In 'The Road to Hell', 'Peaky Blinders' season 6 episode 5, it seems that Tommy's story may be coming to an end.
It’s now clear from the scene he Tommy and share in Charlie Strong’s yard that the future of the Peaky Blinders franchise will involve the newcomer, while Tommy now seems resigned to his story coming to an end. A reunion, of sorts, between Arthur and wife Linda. A last salvo for Stephen Graham. The predicted bunk-up between Tommy and the horrible Diana Mitford. And poor, mistreated, desperate Lizzie. “It’s like the clock’s stopped ticking and I’m waiting for the bomb to explode”, she tells Tommy, bringing the episode back to its explosive opening scenes. A fun opening scene in which Tommy demands that opium is eradicated from Chinatown (“from now on you will sell only cigarettes, cake and tea”), a ticking bomb in his bag all the while. Yet the most notable return this week is that of Billy Grade, the footballer-cum-singer-cum-Shelby-employed-match-fixer, who this week, at the behest of a brilliantly unhinged Arthur, is forced to garotte an especially principled referee. With that in mind, this week seems as though it is prepping the Peaky universe for the planned spin-offs that will live on beyond the main series. Creator Steven Knight recently described the coming closure to Peaky Blinders’ main series as “the end of the beginning, rather than the beginning of the end”. It’s highly likely that next week’s episode will be a dry run for the long-discussed feature film.
Tommy gets his affairs in order in preparation for the end as Peaky Blinders reaches its penultimate episode. Spoilers.
Perhaps when he told Stagg to take a good look at the bullet, there was something else for the ex-army man to see. Compared to the high of having power over life and death, “junk doesn’t even come close.” Honesty, this late in the game. Of course to really enjoy it, you had to wave aside the fact that he was bullying a business out of five pounds of opium while pushing five tons of it himself in the most glaring example of nimbyism ever conceived, but to enjoy Tommy Shelby is to wave things aside. She and Mosley also had another motive, which was to humiliate Lizzie out of her marriage and clear the path for a new Mrs Shelby, one with a less scandalous past. Tommy made deals, made threats, and made preparations for a secret strategy, the end-goal of which is known by him and him alone. We know that it involves a trip to Canada, a $5 million “legacy”, streets of charitable housing, and derailing the fast-track to power currently being laid for British fascism.
It's the penultimate episode and there's lots to keep track of as Tommy gets his ducks in a row.
And what of Alfie Solomons; has his involvement been scrapped in light of Tommy’s illness, or will he dominate the final episode? 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. 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? Before he can ask, Michael beats him to the punch, confirming: “When I am released, it is my intention to kill Tommy Shelby”. They’re both on edge: Tommy has changed the combination to his safe, Lizzie is exhausted by all his secrets. Quite understandably, his actions trigger another fit, and he finds himself drowning, coming to in a bath beside a pile of dead bodies. Tommy convinces him to stay in the stables in Charlie’s yard where he’s more comfortable with the other stallions. “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. 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. 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. 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. The wife thinks the bomb is a fake, but Tommy has never been a bluffer.
As the sixth and final season of BBC drama Peaky Blinders hurtles towards its conclusion, old secrets are revealed.
There was more of that in episode 5 when Billy was forced to kill a football referee who refused to do as the Peakys ordered. When we first met Billy, he was earning his crust as a singer, but the Shelby family had a much grander plan for him. In the last season, Finn informed him that Tommy had devised a plan to kill Mosley, and it was happening that night.
The hugely popular series, which sees Tommy Shelby played by Cillian Murphy at the helm, has confirmed the new season will also be its last. Director Anthony ...
"It's such a Peaky thing to do for the last hurrah," he told the publication. Especially as series six is the last. Peaky Blinders has had everyone glued to the screens since its return to BBC One on Sunday nights.
WARNING: THIS ARTICLE CONTAINS SPOILERSThe penultimate episode of the final series was titled The Road to Hell and most of the episode (all the important ...
But affairs for Tommy aren’t just writing a will and making sure his wife is on his pension plan . . . The husband-and-wife team who ran The penultimate episode of the final series was titled The Road to Hell and most of the episode (all the important bits, at least) was taken up with Tommy Shelby (Cillian Murphy) trying to get his affairs in order before he leaves this mortal coil.
The pace of the show has been super-charged as the end looms for the gangster drama. But first: garotting and a smattering of treachery.
“We were like, fuck the 10 O’Clock news,” says the director, Anthony Byrne. “It’s such a Peaky thing to do for the last hurrah. What’s more, Nelson had just the man to do the deed. While a shaken, naked Billy washed off the evidence at the local baths, he received an eye-watering visit from Nelson – who was also handy with a garotte, only preferring to aim lower. With the resulting arterial spray, Billy was blooded as a Blinder. Mitford said it sealed their political alliance (“the English aristocracy’s way of shaking hands”), but spitefully used it as leverage to lord it over Lizzie. When they summoned the reluctant whistleblower for a spot of intimidation, he didn’t bow to pressure. Now that Tommy was dealing with Boston, he was considering rerouting his supply line through Liverpool, rather than Belfast. Such a shift had the potential to make Stagg a rich man. First stop was Chinatown, where, with the aid of a ticking briefcase bomb (where’s Vicky McClure’s “Expo” team when you need them?), he instructed the Chinese cafes to stop selling opium or he would have the entire neighbourhood demolished. Neatly done – but not as neat as Tommy’s timing, as he dropped the bomb into the canal with seconds to spare. Stagg possesses the uncanny ability to see inside the Shelbys’ heads. Deal. She was willing only to help Arthur down the road to redemption, not sleep with him, but Blinders can’t be choosers. Here’s your breakdown of the penultimate ever episode, The Road to Hell …