Pilot

**Pilot** is the first episode of the first season of *The Peripheral*. It premiered on October 21, 2022.

## Synopsis

Flynne Fisher is a brilliant gamer who works a dead-end job to support her brother and ailing mother. When her brother enlists her help in an advanced game, Flynne sees something she shouldn't, bringing danger to the family's doorstep.

## Plot

The episode opens with boats firing gunshots at one another while a man sits on a park bench watching. The man, Wilf, checks his watch, seemingly waiting for someone. A young girl, Aelita, approaches and asks him what kind of mess he’s gotten her into. He asks her what she’s up to and she said saving the world- clarifying that she’s not saving their world (which is past saving) but perhaps another one. She tells him goodbye.

The scene cuts to the Blue Ridge Mountains in the year 2032. A girl, Flynne Fisher, brings her mom a cup of coffee. She goes to give her mom pills but can’t find them- she goes to a trailer out back to find he brother, Burton, who is playing virtual reality (VR) games. She asks him if he’s swapping pills with their mom. She asks him for money to get more and he tells her he can if he does well at his video game. He asks her to help and she begrudgingly agrees.

She goes into the VR game as his avatar and starts fighting as a soldier. She helps her brother win and tells him to send the money to her. Flynne goes to the ATM to pull out cash and a police officer pulls over, skeptical as to why she’s pulling out so much cash. The officer, Tommy, asks her about her mother.

Flynne goes in to work and jokes around with her friend Billy Ann. She tells her Flynne’s skills are being put to waste because she could make a long more money doing what Burton does. Billy Ann tells Flynne to be bold and tell Tommy she likes him.

Macon and Edward come over with a device for Burton. She clarifies it’s free and he never had to pay for it. Flynne scans for it and brings it to him. He explains to her what it is- another VR game- and lets her put it on and play the game as his avatar, Easy Ice. It’s an entirely new experience - she can feel everything in this VR, pain included. A voice comes into her head, explaining that if she does what the voice asks then she’ll earn her keep. In Burton’s body, she enters a garden party. The first task is to convince a woman, Mariel Raphael, to take him home. He flirts with her and convinces her to take him home. They get into her car, where her driver is programmed to kill anyone who dares hurt her. They make out and the voice tells him to take a glass ampoule out of his pocket and put it under her nose. He does and the driver immediately impales him and tries to stab him. Easy Ice fights back and kills the driver too.

He starts driving the car and pulls into a parking lot, where the woman whose voice has been in his head is waiting. She tells him he’s his first polt. She asks what he would do if he weren’t to exist in ten years. She tells him that they can resume tomorrow. Flynne wakes up and tells Burton it was like actually being there. He tells her they want her back tomorrow and they bumped up the money. He asks her if she will help him continue. She goes to get up and feels dizzy, needing to sit down again.

Flynne goes to pick up her mom’s pills by buying from from Atticus, Buddy, and Cash, local drug dealers. She only has enough money for one pill and he tells her she has to bulk buy. Conner comes over to tell the men to give her the pill. He has no legs and one arm and tells the men he doesn’t have much less to lose, implying he was ready to fight and kill them. Atticus agrees to give Flynne the pill. Atticus, Buddy, and Cash walk back into the bar and see Corbell Pickett waiting for him. Corbell is disappointed in how the men handled Conner, letting him “manhandle” them. He smashes one of the man’s faces and tells them when they look weak he looks weak.

Flynne goes back home and sees her brother in pain, with something lit up on his back like a symbol. She helps her mom wash her hair. Her brother indicates it’s time and locks her back into the VR machine. Easy Ice wakes up on a metal bed and can’t move. The woman behind the voice explains that he can’t disconnect when he wants to - only she can. She tells him to endure some pain while he can because it will be worth it. A surgeon performs a surgery on his eye. Easy Ice passes out and wakes up again in a car with a brand new eye.

They go to a building where he presses his eye, which is now Mariel’s eye, to it to gain entrance. They go into an elevator deep down below the ground. She has him put his eye up to an upside down pyramid but he struggles. A man comes in and she commands Easy to stop him. The man identifies the woman as Aelita West. He attacks her but Easy Ice manages to get up and fight back. Easy Ice gets knocked out and the connection ends, releasing Flynne back into her normal body. She tells Burton “never again” and runs off.

The next morning, Flynne calls in sick to work. Billy Ann comes to check on her. Flynne tells her what’s been happening with the VR game. She explains that her hand got torn off but underneath was a machine. She wonders why they would do the in a VR game if it’s just a game. She admits she can’t help but feel like she was actually there instead of in another sim.

Wilf calls Flynne and explains to her that she’s in grave danger. Everything she understands about the sim experience is wrong and it’s imperative she log back in immediately. He tells her her life is at risk and she tells him not to call again and hangs up.

A state trooper gets a cup of coffee and sees suspicious men pull up. He follows them and puts on his sirens but they speed up far out of sight. The trooper looks confused because he can’t find them and he sees tire tracks on the side of the road. A man with a gun aims it at him and tells him to step into the road. An invisible car hits the trooper and kills him. The men get back into their vehicles and keep driving.

Flynne closes up at work. Messages air on the machines at work warning her of the danger she is in. The voice says that a bounty for 9 million has been set for a contract killing on Flynne and her family and she has to log back into the sim to understand how to save them. Flynne rushes home and explains what’s happening to Burton. He tells her he’ll deal with it tomorrow because he’s drunk and with company now. His friends tell him that they had a warning with their friend Conner and that maybe he should pay more attention to what’s happening with Flynne. They get drones and see something.

## Quotes

> Welcome to the Sim, Easy Ice.
>
> Aelita West

## Trivia

* At 49:20 seconds, Aelita West quotes the poem auguries of innocence by the famous 18th century poet William Blake. Which makes sense in the context of the mentioned concept of quantum tunneling. To see a World in a Grain of Sand And a Heaven in a Wild Flower Hold Infinity in the palm of your hand And Eternity in an hour.

## Cast

### Starring

* Chloë Grace Moretz as Flynne Fisher
* Gary Carr as Wilf Netherton
* Jack Reynor as Burton Fisher
* Eli Goree as Conner Penske
* Charlotte Riley as Aelita West
* JJ Feild as Lev Zubov (*credit only*)
* Adelind Horan as Billy Ann Baker
* T'Nia Miller as Cherise Nuland (*credit only*)
* Alex Hernandez as Tommy Constantine
* Austin Rising as Leon
* Amber Rose Revah as Grace

### Guest Starring

* Louis Herthum as Corbell Pickett
* Chris Coy as Jasper Baker
* Melinda Page Hamilton as Ella Fisher
* Katie Leung as Ash (*credit only*)
* Alexandra Billings as Detective Ainsley Lowbeer
* Julian Moore-Cook as Ossian (*credit only*)
* David Hoflin as Daniel

### Additional Cast

* Gavin Dunn as Edward
* Miles Barrow as Macon
* Poppy Corby-Tuech as Mariel Raphael

## Music

* "London Calling" - The Clash, playing during the end titles.