‘The Peripheral’ Recap: ‘The Creation of a Thousand Forests’

Written by John Edward Betancourt

Caution: This article contains spoilers for the season finale of ‘The Peripheral’. To revisit the previous episode, click here.
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One the hardest lessons that we will ever have to learn in this life, is that failure is part of the human experience. And what makes this so tough to swallow, is that the mantra of modern society is that failure is completely and utterly unacceptable in our world. For mankind settles for nothing less than success and if we do fail and acknowledge that… somehow, we are a pariah. But without failure in our lives, we don’t grow as people and we certainly don’t learn how to succeed, and it takes failure to show us that and when we learn that lesson… we often find ourselves wondering… what it would take for others to understand the importance of embracing the wonder of failure and what it sends our way. 
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Oddly enough, that’s a question that the season finale of The Peripheral on Prime Video is eager to answer. For ‘The Creation of a Thousand Forests’ is a story that well… sees Flynne Fisher facing complete and utter failure in life. Because at this point in the story, everything that can go wrong, has gone wrong. After all, Tommy’s career was at a horrible crossroads since he killed the Sheriff and left Pickett in a coma and of course… her mother was heading toward death since the drug had done all it could do. Not to mention, Cherise and Ash were now working together to get at the data in Flynne’s head and well, Cherise was ready to do the absolute worst to obtain it.

In that, she would push the date of the Jackpot up in Flynne’s timeline and well, that’s when Flynne realized… she failed. She failed to keep people safe, she failed to act before it was too late and now… her life and the lives of those she loved would end. But rather than just lie down and accept her fate, she realized she had a different route available to her, thanks to the wonders that surrounded her. And that if she was honest with herself and embraced the fact that she had failed and made use of the technology present… perhaps she could pivot and move forward and keep her family safe and that brought forth quite the wild plan. 

For if she could create an offshoot Stub, one where the coordinates were kept secret, she and her family and friends would have a second chance and she could end the madness as it stood by sacrificing herself. A plan that few were good with but followed regardless. Simply because she could download into her Peripheral and hide in the future while the past was secure. Which is a plan that worked and allowed for her to hide from evil at last. Giving rise to a unique opportunity to set things right for Flynne and a chance to fight for a better past and better tomorrow. But what mattered more, was the message present in this finale regarding how we accept the lesson and get the word out to others. Obviously first and foremost, popular media can help with that, by saying it’s okay to fail and okay to make mistakes. 

But more importantly, it is up to us… to deny failure the power it has over us. And to understand that if we accept it and look objectively at the situation and how we came to this point… we can easily come to understand the lessons failure teaches us and move on with our head held high, so we don’t let it happen again. Which is a wonderful lesson to find in this tale, one that truly sets the stage for a powerhouse season two. One where Flynne can finally become the hero she’s toyed with being in this story, courtesy of her freedom and through her embracing of failure and hopefully this series gets a second season. So that we can learn more about this wild world and see what the fight for a better tomorrow looks like with a hero that is free of the trappings of modern society… and is ready to learn and grow as they fight to make the world… a better place.

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