Peaky Blinders, series 5 episode 6 recap: old faces return amid an inevitable bloodbath – but why so many loose ends?
The fifth series reached its climax with set piece showdowns, bloody betrayals and more questions than answers. Here what happened in the unsatisfying sixth and final episode…
Winston Churchill was on Tommy’s side
We opened on a lovely little tête-à-tête between Winston Churchill (Neil Maskell in a fat suit) and Thomas Shelby MP (Cillian Murphy) over Irish whiskey and Havana cigars. There was warm respect between this seemingly unlikely pair, forged in the Flanders trenches and their alliances since – not to mention bonding over their mutual insomnia and black dogs.
As the Chancellor of the Exchequer quizzed Tommy about his alliance with Oswald Mosley (Sam Claflin), he knew Tommy hadn’t bought into the fascist credo and was instead spying. Tommy assured him he had a strategy, albeit an unlawful one, and Churchill gave his blessing to “Do what you have to do”. Winnie even floated the idea of an evening out in Birmingham with the Shelby clan. Now that would deserve a special spin-off episode…
Michael’s takeover bid went down badly
A potentially deadly rift opened up when Tommy called a family meeting and princeling Michael Gray (Finn Cole) unveiled his ambitious plans. Having been put in charge of the new “haulage” (aka drug-running) division of Shelby Co, he proposed expanding their opium-trafficking operation into the lucrative American market and restructuring the company.
In a “natural succession”, he’d become managing director and run things with the “new generation”, while Tommy, Arthur et al retired to live off the plentiful proceeds. Egged on by Lady Macbeth-esque bride Gina (Anya Taylor-Joy), Michael twisted the knife by sneering: “The Americans want to deal with me and not an old-fashioned backstreet razor gang."
Unimpressed Tommy promptly tossed his cousin’s written proposal onto the fire. “Guess we’re going to be forced to take the second option,” hissed Gina ominously. Uh-oh.
Tommy outlined his plan to assassinate Mosley
He hinted at it last week but now we got the full detail of Tommy’s masterplan. When Mosley held a rally at Birmingham’s Bingley Hall (where the fascist politician did once speak), trained sniper Barney Thompson (Cosmo Jarvis) would be stationed in the lighting gantry and, at Tommy’s signal, shoot Mosley. Barney might have been recently broken out of an asylum and “bitten through a rope” but he was still deadly with a BSA rifle. The confusion of an anti-fascist demonstration would provide cover, while Barney’s shellshock, criminal record and known grievances would suggest he was a lone gunman acting alone.
While the city’s entire police force descended on Bingley Hall, Charlie Strong (Ned Dennehy) would take the shipment of Chinese opium up the canal to exchange it for £250,000 cash at Stourbridge locks. Not a bad payday for a backstreet razor gang. But had Tommy underestimated his opponents?
Barman was a snitch and paid with his life
Last week’s ambush of Arthur (Paul Anderson) at Poplar docks and the car bombing of Colonel Ben Younger (Kingsley Ben-Adir) alerted the Shelbys to the fact they had an informant in their ranks.
After Tommy consulted his own sources – the fabulous-sounding “girls at Digby telephone exchange” – they identified the culprit as The Garrison’s barman Mickey Gibbs (Irish actor Peter Campion, who you might recognise as Father Peter from Derry Girls).
He’d been listening out for juicy titbits behind the bar and selling tip-offs about Peaky activities to the highest bidder. In an agonisingly tense scene, Tommy shot Mickey under the chin in retribution – following Arthur’s advice that the ceiling would be cheaper to redecorate. DIY hacks too? This drama spoils us.
Alfie Solomons rose from the grave
“Life is so much easier to deal with when you’re dead.” Tommy seemed to hint last week that Jewish bootlegger Alfie Solomons (Tom Hardy) could still be alive and so it proved. When he needed to mobilise an anti-fascist protest, Tommy paid a visit to the resurrected fan favourite in his Margate hideout, complete with sea view to watch ships and shoot seagulls.
Tommy had shot Alfie in the face on Margate beach in the series four finale but didn’t make a clean job of it. Alfie was woken by the tide coming in and decided to stay officially dead, with a gruesomely scarred cheek and blind eye to show for his troubles.
The old frenemies’ reunion was the second superb two-hander this week, as Hardy chewed scenery and swore like a trooper. They struck a deal: Tommy would pay Alfie handsomely to send a delegation of his Jewish brethren up to Birmingham to disrupt the rally. In return, Tommy would keep Cyril the dog, who he adopted after killing owner Alfie first time around. Good boy.
Billy Grade betrayed the Blinders too
Youngest Shelby brother Finn (Harry Kirton), always a tad too keen to prove himself, had been put in charge of the gambling side of the business. Except he’d grown far too matey with football match-fixer Billy Grade (Emmet J Scanlan) and blabbed too many family secrets – despite Billy’s insistence to the suspicious Arthur that, “We only ever talk about football and women”.
When Finn let slip “They’re shooting a fascist tonight”, tongue loosened by “drinking, smoking and sniffing”, Billy was straight on the phone. But to whom?
Best-laid plans backfired badly
Come the big night, the reckoning didn’t go as planned. Black-shirted Mosley’s speech – in front of a Union Jack backdrop, soundtracked by Rule Britannia and Land of Hope & Glory – targeted Churchill and Jewish bankers as his enemy. Cue Nazi salutes and antisemitic cries of “Perish Judah!” Alfie’s Jewish rabble-rousers arrived bang on time but that was the only thing that ran smoothly.
Black-masked thugs appeared from nowhere, blowing poor Barney’s brains out with three seconds to spare, stabbing Aberama Gold (Aidan Gillen) and attempting to kill Arthur too – although he managed to turn the tables and slay his assailant.
“They knew everything!” yelled a distraught, bewildered Tommy. “Who? The Chinese? The Italians? Special Branch? Intelligence Service? McCavern? Mosley?” There was one possibility he didn’t mention, though, and that was treacherous cousin Michael.
RIP Aberama – and poor Polly
Farewell then, gypsy enforcer Aberama Gold. As he crept up on Billy Boys leader Jimmy McCavern (Brian Gleeson) to take long-awaited revenge for McCavern killing Gold’s son Bonnie, a masked assassin stabbed him multiple times in the heart. It was fitting that Aberama died with his garrotting wire in his hands but also unbearably sad.
His chivalrous romance with Aunt Polly (Helen McCrory) was a rare ray of sunshine in the Small Heath darkness and the endearingly loved-up couple were due to marry in three weeks. We’ll even miss Aidan Gillen’s wandering accent. Sole upside: at least now Polly might withdraw her resignation from the family business.
Anna Calvi’s soundtrack was a high point
Mercury-shortlisted art-rocker Anna Calvi has scored this series and her song choices were a highlight of this finale. We heard Calvi’s own atmospheric tracks Wish, Papi Pacify and How My Mother Went. These were joined by Richard Hawley’s cover of Ballad of a Thin Man by Bob Dylan and two tracks from Bristol punkers Idles: I’m Scum and the brilliantly titled Never Fight a Man With a Perm. Update that Spotify playlist, quick.
Where were the women?
One of the many flaws of this finale is that it reduced the Peaky women, no mere gangster’s molls, to bystanders. Tommy’s wife Lizzie (Natasha O’Keefe) didn’t appear at all and Aunt Polly barely did. Arthur’s wife Linda Shelby (Kate Phillips) left last week. Sister Ada (Sophie Rundle) was reduced to listening on the radio in London.
Even real-life union firebrand Jessie Eden (Charlie Murphy) was shoved unceremoniously backstage out of harm’s way. Small Heath is still dominated by the patriarchy, it seems.
Is suicide in the Shelby genes?
Tommy and Arthur have both articulated a death wish this series and the finale continued the theme. Arthur sobbed to Tommy “I’m sinking here” and even Michael had some compassion when he pointed out that “Arthur needs help”.
In a quiet fireside moment, Uncle Charlie admitted to Tommy that he’d once been in love with his mother, who’d committed suicide by jumping in the canal. Tommy’s grandfather, we learned, also took his own life. “Sometimes these things run in the family,” said Charlie sagely. “F--- family, Tom. You just have to get on with it. You’re a gypsy. You have to keep moving or it catches up with you.”
Tommy seemed to have this in mind in the final scene, when he insisted that he need to walk off his existential crisis. Striding through the mist, he was once again haunted by dead wife Grace (Annabelle Wallis). We left crazy-eyed Tommy with a gun held to his head, on the verge of suicide for what seems to be the umpteenth time. Don’t do it, Tom. You’ve got two more series in you yet.
Disappointing finale left us dangling
Why was this finale ultimately so frustrating? Well, not only did the likes of Mosley, McCavern and Michael walk away scot-free but lots of loose ends were left dangling. Who did Billy Grade grass to? Who were those black-masked men working for? What happened with the million-pound opium shipment? Has Tommy finally met “the man I can’t defeat”?
Peaky Blinders finales had become a little formulaic, certainly. Enemies close in, conspiracies multiply but after some operatic blood-letting, Tommy somehow schemes his way out and emerges on top. We’ve seen this four times. The fifth was jarringly different, as writer Steven Knight shook up his own formula. The Brummie Corleone was resoundingly defeated and seemingly salvaged nothing from the storm.
Roll credits and doom-laden Nick Cave theme song. Now bring on series six and soon. We need answers.
