It’s all gotten a bit dark in Peaky Blinders land, hasn’t it? We didn’t think we’d long for the days of a simple horse racing scam or graphic gangland fight, but here we are, with successive family bereavements, fascists networking for all they’re worth, and Thomas Shelby on the very last roll of his dice.
ICYMI, let’s start with a quick run down of last week’s episode, which began with Ruby Shelby’s funeral and ended with Tommy getting just about the worst news anyone can from their doctor. In between, there was a quick-fire massacre, and fascist peacocking at Tommy’s country mansion as Diana Mitford, Oswald Mosley and IRA bigwig Laura McKee sought to strike deals with influential Boston criminal Jack Nelson.
Time (or rather, the scarcity of it) is the theme of episode five: the scenes race through at breakneck speed as the show wraps up the story - or at least set us up for the rumoured Peaky Blinders film on the big screen. A gathering storm, if you will.
Let’s get started on the next chapter of the story. Warning: major spoilers ahead.
Thomas Shelby: a man with nothing to loose
Tommy (Cillian Murphy) has an inoperable brain tumour, and has 18 months at the most to live: the man has finally met an enemy he can’t defeat. While most would crumble at this news, Mr Shelby uses it as motivation to tie up his loose ends - of which there are many. Watch out world: there’s nothing more dangerous than a man with nothing to lose.
His first order of business is terrorising the owners of Small Heath’s local opium den, Arthur’s (un)happy place. He sets down a heavy briefcase and lets it fall open so that the poor Chinese couple that run the place get an eyeful of the bomb merrily ticking away inside. They’ve got four minutes to clear their cellar of junk, or they’re all toast. Clearly Tommy’s recent bad news now means trouble for everyone else in his path.
The gear is swiftly handed over and they vow to stop dealing. The wife thinks the bomb is a fake, but Tommy has never been a bluffer. He drops the bag into the canal just before it explodes leaving billowing smoke and the words “by order of the Birmingham district council” hanging in the air. Hasn’t quite got the same ring to it.
A Duke tipped to be King
The Shelbys have gathered at the Garrison for the latest family meeting. Finn (Harry Kirton) is present with his new wife Mary, but his marriage isn’t the biggest news. Tommy springs his 20 year-old illegitimate son Duke (real name: Erasmus, played by Conrad Khan) on the family, without warning or preamble. Understandably, wife Lizzie (Natasha O’Keeffe) is seething, sister Ada Thorne (Sophie Rundle) asks for a stiff drink, and Arthur (Paul Anderson) serves his new nephew a ‘Shelby breakfast’, a tumbler of neat whisky. Ada looks put out at having travelled all the way up from London for a meeting that could have been an email (or as it’s 1933, a telegram).
Arthur’s saviour returns
Finn’s not the only familiar face making a return: Linda Shelby (Kate Phillips), Arthur’s estranged wife, has been persuaded back by the pied piper too. She promises to help her unhinged husband through God’s work, sweetened with £10k (around £200k in today’s money) that Tommy promises to donate to her Quaker foundation, which has missionaries around the world. She’ll name one in Tommy’s honour. Well, that was easy.
The Liverpool connection
It’s an episode of snappy scenes; there’s not a second to spare. Tommy’s at his next appointment with union man Hayden Stagg (Stephen Graham) at Liverpool Docks. Rather than running the opium thief over the coals, Tommy instead gives him a wedge of cash in thanks for getting through to Arthur about his drug habit. Gratitude isn’t the only reason Tommy is here: he wants Stagg in on the new Boston deal, to handle Nelson’s guns and ammo shipments with more care than he did Tommy’s powder. Stagg attempts to psychoanalyse Tommy, whose response is to point his shooter in Stagg’s unflinching face. “When my last bit of business is done, I will indeed be an ordinary mortal man”, Tommy says dead-toned.
A whistleblower gets his comeuppance
Back at the Shelby betting shop, Finn is having trouble fixing a match; the referee is refusing his bribes. He seeks advice from a squiffy Arthur (head of gambling) who spouts Bible passages at Finn and his lackey Billy (Emmett J. Scanlan, last seen in the series five finale, snitching on the phone). Arthur, all fire and brimstone, orders them to summon the ref.
When the poor man is hauled into the office in front of Arthur, Finn, Billy and Duke, he threatens to tell the police, but the Old Bill is already in the gang’s pocket. “Just blow the whistle and fix the match”, Billy urges, but instead the ref threatens to blow his whistle to the press. “I will not do a bad thing”, he vows. He’s signing his own death warrant here, and everyone knows it. When Arthur mutters the words “In the bleak midwinter”, the rest of the room shrinks into the shadows, braced for what’s about to follow. But it’s not Arthur doing the murdering; it’s Billy’s turn to take the bloody limelight. He offers a weepy apology while throttling the ref with wire, blood spurting all over his face and trembling hands. “You’re bloodied now, Billy”, Arthur coos.
Lizzie’s torment, Tommy’s regret
Tommy and Lizzie are in bed but despite the intimate moment there’s a palpable distance between them: the grief of losing their daughter Ruby lingers on. "There was a time where we’d say nothing afterwards, because we didn’t have to say anything. But now we’ve got nothing left to say", Lizzie murmurs, tormented by her love for her husband. She believes Tommy regrets their life together and he tells her yes, he does. He explains: "When you married me, you married a man, and a curse. You’ve shared my fate. That’s what I regret.” Strange pillow talk, this.
Billy gets a new boss
Who is Billy, really? In a bath house where he’s trying to get over the trauma of his first kill, he’s found by Jack Nelson who gets him by the balls with a strand of chicken wire, giving us the second gruesome moment of the episode. “I hear you’re the informant inside the Shelby organisation”, Jack says, by way of introduction. Blood drips onto Billy’s toes as Nelson squeezes him to pass on intel on the eldest Shelby brother. “Only information leading to the murder of Arthur Shelby will save you from an Italian death.” Ah, our old foes from the mafia are back for a final hurrah.
Meanwhile, Linda gets to work trying to save Arthur through the medium of prayer, but it seems like they both have another sort of reconciliation on their minds.
Duke tries to jump ship
Tommy’s uncle Charlie has caught Duke stealing from the family. It’s a calculated act; he’s sickened by what he witnessed in the betting shop and wants to be cast aside. Tommy convinces him to stay in the stables in Charlie’s yard where he’s more comfortable with the other stallions. With another fire put out and Duke redeployed but still in the ranks, Tommy hops onto his canal boat to meet a Lady in Solihull.
Tommy seals his latest deal in the most sickening way
The Lady is Diana Mitford (Amber Anderson). Tommy wants her support in building social housing along the canals with the Guinness Trust, headed by Mitford’s estranged husband Brian. Mitford seems game but wants to shake on the deal - in English aristocracy speak, that means doing the dirty back at her hotel room. Surely not Tommy, there has to be a line! Think of Lizzie! But Tommy is in too deep and submits to her carnal lust.
The scene is easily the worst in this week’s 60 minutes, more icky even than the ref’s murder and Billy’s crumpled crown jewels. Tommy is losing himself more and more as he continues with his plan to change the world. Quite understandably, his actions trigger another fit, and he finds himself drowning, coming to in a bath beside a pile of dead bodies.
Dinner party talk turns sour
Tommy and Lizzie are preparing to receive house guest Jack Nelson (James Frecheville), who’s crashing at theirs for a night. They’re both on edge: Tommy has changed the combination to his safe, Lizzie is exhausted by all his secrets. “It’s like the clock’s stopped ticking and I’m waiting for the bomb to explode,” she says. “When I know everything, you will know everything”, he promises.
Secrets soon start exploding at dinner. Nelson, demanding and rude to Frances, the loyal housekeeper who deserves her own spin-off series, reveals Tommy will soon be headed to Canada to handle some business with cousin Michael “watching his back”. We bet he will. Tommy tells Lizzie that the whopping $5m payment for his trip will help with his legacy, and when he comes back, he will know everything.
Their meal is gatecrashed by fascist power couple Mosley (Sam Clafin) and Mitford, who ostensibly want to bid farewell to their new American BFF. Mitford has knife-twisting on her agenda. “You are a very lucky woman to have each day what I have only sampled once”, she purrs at Lizzie, who runs from the room at the revelation of Tommy’s cruel betrayal. Mitford retains her crown for being the most odious creature at that table. A wife like Lizzie isn’t suitable for Tommy’s new trajectory, they say. They’re right, he confirms: Lizzie doesn’t deserve him, or what he will become. She deserves better. “For all I try to hide it. I’m just one of you. Could there be a sadder ending?” We’ll soon find out in the show’s finale next week.
“There will be a war, and one of you will die”
In Boston, a blizzard is swirling as a Jack Nelson lackey dressed as a priest visits Michael, who has made a pact with his dead mother in a fever dream. He passes on the news that their boss is finally willing to spring Michael from behind bars, but he must answer a question first. Before he can ask, Michael beats him to the punch, confirming: “When I am released, it is my intention to kill Tommy Shelby”.
Verdict
The pacy episode has plotlines spinning uncontrollably, like a penny flicked into outer space. With a firm deadline over his head, Tommy is becoming reckless in his plan to bring down the fascists, even if it means further trampling all over Lizzie - his one faithful constant through all the murder and the many messes - and her heart, which by now resembles country lane roadkill.
What are his plans for Duke? The boy has shown his dislike for extreme violence, but it’s a core pillar of being a Peaky Blinder; can he stomach being king when Tommy is gone? And what of Alfie Solomons; has his involvement been scrapped in light of Tommy’s illness, or will he dominate the final episode? It all seems up in the air what with Tommy heading to Canada. Will Michael’s murderous intent turn out to be an act of kindness for a dying man? The stage is set for the final act of the opera.
