Caution: spoilers ahead for The Peripheral episodes 1 & 2.What or who does the title of The Peripheral actually refer to? With Westworld's Jonathan Nolan and Lisa Joy adapting a novel by William Gibson, it's no surprise that The Peripheral forces its characters to question the nature of their reality. Undergoing this particular existential crisis is Chloë Grace Moretz's Flynne Fisher, who enters a virtual simulation not knowing her mind is actually crossing into the distant future whenever she plugs in. Flynne's first experience is an exciting kidnap mission, but her second is significantly less thrilling. Not only does her eye get forcibly removed, she's badly beaten up by an enemy guard. On her third trip, she learns the truth...
The Peripheral doesn't address what the show's title actually means until episode 2, but the clues are all there from the start. During Flynne's second future visit, she discovers her avatar is actually robotic whilst ripping herself free from handcuffs. These robotic bodies are the peripherals referred to by the show's title. A person's mind can be remotely plugged into one of these peripheral bodies - perfect replicas of a living human being - via a special headset. Naturally, the title of Amazon Prime Video's TV show also carries a double meaning. In gaming vernacular, "peripheral" describes an additional piece of hardware used to play. A VR headset, for instance, would be considered a peripheral, so while The Peripheral's title mainly represents the future timeline's robots, it's also an allusion to Flynne's time-traveling crown.
Which Character Does The Peripheral's Title Represent?
From trailer footage, it's already clear that multiple peripheral robots will be utilized throughout The Peripheral season 1, so it's strange how the title refers to a singular entity, and isn't "The Peripherals" instead. This detail could prove there's a secret third meaning to the title that won't become clear until further down the narrative path. If The Peripheral's title refers to one person and one person only, it's most likely Chloë Grace Moretz's Flynne - not because it's the name of her robot body or a nod to her headgear, but because of her actions. If the core definition of the noun "peripheral" is an outside component added to an existing system without becoming a core part, Flynne's presence in the future could make her a metaphorical peripheral to that timeline.
How Do Peripheral Bodies Actually Work?
The Peripheral still has plenty of corners to explore when it comes to the inner workings of its time-travel, but episodes 1 & 2 offer a general sense of how the technology operates. By 2099, the human race has figured out quantum tunneling to interact with computers in the past, placing phone calls, sending messages, moving money, and even giving instructions to build devices that haven't been invented yet. One such device is the peripheral, which appears to comprise two basic parts: an input and an output. The input is the headset worn by Flynne in the past, while the output is the peripheral body (almost like a Westworld host robot) built to look like Easy Ice in futuristic London.
These two components use quantum tunneling to communicate across time, allowing a character in 2032 to occupy a peripheral in the future. Although the pilot can feel everything the peripheral experiences, the robots offer physical advantages that only come from a non-organic shell, such as resilience to injury and improved agility. While the pilot is given full control of their artificial body, The Peripheral episode 1 proves they're easily manipulated from outside. Aelita/Wilf choose when Flynne disconnects (although can't dictate when Flynne plugs in, obviously), and can even bark instructions inside her head.
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The Peripheral continues Friday on Amazon Prime Video