The Peripheral Episode Guide

Flynne Fisher’s work testing an experimental headset connects her rural North Carolina home in 2032 to London in 2099. What appears to be an extraordinarily convincing simulation gradually exposes a struggle involving missing data, branching timelines and several future organisations that regard the past as both a resource and a laboratory.

Episode 1: Pilot

Skully’s Pick

Flynne Fisher earns extra money by completing difficult virtual-reality games under her brother Burton’s identity. When Burton receives a headset offering access to an unusually realistic assignment in London, Flynne takes his place and discovers that the new technology offers rather more sensation than any responsible manufacturer would put in the instructions.

Episode 2: Empathy Bonus

Armed mercenaries attack the Fisher home after a substantial bounty is placed on Flynne and Burton. Seeking answers, Flynne returns to the headset and learns that her apparent simulation is connected to a real future rather than an elaborate game.

Episode 3: Haptic Drift

Flynne begins working with Wilf Netherton to find the missing Aelita West, whose actions first drew her into future London. Back in 2032, Burton and his former military unit prepare for another attack while the advantages and consequences of their haptic implants become increasingly apparent.

Episode 4: Jackpot

Skully’s Pick

Wilf visits Flynne’s timeline through a peripheral, allowing their investigation to continue from both sides of the connection. Flynne also learns what happened between her own period and 2099, revealing that the elegant future London she visits was built upon an almost unimaginable human catastrophe.

Episode 5: What About Bob?

A professional assassin arrives in Clanton with instructions to eliminate Flynne, forcing her family and friends to defend themselves once again. As Cherise Nuland tightens her grip on events, Flynne becomes increasingly willing to confront the people manipulating her world.

Episode 6: Fuck You and Eat Shit

Flynne and Wilf uncover Aelita’s connection to the Neoprims, a movement determined to challenge the political order of future London. Inspector Ainsley Lowbeer enters the investigation and immediately demonstrates that the Metropolitan Police possess an unnerving ability to anticipate nearly everyone’s behaviour.

Episode 7: The Doodad

Lowbeer summons Flynne, Burton and Conner to London, where she subjects their peripheral bodies to a highly practical assessment. In Clanton, the danger surrounding Ella intensifies while Tommy Constantine is forced to decide how far he will go after discovering corruption close to home.

Episode 8: The Creation of a Thousand Forests

Skully’s Pick

Flynne learns that Cherise is prepared to destroy far more than one family to prevent the Research Institute’s secrets from escaping. With alliances shifting in both timelines, she devises a radical plan to protect her world and continue the fight from somewhere her enemies may not be able to reach.

The season resolves its immediate threat but deliberately opens a new branch of the story, leaving Flynne’s strategy, Aelita’s plans and the conflict between the Research Institute, the Klept and the Metropolitan Police unfinished. Although a second season was announced, Amazon cancelled the production before it could be made.