, why don’t they check out Wilf and Aelita’s old hiding spot.
The couple visit this very place, which used to be a forest and is now an empty park. A young Aelita is sat waiting for them, annoyed it took them so long to figure it all out. Aelita states that Ash is watching and asks for Flynne to leave them on their own for the time being.
Flynne wearily leaves, and young Aelita gives Wilf a tour of his old home. Wilf has no memories of this place, then adult Aelita arrives to explain why. The implants suppress memory, memories that have come flooding back to Aelita since she removed her own.
Aelita explains that her family and Wilf’s are buried underneath this earth. The Klept, led by Lev’s father, heard of a contagion in Wilf and Aelita’s camp. They retaliated by wiping out all the survivors. They ended up killing five million people in a fortnight. Aelita is gathering her own little army to fight back, all they need is the data stored inside Flynne’s head.
Tommy warns Flynne of a coming terrorist attack. Homeland Security have contacted Tommy, mentioning the threat of a plan to blow up the Spring Creek missile silo. On hearing this news, Flynne journeys back to London 2100 and she meets with Ash. Ash has betrayed her and orchestrated the whole scheme. Flynne is furious, finally realizing that the data is stored in her own head and has been causing her seizures. Flynne decides to fight back.
The Peripheral Season 1 Ending and Post-Credits Scene
Her plan is quite complex, with many moving parts. She asks for Conner’s assistance and that of Lowbeer’s too. She wants to open up a new stub, a reboot if you will, to avoid the coming apocalypse. Lowbeer says she can’t start a new stub, but there are stub portals scattered around England.
These are heavily guarded, yet they can help Flynne with her plans. Flynne is sent to a stub portal, hidden within a church. She fights the guards and unlocks a new stub. Cherise watches the whole event play out and speaks directly to her enemy. Flynne crushes the pocket watch device, implying that Cherise won’t be able to track her now.
Back in the present, Flynne asks Conner to shoot her, so it all looks authentic, to throw Cherise off the scent. Flynne counts back from ten, reliving precious memories from her life and then Conner pulls the trigger. It is unclear whether Flynne was killed in this timeline or not, but in the next moment she awakens in her peripheral, next to Lowbeer. Lowbeer is ready to get to work.
In a post-credits scene, Lev and Dominika head for dinner with Lev’s parents. They are shocked to be met by three important Russians instead. Lev speaks with these three men. They discuss the Research Institute, and Lev instantly begins to apologize for his scheme involving Aelita.
He says how he recruited an asset to work inside the Research Institute, which he believed was an acceptable plan. His apology is met with great laughter, the men have played a prank upon him. But they still have serious orders for Lev, he is to kill the asset and anyone linked to the asset. This doesn’t bode well for Flynne and her family.
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