The Peripheral Season 1 Episode 7 Review: The Doodad
The Peripheral Season 1 Episode 7, “The Doodad,” is an unusual penultimate episode.
Typically, you’d expect the episode to build up the tension and momentum leading into the season finale. In some respects, you can say that “The Doodad” does the job, but it’s not in the right storylines.
Tommy killing Corbell and the Sheriff is unexpected and surprising, but their deaths (and Bob’s) doesn’t affect the story at large — at least not in a way that is evident right now.
All it does is wrap up their storylines, making us wonder why we had to bother with them in the first place.
So much time was spent on Corbell, his operation, his deal with Jasper, and then his association with Bob, and the end result is that they die without affecting anything outside of their storyline.
Burton and Flynne got rid of people who wanted them dead, but that doesn’t solve the Aelita mystery nor does it affect the bacteria/data that is in Flynne’s brain. Their deaths just simplify the unnecessary Clanton storylines, so we come away thinking that the time we spent with them was a waste.
I will say, the paranoid side of me is wondering if Corbell is completely dead. Flynne took a hit or two from the doodad before being “killed” in the future, so I’m not entirely ruling out Corbell pulling through, although I want him to be dead. We need to move on from him.
The only thing I’m decently sure of heading into the finale is that we’re not going to get a satisfying conclusion to our big questions. It’s probably going to mainly serve the purpose of setting up a yet-to-be-confirmed Season 2 where the Neoprims finally are introduced in a way that matters, and we’ll be more entrenched in the war being waged in the future.
I don’t have a ton of faith that the show will wrap up any of the storylines this season in a meaningful way.
The Peripheral has proven throughout the season that it doesn’t know how to prioritize storylines correctly, so the finale setting up Season 2 instead of closing the chapter on Season 1 isn’t too unrealistic to expect.
I’d love to be proven wrong because I do enjoy The Peripheral. It’s got a great foundation that it hasn’t managed to use correctly, but it’s still there. At the end of the day, I’d tune into a second season despite all my issues with this season.
Lastly, we need to talk about Flynne and Wilf.
The look she gives him when asked why she wouldn’t want the connection severed insinuates that it’s due to her feelings for him, and that is rushing their relationship too much.
She expressed her concern that the haptics were affecting her feelings and judgment of him on The Peripheral Season 1 Episode 5, “What About Bob?,” so to go from that to her not wanting to lose him at the risk of everything else doesn’t make sense.
If the show wants to go there with them, then we need more sparks. There should be more moments like they had on The Peripheral Season 1 Episode 3, “Haptic Drift.” That was a swoon-worthy moment and makes it easy to fall in love with the idea of them as a couple.
Perhaps this is reading too much into a look, and she simply looked to Wilf for guidance or assurance in her answer. However, I can’t stop thinking about that moment.
What did you think of this episode of The Peripheral? Share your thoughts in the comments below!
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New episodes of The Peripheral premiere Fridays on Prime Video.
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Allison Nichols
Allison is in a love affair with television that doesn't seem to be letting up anytime soon. Slightly damaged fictional characters are her weakness. She loves to spend her free time curled up with a cat and a show to binge-watch. Allison is a Tomatometer-approved critic (Rotten Tomatoes).