Empathy Bonus

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

## Synopsis

Mercenaries raid the family home. Seeking answers, Flynne returns to the headset and learns it is not a game, but a time machine that goes 70 years into the future. Flynne makes a deal with Wilf and Lev and agrees to help find Aelita.

## Plot

Cherise Nuland, head of the Research Institute, talks about the situation with Aelita and Easy Ice with Daniel. Daniel confirms that a bounty has been put out for the person linked to Easy Ice’s avatar. He says they’re an elite, ex-military unit.

Back at Flynne’s house, Burton tells her to put their mother in the basement while he and his friends use their drones to track the bounty hunters. Burton and his friends prepare for a fight. They have a shootout and Burton and his friends beat the bounty hunters.

In the future, Wilf is contacted by Lev Zubov, who updates Wilf about Flynne and explains that she is alive and unharmed. Flynne goes back into the simulation so that Wilf can tell her her next mission. Flynne is confused about everything that is going on and Wilf tells her she’s not really in a simulation. Rather, she is in a “peripheral”, which is a robot body. Through quantum tunneling, her mind gets placed in the future and her actual body remains in the past. Wilf proves this to Flynne by letting her walk around London in the future. She sees it’s barren and very different from the London she knows of. Wilf shows her a newspaper that has her mother’s obituary in it. Wilf explains that she will die from a brain tumor in a few weeks time- however, he can help get the medicine they need if Flynne agrees to help Wilf track down Aelita.

Flynne leaves the simulation and goes to find Burton. He and his friends are piling up dead bodies and burying them. Flynne goes to find her mom and talk to her about her illness, which her mom admits is more serious than she let on.

Tommy Constantine ends up finding the invisible cars. He goes to Burton to ask him for his military expertise about a bullet he found in the truck. Burton helps him but Tommy starts to suspect Burton knows more than he’s letting on.

Flynne reenters the sim to go to London in the year 2100. She finds Wilf and meets a few of his associates, including Ossian, Ash, and Lev. The group explain what’s going on and how Aelita is involved. They explain that there are parallel timelines. Only Aelita, who works for the Research Institute, can access the past. Without her, they don’t have any access to the past world- so they really need her to be able to save the world. Flynne asks if they know anything about her or her mom’s future but they don’t respond definitively about anything. Flynne demands reassurance that her mom will get help if she helps them find Aelita.

Flynne exits the game, which is now revealed to be a future reality, not a simulation as first advertised. She sees Burton and the gang piling up the dead bodies after the shoot-out. Flynne tells Burton to bury these bodies and then heads off into town to retrieve her mom’s new meds. Flynne administers the medicine herself and talks openly with her mother about the disease. The mother had kept the seriousness of the illness a secret to protect Flynne.

Burton goes to Conner to get help protecting his property from other bounty hunters. Meanwhile, Corbell Pickett gets offered ten million dollars to kill both Flynne and her brother.

Later that evening, Flynne hears her mom and goes to see what’s going on. Her mom’s sight has come back and Flynne realizes it’s a gesture from Wilf so that she’ll help them find Aelita.

## Quotes

> You aren't playing a sim, Ms. Fisher. You're inside what we call a Peripheral. Telepresent. Piloting that body as if it were your own.
>
> Wilf

## Trivia

* The 6.8 SPC rifle round that the Tommy and Jack talk about it a Remington 6.8×43mm Remington SPC (Special Purpose Cartridge), designed as an intermediate cartridge for use in short barreled weapons in close quarters combat. Whilst it was very successful for it's intended purpose, it was never formally adopted by the military.

## 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
* Adelind Horan as Billy Ann Baker (*credit only*)
* T'Nia Miller as Cherise Nuland
* 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
* Melinda Page Hamilton as Ella Fisher
* Katie Leung as Ash
* Alexandra Billings as Detective Ainsley Lowbeer
* Julian Moore-Cook as Ossian
* Austin Rising as Leon

### Additional Cast

* India Mullen as Mary Pickett
* Harrison Gilbertson as Atticus
* David Hoflin as Daniel