In what’s been an up-and-down midseason for The Peripheral, episode 6 picks the series back up for an upwards beat. Good, with lots of characters progressing forward, and more fun science fiction reveals that make the signature really cool.
This episode’s opening scene sort of continues last week’s opening with Grace and Aelita, revealing that the group of military marines we saw during those tested neural chips in Grace and Aelita’s flashback last week? Those were in fact Burton and his marine crew including… Conner. It’s a big dramatic reveal that was heavily hinted at last week.
The big takeaway course is seeing Conner’s full journey as a character. A look back at Conner’s past sort of motivates him to make the big decision he makes in this episode, especially now, given that he’s now both seen the future and is the only other person to try out a peripheral from the more recent timeline. I won’t spoil what happens but will admit: this was definitely something foreshadowed since the very beginning of his arrival as a character.
That said, in the sixth episode, we get a nifty reveal that’s pretty big for the series’ worldbuilding again. This time, with the utilization of augmented VR/AR projectors in future London that are… most definitely hiding a dark truth of sorts underneath (though that’s yet to be confirmed). It’s a concept I actually have always wanted to write about as an author: this idea of a virtual augmented reality being overlaid over a functioning city.
Why do this is rather obvious: because the future is heading toward a place where life on this planet will become unsustainable. Civilizations will decline, and with it, the histories and architecture of the old world. The natural science fiction conclusion would of course be to preserve that with a VR/AR portion of our major cities, and while we don’t know the full details, London in this show does something just like and it’s absolutely cool.
As for the main story, Wilf and Flynne continue their investigation of Aelita and it’s pretty badass. Whereas last week saw a major conflict for Flynne, this week’s focus is more focused on the sentimentality between the two, which is anyone’s guess. If this is the haptic drift of Flynne’s schoolgirl crush on Wilf, we don’t really know.
Also, there was more follow-up regarding the deputy Tommy storyline but it’s mostly the fallout after the “car accident” that liberated Bob, who’s very much still alive and working for the exact bad guys you’d expect: Corbell Pickett. He makes a fun appearance again with his wife though there is one… really bad scene regarding a fish tank with an unrealistic ocean of water inside that brings the biggest tension to this episode. It’s…uh… brilliant if you sort of don’t think about the science behind it, which is kind of hard, given the amount of science fiction in this series (though the fact that the amount of water in a fish tank is the scientific complaint is the complaint is telling how good the science has been).
The biggest and final takeaway though in this episode is the introduction of Ainsley Lowbeer, who’s sort of the futuristic police of the future and one heck of an intimidating character. Where this is leading to is anyone’s guess but mine but I will say that the added tension in check makes it so that, whatever the cause of all this turmoil in the future is, looks like it’s finally being addressed even though we won’t know as to what ends…
Oh and yes… F*ck You and Eat Sh*t is used in this story. You’ll never guess how though.
The Final Verdict
It’s been a blast reviewing this series and I can’t wait to see the final two episodes when they air (as that’s the end of our screeners). I think the science fiction is well paced and the tensions are distributed well, even though most of it seems to be leading toward a bad-guy shootout. I will say though that the series does lack a few character losses, making it hard to sympathize with how well the Fishers do have it. Still, The Peripheral continues to be a promising series that’s more heavy on the science fiction than the rest of the story.
