The Peripheral kills off Grace shortly after the character’s introduction in the series, before revealing her connection to an important character and the reason behind her tragic departure.
The Peripheral has introduced many characters to the fold in the span of five episodes. Some of these characters are more significant to the story than they seem to be, while some tragically serve as motivations for others.
One such character whose death might inspire a sense of vengeance in Aelita is her former flame Grace, who’s mercilessly murdered by the diabolical Cherise Nuland.
Here’s who Grace is and how she is related to Aelita West:
The buzzing kill
Grace is introduced in episode 3 when Dr Cherise Nuland invites her for a meeting in one of the gardens. The purpose of the meet-up soon becomes clear to Grace, much to her abject terrors.
Aelita breaches RI’s security in the first episode, along with the help of an unsuspecting Flynne, stealing something from the futuristic facility that Nuland can’t afford to lose.
This very breach triggers the central conflict in The Peripheral, and it’s the very reason why Nuland meets with Grace, and asks her about the security breach that recently transpired as well as her part in said breach.
Grace is terrified of this intimidating person, who wields massive power. And she’s right to fear her, as Nuland wastes no mercy for Grace and punishes her for her errors while sharing company secrets with her old friend Aelita.
Nuland releases a swarm of ferocious killer bees who impart a brutal, off-screen death upon Grace.
The former lovers flashback
In episode 5, the show sheds light on Grace and Aelita’s relationship that once was and the events that transpired before the big security breach.
Aelita and Grace were once lovers but separated long ago, owing to a falling-out where, as Aelita puts it, Grace broke her heart. Meanwhile, the latter also rants about how the former dumped her, leaving a cold and explicit note to break things off.
However, Aelita doesn’t want to dwell on the bygones, even though she scoffs in disbelief at the fact that Grace is now married and has two kids.
Anyway, the former lovers reconcile and with their bitter dynamic shifting to a sweet one, they hit a bar. Aelita then changes the conversation and asks her ex-girlfriend about her work.
Grace works for the Research Institute and the work is overtly confidential and precarious. She takes a risk and offers Aelita a tour anyway, though, taking her to the room with the inverted pyramid working with highly advanced technological components.
The breach and the consequences
Grace shows Aelita what Research Institute does in this important room rife with applications of futuristic sci-fi advancements.
She shows Aelita, to the latter’s shock and disturbance, that Research Institute experiments with the stubs (alternate timelines) in this room.
The subjects of these experiments are still real people, though, capable of feeling emotions and pain just like the ones in this future timeline.
Both Grace and Aelita are aware of this, but only the latter is empathetic and morally sound enough to feel jolted by what she beholds on one of the screens.
The display shows a soldier in one of the experiment stubs, working in accordance with the haptic technology that Research Institute has made possible in this timeline (as part of their experiments and testing the technology out on expendable humans).
This is the same haptic technology that Burton and his mates operate with. Aelita can’t stomach when the soldier on the monitor suffers the gravest of injuries due to this experimental technology.
Later, whether it’s entirely because of this perturbance, or a mixture of other fears and drives as well, Aelita steals some important data related to this room, with the help of Flynne.
Cherise and the Research Institute can’t afford this stealth, made possible because of the security breach that Grace contributed to.
As a consequence, Nuland murders her in one of the most painful ways, possibly making way for Aelita to take revenge for her former lover’s death eventually.
Also read: How does the future world operate in The Peripheral?