The Peripheral has now come to a close, giving us a strange, trippy parallel timeline sci-fi real doll future-fest. With one of the Westworld creators attached, you know it’s gonna get heady. But in this article, we’re going to be discussing the ins and out’s of the ending of this series in the Peripheral Ending. What is up with all the bees, our predictions for what a potential season 2 might have in store, along with our general thoughts on the series as a whole?
I kinda dug this first season of The Peripheral. The sci-fi elements really drew me in during the first couple of episodes, slowly introducing new characters and technology; the robot dudes were cool-looking and honestly asked questions. I kept questioning, “Now, wait, how does this not impact the future if Flynne does “X,” but the plot is there to logically and meaningfully respond to those questions.
Peripheral Explained
Now, as a brief outline of what the heck is going on in The Peripheral, umm, here we go. So Flynn lives in 2032 North Carolina with her brother, Burton, who is ex-military, both taking care of their sick mother. Backwoods town has nothing to do, and it’s tough to make money because everyone in the town is in the pocket of one Corbell Pickett. You know, your run-of-mill small-town bad dude who runs it all.
Any way to make money, Burton is a sim jockey, ushering rich folk through VR. Think Ready Player One, but, Uh, no, Ready Player One is a great comparison. However, Flynn is way better at the sims than Burton. She is an explorer type, trying to break the game, learning as she goes; Welp, they get roped into this huge score of a job. Assassinations, weird robots, seduction, ripping eyeballs out, a heist of some state-of-the-art tech mumbo jumbo.
But here’s the kicker, Are you ready? The sim they are playing in is actually the real-world London set in 2099. What is quantum tunneling, time travel, great Scott is this?!
Sooooo with this being realized, combined with the fact real people were killed, and something was actually stolen, all sorts of scrambles kick off. People from the future try to eliminate the pair in the past with sonic blast weapons and invisible cars; invisible cars, ehh, better let paperboy know, just like Atlanta.
But Flynn gains intel from the future to not only find Aelita West, the missing person from the original sim, but to help her in her present time, and learns of something called “The Jackpot.” Ohh, that sounds great, like winning a ton of money; ohhh no, no, it’s called the jackpot because it’s a handful of apocalyptic disasters piling on to one another, like winning the jackpot. At least the future is optimistic.
All of this essentially comes to a head when Flynne is targeted by the RI or rather Research Institute, and the head of it, Dr. Cherise Nuland, aka the “Queen Bee.” Cherise wants Flynee dead while trying to accelerate the jackpot in her time, while Flynne is trying to understand why she wants her dead and exposing R.I. for the immortal technology they possess and what they have been doing and plan to do with it.
Peripheral Ending Explained
Now the ending sees Aelita finally revealing herself, still alive. And in removing her immunity boost, she started remembering. The RI tech that is supposed to “help them” has a bit of a side effect, manipulating their memories. When she and Wolf were children, the Klept, including Lev’s father, was terrified of a supposed “contagion” in relief camps; there was no proof of this, by the way, and slaughtered roughly 5 million people in a fortnight. Another reason why there are few to no people living in London.
Aelita’s plan this whole time is to expose to RI for covering this up, using the “infinity in the palm in their hand technology,” which is the bacterial DNA in Flynne’s skull. In doing so, societal trust in both the Klept and RI will dwindle, reverting a bit back to how humanity used to live without relying on the breakthroughs of the institute. However, Aelita needs Flynne.
Basically, everyone is after Flynne now because of what she has in her head, and the only person she can trust is Inspector Lowbeer. Severing her stub from their future is unfortunately out of the cards, but Lowbeer says she can open a new stub. Highly unethical, but it is possible through one of R.I.’s “stub portals.” A pretty generic name, don’t you think?
Flynn makes her way towards a hidden stub portal, which is located right outside of a cemetery, which seems fitting for all of the deaths that were overlooked without a second thought by the RI. Flynn grabs the stub portal key, which is in the form of a golden pocket watch, dispatches some periph’s, and slams the watch into place, essentially, in theory, allowing her to jump back and create a new stub, a quote “reboot for her sim,” because where they are at is blackhole, there is no progressing forward from there. I had this happen in Resident Evil 4, and I was NOT happy.
Anyway, Flynn opens the stub, but in doing so, it also destroys the pocket watch, so the RI and Cherise can’t track her; they haven’t a clue what stub she’s going back to; they can only guess. Which is a cheeky nod to the episode title, “The Creation of a Thousand Forests.” Trees, branches, stubs, you get it?
One Flynne Dies And Other Is Alive
Back in the main stub, Flynne tells Connor to shoot her. Yeeeaaahhh, it seems crazy, but this is the stub that everyone has been monitoring, and she must end it and, in turn, create a new branching path. Flynne counts down from 10, remembering memories that soon may not be the ones she remembers, and Connor gets closure for the puppy incident and shoots Flynne dead. This is supposed to make it look like Lowbeer sent out a hit on her, and it was successful. Allowing Cherise off her back, not asking questions about Flynne any further.
Believe me, there is a lot of sci-fi mumbo jumbo, paradox stuff going through your brain right now, but the Flynne we know is gone. But a different one, in a different stub, unknown to everyone except Inspector Lowbeer, is now the one to move forward with ending the RI, Aelita’s revolution, and the Klept, all with the help of Lowbeer as the two get to work.
Symbolically this self-sacrifice, for a replacement of Flynne’s self, was hinted at with the two groom toppers back in episode 1. Two identical, one is snapped in half, ending its journey, while the other moves on.
Peripheral Post Credits Scene Explained
Now you might have missed this, but surprisingly there is a post-credits stinger after the credits of episode 8. This features Lev and Dominka Zubov having lunch at some ritzy club, only for Lev to be greeted by three older gentlemen grilling him about his dealings with the RI. These are leading individuals of the Klept and friends of Lev’s father. They aren’t too fond of Lev trying to recruit someone from the RI; this is in reference to Cherise and her associates, and he should tie up any loose ends, aka prune the branches in regards to stubs.
So it looks like Lev needs to deal with Cherise in some fashion, maybe even pulling another Yuri Samsonov, eliminating her from all of the stubs. But it is going to cause a multitude of problems because the three walls structured walls will cause things to crumble inward. But Cherise has Lev’s DNA from the teacup in episode 4, I believe. So any sense of wrongdoing will be preemptively planned on the part of Cherise and the RI. Plus, if Lev does go through with it, does this start up another Jackpot?
The Bees In Peripheral Explained
Okay, let’s speak about the bees first before moving on to our Season 2 theories. Yes, we must, given their widespread presence. Flynne appears in her Halloween home video wearing one, among other references and symbolism. There is a bee-related theme in practically every episode.
Burton wears a bee on his bandana in episode one, Cherise is referred to as the “Queen Bee” of it all, the decor’s hexagonal shapes are reminiscent of a honeycomb, and the met kids—those robot dudes—have faced with a resemblance to honeycombs.
During the television presentation of bees in Episode 2, it is said that “each individual bee has a crucial function to play in fulfilling the overall demands of the colony. They all assist with the hive’s smooth operation. Without the assistance of the others, none can survive. However, the population has fallen precipitously due to environmental stresses, providing a jackpot indication.
The use of bees by Cherise in entomological (ento-mo-logical) warfare is also depicted in episode 3, and the hexagonal shape of the beehives matches that of Cherise’s attire and the teacup. Even a brilliant switch to a bug zapper immediately following this scene, making reference to the queen bee, has to go.
The Halloween home video from episode four features Fylnne as a young bumble bee. The loss of bees is another environmental disaster caused by the jackpot, and it has a cascading impact.
Inspector Lowbeer also refers to the Met police algorithm as “The Aunties” in episode 7. Buzzing around are busy little bees. Why the bees, though? They are all participating in this show, but why?
The Three Walls House In Peripheral Explained
Well, there are a few distinct ones. The television announcer says, “Workers, drones, and the queen, they all contribute to the healthy operation of the hive,” referring to episode 2 once more. And none of them—not even the queen—can survive alone. They all need the assistance of others.
This three parties cooperative structure can be likened to Cherise’s three-wall house analogy back in episode 4. Whereas the queen, drones, and workers, are, in theory, the same as the Klept, Met Police, and the Research Institute.
Not identically matching how these bees function, but The Klept oligarchy (ol·i·gar·key) used extreme violence and was able to bring order from the chaos of the jackpot. Though on the scummy side of things, they run by an open hand and blind eye mentality. The Met Police keep the Klept from straying too far from certain boundaries, allowing their activities to persist.
And The Research Institute benefits from the peace and prosperity that results. And provides technical assistance for society to function and thrive. All work together, despite differences, for the betterment of the hive.
But unfortunately, it is all a very fragile structure. At any moment, the roof of the three-walled houses could come crashing down if something strays, resulting in essentially the end of the world. Much like our current day ecosystems, one tiny shift could result in our own jackpot, one of which scientists have been talking about is the extinction of bees. One small ripple gets bigger and bigger as it waves outward.
Flynne As The Ripple Effect
It’s interesting because Cherise believes in this structuring but also is in the completely opposite camp when saying that bees are ignorant, not having a clue how vulnerable they are, while she and the RI have had to prevent two extinction-level events. Interjecting that human, or rather her, intervening is the key to their survival and that long climb back up from nothing.
In a grander sense, the RI is building humanity back up after the jackpot, potentially utilizing graphene, which is molecularly hexagonal, aka honeycomb shaped.
A great example of how fragile everything is, and in this case, the meddling of Flynne could be this tiny thing, years and years in the past, that could have a huge ripple effect. Hell, she is even dressed as a bee at one point. It could be positive or negative, but with the information she possesses from the RI, in a roundabout way, nothing exists without her.
This is why Cherise is doing anything in her power to stop Flynne on whatever path she is on and accelerate the jackpot. Look at Flynne from every angle because what effects does she change on 2099’s society and human history in those 70 years? Cherise doesn’t lose her place at the table. The power she has, the position and time she finds herself. Sure, stubs prevent any sort of paradox, but all can change with one little, tiny bee.
Peripheral Season 2 Predictions
As for where season 2 could go, it’ll definitely lean into the weird sci-fi elements a bit more. Because the Flynne and present we know is no longer going to be the Flynne and present we know, Do you know? Basically, her survival at the end is Lowbeer using a different stub to bring her into the fold. So these two will be working together to expose the RI in some fashion, without the 3-walls crumbling down, even though things are shaky because of Aelita’s little revolution, which was hinted at the very start of this series.
However, with things driving into a different stub, I’m curious how that’ll affect the past we’ve seen, and in doing so, we’ll see all of these events play out again, but in dramatically different ways because the past has a lot of “fork in the road” moments for other characters besides Flynne.
Tommy has a lot of tough decisions he makes in episode 7, Jasper taking the money from Corbell and the phone call with his wife at the railroad tracks, Bob in the hospital thinking about who should die, and Connor rescuing the dog or not. It could be an interesting Wizard of Oz journey, but also discount what has happened so far.
Lev Zubov Theory
Now one huge theory I have is that Lev Zubov, or the one we’ve seen, is actually a peripheral. This skinwalker ain’t fooling anyone, and it’s because of so many small hints. First off, rich and powerful people tend to use peripherals as a safety precaution, which we see Cherise use. But also that Flynne found evidence of the Zubov family dying in a mafia hit in her time of 2032. Sure the mafia hit was part of Lev killing all of himself in the stubs, straight-up Jet Li in The One style, but this would make him roughly 100ish years old.
Sure, chalk it up as anti-aging drugs. Maybe it’s Maybelline, but London didn’t start rebuilding until the ’70s. So I’m convinced Lev and other members of the Klept, including his father, are on life support somewhere else but piloting these peripherals like they are youthful again.
We could go one deeper, and someone else could be the one piloting Lev’s Peripheral. Hell, what if it is actually Yuri Samsonov? Hey, wait a minute; yeah, he didn’t actually get wiped out. There was one of his left, wiped out all of the stub Lev’s, and took this one over? A Klept would do that.
Everyone Is Peripheral
I also think a majority of the people walking around London are actually Peripherals, being piloted by essentially people or brains in tubes in the lower levels of the RI. We saw the RI having floors and floors of tech, and this would allow for the rich to essentially live forever. This could even explain the Zubovs. But the RI is using the tech to gather information to “evolve” into the next generation of robot/human hybrids.
Because if we remember Beatrice, essentially the Taskmaster of this show. Seriously she is even watching game tape, but she reveals she would pick Connor rather than Burton after the fighting exercise, despite Burton being the more logical pick. This tells me she has feelings, compassion, something deep down she can’ explain towards him, something AI shouldn’t but is evolving into. Idk. The man sounds pretty crazy to me, man.
Peripheral Review
Does it get a bit sci-fi heady with all of the names like polt, met koids, the Klept? Yes, absolutely. I’m like, what the hell does ANY of this mean? You know I don’t speak Spanish. Luckily I watched everything with subtitles on, so we’re all good.
I’d say the biggest thing that interrupted this VR dream was the last couple of episodes. It was leading to this grand reveal of Aelita and Wilf and Lev, all butting heads with Cherise and Lowbeer, but it just felt rushed into an ending of “find out next time on The Peripheral.”
Sure it’s ripe for theories, but it seemed too fast with little explanation of how or why. Also, the top-tier perif’s that were guarding RI’s stub portal went out like some major chumps. I’d probably give the season a 7/10 as of now. Maybe a rewatch may make things clearer, better, and seem less rushed. But I really enjoyed Chloe Grace Moretz and Jack Reynor. I mean, I wouldn’t mind getting a Periph; no, no, never mind. Not gonna say it.
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