Peaky Blinders recap: series two, episode six what a finale!

Packed with revelations, this was Peaky Blinders at its best – a gut-wrenching and beautifully directed climax

What. A. Finale. I’ve really enjoyed this season, bloodthirsty though it has been, and this was a fitting end, a nail-biting, action-packed hour of tension that had me screaming at the screen more than once as Tommy Shelby’s long-promised Derby day of reckoning finally arrived.

And what a day it was, packed with revelations (Alfie is double-crossing Sabini! Grace is pregnant! May is definitely not to be messed with!) and filled with casualties both deserved (goodbye Major Campbell, may your red right hand guide you to hell) and tragic (oh, Lizzy, it’ll be a long, cold day before I forgive Tommy for using you in this way). The odd clunky moment apart – I may stand alone but the scene when Grace revealed her pregnancy left me cold – this was Peaky Blinders at its best, a gut-wrenching and beautifully directed climax, which was not always easy to watch but which left me, like May a few weeks ago, exhausted but begging for more.

Our heroes

Over the past few weeks I’ve sung the praises of everyone from Tom Hardy, Sam Neill and Noah Taylor to Paul Anderson, Charlotte Riley and Helen McCrory but this is Cillian Murphy’s show and, boy, did he demonstrate that this evening. The scene in which he faced his apparent destiny, a lonely death in an unmarked grave, was a masterclass, as Tommy’s emotions flickered slowly across his face, from his anger at the approaching end to his weary acceptance that death has stalked him much of his life. Shouting to the heavens with an almost Cagney-esque intensity (“Made it Ma! Top of the world”), Murphy commanded the screen, making it impossible to look away.

Spared from death by yet another double-cross (if there’s one lesson to be learned from Peaky Blinders it’s trust no one, ever, especially not if they claim to be a minister of the crown), Tommy then stumbled through a ditch and looked up at the sky in mute fury. It was a brilliant moment, with Murphy making viewers feel every second of impotent rage: all Tommy Shelby has ever wanted to do is be the master of his own destiny, yet the closer he comes to achieving wealth and respectability, the more his life and actions seem doomed to be controlled by others.

As to what his future now holds: Tommy might have talked to both Campbell and his assassins about love but that was before he realised that Winston Churchill is just the latest man to have his balls in a vice. He told May, “No regrets and I will find you,” and asked Grace where she’d be, but, while there’s an outside chance he picked Grace up before heading back to Birmingham, I’m willing to bet cold, hard cash that (if there is a season three) the wedding is to May not Grace. In the shark-infested waters in which he’s moving, May provides wealth, status and the protection of power; Grace can only offer love, and if this series has shown us anything its that Tommy Shelby has a head for business (and yes, Working Girl fans, a bod for sin).

The bad guys

This being Peaky Blinders, Tommy managed to fit in showdowns with all three of his major enemies this week, starting off with a fantastically tense meeting in Alfie Solomons’ dank underground lair (favourite line: “Olly, I want you to go outside and shoot that boy from the good family” – if that’s all we get of Tom Hardy in this show then it was a good exit). He then progressed to one final snark-off with Major Campbell and a smug showdown with an apparently defeated Darby Sabini, only ruined when Campbell’s Red Hand Gang rushed in to bustle him away. Of these, the middle meeting was nearly the most ruinous, as Tommy unforgivably wasted crucial minutes trading bitter one-liners with Campbell, thus condemning lovely Lizzy to her fate. As to that fate, I am in two minds about it: as I’ve repeatedly made clear, I am tired of rape plotlines, but it was absolutely in character of Tommy to see Lizzy as expendable – he tends to view most people as little more than pawns, as witnessed by his earlier use of James to threaten Alfie – and also realistic that he would use a woman to get Field Marshall Russell out of the way. As posters have noted in previous weeks, there has been a recurring theme this season of women destroyed thanks to the actions of the Peaky Blinders – the mother of the boy Arthur killed, the mother of Harold Hancox, Polly last week, and now Lizzy. I’d like to hope that were season three granted, this would be further addressed. Certainly, the brief, bitter scene between Lizzy and Tommy after the Field Marshall’s death hinted at it.

Additional notes

So goodbye then, Major Campbell; you really shouldn’t have underestimated Polly, although I did wonder if she’d fall for his twisted attempts to forge a bond and fail to shoot.

The Ulster Volunteer Force was real, formed in 1913 with the expressed aim of resisting home rule for Ireland. The group’s symbol was the red right hand of Ulster. The modern-day paramilitaries took their name as a way of establishing older links.

I loved Polly striding through the bar with a bloodstain just below her shattered heart.

I wasn’t a fan of Grace’s scene with Tommy. Really Grace, you choose now – in the busiest day of the year, right before the big race – to start demanding Tommy listen to you? Even if he wasn’t planning an assassination, interrupting anyone just before the off on Derby Day is unforgivable.

I did, however, enjoy Grace’s scene with May – both for the interesting revelation that May (who continues to break my heart with her bravery and the red dress) can ensure that the bookie’s licences go with the Peaky Blinders and for Grace’s parting shot about the horse’s name. Nicely played, both of you.

As for Grace’s Secret, she was something of a red herring – given the Blinders were backing eventual winner Nom de Guerre (good name for a horse), and we never even learned where she came.

John really might be my favourite Shelby. In my alternative Peaky Blinders, he lives happily with Lizzy in a world free from crime where she’s a secretary and he has the odd flutter down the pub.

Against all odds, Arthur made it through the season – well done the poster who called that last week.

Secretly, I think Tommy wants to be the Henry Root of his generation. If we don’t get a compendium of Shelby letters to the rich and famous I shall feel obscurely let down.

Finally, a quick toast from the Garrison: thank you all for posting here every week and for the great conversations. I’ve had a blast and I hope you have too.

Anachronistic yet strangely right song of the week

A great soundtrack this week makes it hard to single just one song out but ultimately my honours go to the Ane Brun cover of Emmylou Harris’s wonderful All My Tears, which played out as Tommy faced his destiny.

Quote of the week

“I nearly got fucking everything” – Tommy rages against the dying light in the best moment of a great season.

So what did you think? Was it an ending fit for the captain Tommy Shelby has become, or has this second series left you colder than Major Campbell’s grave? Will there be a third series and, if so, will Tommy choose May or Grace? And can anyone forgive him for using Lizzy? As always, all speculation, theories and fury at the way certain groups are portrayed are welcome below …

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