The Peripheral episode 8 recap & review: The Creation of a Thousand Forests

‘The Peripheral’ episode 8 concludes the first season of the sci-fi with a couple of shocking twists to the story that follows a consistent sense of foreboding with a set-up for a more enthralling next chapter ahead.

Recap

‘The Peripheral’ episode 8 opens with Tommy wiping some incriminating remnants of evidence from his shoes when he learns that the EMTs have picked up a pulse on Corbell Pickett.

While the kingpin lies unconscious in emergency care, Tommy tries to get something out of Flynne, who refuses to divulge any information again. Before she departs, though, he tells her about the right-wing militia threat to blow up the nuclear silo.

Meanwhile, Corbell’s henchmen begin deciding who’s going to be the next top dog, sidelining Jasper per usual, not even considering him for the race. Jasper decides to overcome his meekness by killing them all but a phone call from his wife changes his mind, only for it to be too late by then.

In London, Ash meets with Cherise and strikes a deal. She tells the doctor about the data that Aelita stole, informing her that it’s all stored inside Flynne’s head and that she shouldn’t trust Lowbeer to do much in her favour.

In exchange for this information, Ash wants Cherise to kill Lev Zubov. Cherise agrees but asks her to act as her inside man in the process, which Ash has no problems with.

Flynne later meets with Ash and learns that she has colluded with Cherise, and also that the doctor has decided to speed up the Jackpot in her timeline, and the militia threat she heard of from Tommy is a result of Cherise’s increased efforts.

Wilf finally meets Aelita, who informs him that the Klept killed all their families and friends and in the camps, wiped out nearly five million people within a fortnight. She then introduces Wilf to the militia of rebels she has gathered, to go against the Klept, and they need the tool that’s Flynne’s information-storing brain.

Flynne meets with Lowbeer and joins hands to hatch a truly radical plan, involving them and Conner, but not Burton because he’d stop her from going through it. The plan is to create a new stub, Lowbeer agrees to help her direct her to the location where Flynne can create one.

Meanwhile, Flynne asks Conner to kill her in her timeline and tells him that they’ll come back to London to see Cherise’s death. Conner snipes at Flynne who goes through important memories of her loved ones, the scene cuts to a wide shot of the jungle while a gunshot is heard.

Previous to this, Flynne did crush Cherise’s ways of tracking her location down, so while she’d know where the doctor is at all times, the vice versa won’t be true. ‘The Peripheral’ episode 8 ends with Flynne getting ready for the next stage of the plan with Lowbeer.

In a mid-credits scene, Zubov is met by three old members of the Klept oligarchy and the familiars of his father. They encourage his efforts at prying out information from R.I. but also warn him to get rid of all the loose ends quickly.

Review

• ‘The Peripheral’ episode 8 sets up the next instalment, promising a follow-up that feels much more enthralling and active than this one.
• Almost all the storylines developing until now come to a rather hasty and unsatisfactory end. Corbell’s departure is easy, and so is Bob’s.
• Aelita’s appearance does little to excite as the cause of her overarching plans and schemes comes to light.
• However, except for the visuals of the Research Institute’s morally reprehensible actions that Grace showed her, the show doesn’t delve any further into Aelita’s encounter with the hideous truths about her world.
• The aforementioned lack, on top of a general lack of screen time for Aelita, makes the finale seem like a scrambling effort to cram everything in.
• A better scenario would have entailed Aelita’s continued disappearance until later on in the series.
• While it isn’t necessary to have a finale be predictably the one rife with high-octane action, episode 8 of ‘The Peripheral’ suffers from a deficit of good action sequences.

---

Also Read: Who is Inspector Lowbeer? The Peripheral character explained