Diksha Sundriyal
Prime Video’s ‘The Peripheral’ uses its seventh episode to shed light on the situation of Flynne Fisher while also giving more space to the secondary characters, who had been on the sidelines all this while. We get to know more about Inspector Ainsley Lowbeer, while Burton and Connor get a taste of the future. By the end of this episode, the show also confirms Research Institute’s involvement with Flynne’s current timeline and the impact that this meddling had on her and the people that she loves. Despite all the drama in the future, it was Tommy Constantine who finally received the screen time that his arc had been building towards. Here’s what it means for him. SPOILERS AHEAD
The Peripheral Episode 7 Recap
In the future, Inspector Lowbeer puts Burton, Connor, and Flynne through a test to gauge their character and ability. Burton and Connor are taken inside the Zoo, where the Met police are brought to train. Lowbeer’s assistant, Beatrice, tests the men, and an attraction is hinted at between her and Connor, who plans to stay permanently in the future in the peripheral, which is an upgrade over his human body in the past. While her brother fights his way through different levels, Flynne has to answer a series of questions about herself. In conversation with the Inspector, she also discovers that her brother died in the original timeline, Connor didn’t lose his limbs, and she got married to Tommy.
Meanwhile, Lev Zubov discovers that Ash and Ossian had been keeping a secret from him. It turns out that the data that Aelita stole from RI is now inside Flynne’s brain in the form of the bacteria that is causing her seizures. While he tries to figure out what the data is and how to get it, Cherise Nuland visits the Inspector. She reveals that the data is actually about a program to influence a person’s mind, which is something that they had tested on Burton and his friends using the haptic implants. In the present, Tommy digs into the disappearance of Bob, who has laid out an elaborate plan to kill Flynne and Burton.
The Peripheral Episode 7 Ending: Is Corbell Pickett Dead?
Tommy Constantine always knew that the police department was corrupt. Still, he had the luxury of not being involved with the source of corruption directly. Because things were usually so quiet in Clanton, he was never forced to choose a side. That is until the weird futuristic things started to show up. He was first taken by surprise by the invisible car, but he didn’t know what to make of it. Then, the incident on the bridge, where a heavily trained assassin tried to kill the Fisher siblings convinced him that they were caught up in something terrible. When Bob was arrested, Tommy thought he might finally have some answers, but then Corbell Pickett intervened, and to Tommy’s frustration, it was the head of the police department that helped the criminal.
When Pickett’s wife is killed, the sheriff calls Tommy to his place and tells him to arrest Burton and Flynne. Had it been any other thing, Tommy would probably have done it. But bringing Flynne into this makes him question the sheriff as well as his own cowardice to not have confronted him all this time. The sheriff makes it clear that he is on the payroll of Pickett and if Tommy doesn’t do as he is asked, then things will not turn out so well for him. He cooks up a story about how Burton and his friends are involved in the drug business and someone sent a hitman to kill them, who has now killed Pickett’s wife.
At first, Tommy feels helpless. It looks like he will have to do what the sheriff asked him. But then, he comes up with a story of his own, one that will allow him to get rid of both the sheriff and Pickett. He shoots the sheriff multiple times and uses a sonic blast on Pickett. While killing people seems vastly uncharacteristic of Tommy, he does it because he has reached his breaking point. He tried to do things the right way, but not only did he not receive any support but was also threatened to be turned into a scapegoat.
Tommy still doesn’t have answers to all his questions. He doesn’t know how the Fishers are involved in all this, why did Bob try to kill them, and what the futuristic tech means. But he has finally decided to take a step in that direction. He is fed up with being pushed over and not taken seriously. The conversation with the sheriff brings him to the breaking point where his moral dilemma of breaking the law and killing others is resolved. If he is killing bad people, then it’s not exactly a bad thing.
Tommy uses the story about Bob to kill both the sheriff and Pickett, but he doesn’t exactly finish the task. He unlocks the working of the sonic punch, but he doesn’t realize that it is not as deadly as shooting someone multiple times. While the device makes a big show of throwing Pickett at a distance, there is a chance that he might have survived the attack, even if he comes out of it pretty beat up. While it might lighten Tommy’s guilt of murdering people, it will also mean that he has left a very powerful enemy alive. Not only this, but Pickett is also a witness to the sheriff’s murder and he can always use the law against Tommy to destroy his life. He will have to make sure that Pickett is dead if he doesn’t want the whole thing to come crashing down on him, just when he had the chance to get some answers.
Read More: Is Alexandra Billings’ Inspector Ainsley Lowbeer Trans in The Peripheral?
