‘Peaky Blinders’ Recap: Season 2 Finale

Derby day has finally come and it’s make-or-break for the future of the Blinders gang. Tommy (Cillian Murphy) has devised an elaborate plan to follow through with his orders from Campbell (Sam Neill), as well as ensure the safety of his enterprise. But can he pull it off and make it out alive?

Let me just start this final recap by saying it has been a privilege watching this show. The direction this second season took from the get-go was surprising, yet completely necessary to the longevity of the series. The characters have become so fully-realized, the show’s marginalized labels — crime drama, period piece, post-war narrative, the silly title — are no longer relevant. Every single character transcends a place in time and has something to say and if anyone were to be offed, even a key protagonist, they would be sorely missed, but the series could easily carry on. That’s how much the supporting cast of Peaky Blinders matters. This show is unlike anything you’re watching on TV right now, and the fact that seasons are just six episodes a piece has everything to do with the mounting tension and suspense leading up to this incredible final episode.

That being said, this finale was BONKERS crazy. I was shouting at my desk. At my desk that sits in a large office where other people are working around me. My co-workers were so in awe, they couldn’t be angry at the unwelcome noise.

It’s Derby day and the Blinders are amped for a showdown. It opens with Tommy writing a letter to the editor of the New York Times, explaining the pickle he’s gotten himself into with the British Intelligence Service and Winston Churchill, who’s having him perform a high-profile assassinations on behalf of the crown. He names Campbell and gives the sealed envelope to Ada (Sophie Rundle), who’s ordered to mail it if Tommy fails to return from Epsom, where the Derby is being held.

Tommy tells us he’s been ordered to kill a dude named Marshal Russell, and we know nothing about him other than the fact he’s a high-ranking officer and has a pimply butt thanks to the rather lure introduction we were given to his character. Oh, and killing someone of his rank will start a civil war in Ireland.

After he hands the letter to Ada, we can see the gears turning in Tommy’s brain about the elaborate plan he’s devised. First, he grabs Ada’s new roommate, James, to accompany him to Camden Town where he’ll have a fairly hasty sit-down with Alfie Solomons (Tom Hardy). Tommy tells James to stand outside, nothing else, before he goes into the distillery to see Alfie, who has plans of his own. He wants to get Tommy to sign over 100% of his business before he shoots him dead, to which Tommy chuckles before revealing that he and James have a grenade trip-wired to a barrel of rum and if anyone other than Tommy walks outside the door, James is to blow up the joint. “And I don’t care, I’m already dead,” Tommy says. Alfie can’t tell if he’s bluffing, and, after some back and forth, Tommy agrees to give Alfie 30% of his business (because what would the Peaky Blinders do without alcohol?) and call it a day. Tommy walks out to greet James, very much alive, letting go of his best poker face. There was never a grenade.

Meanwhile, Tommy has gotten Arthur (Paul Anderson) out of jail just in time to join the Lees and head off to the races where the grander plan will take place. Basically Tommy’s little assassination will distract the police who surround the bookie boys who guard the gambling licenses. The Blinders will then swoop in and ambush Sabini’s (Noah Taylor) men, burn their gambling licenses, ensuring all future derby races are theirs for the taking because no one who matters will have gambling licenses. But can’t they just reapply? Sure, but they’ll never get approved because Tommy has been banging May (Charlotte Riley), who has significant influence with the board and she loves Tommy.

Of course, any Blinders ordeal rarely goes smoothly, and it takes Tommy’s accountant Lizzie getting raped by Marshal Russell before Tommy puts a bullet in his head. The cops are tipped off late, but the gang manages to get their hands on all of the gambling licenses without a hitch. Campbell, however, has had Tommy targeted from the moment he stepped onto Epsom grounds and has three man abduct him and throw him in the back of a van. Campbell feels super duper cocky after he’s sure Tommy is being carried off to meet his true fate and decides to phone someone, we have no idea who, before Polly (Helen McCrory) surprises us all and joins him in the phone booth holding a gun. “Tommy thought it should be me who finished the job.” And that she did. Campbell tries to save himself with a “I didn’t technically rape you because part of you wanted me too” speech, but Polly kept her cool before shooting him in the heart.

After Tommy is carted out to an abandoned field and we’re all certain this is going to be the Ned Stark moment of the series, one of his assailants shoots the others, leaving Tommy blood-spattered but alive and well. “Winston Churchill will be in touch with your next assignment,” says the assailant, who tells Tommy to go the hell home.

Notes and observations:

1. May and Grace finally meet and surprise! They totally hate each other. Grace is pregnant, by the way, with Tommy’s baby. And she hasn’t told her husband. She told Tommy, though, and he was too distracted by the whole assassination ordeal to really pay attention, but in the final scene, he exclaims to Michael that he’s thinking of getting married.

2. Speaking of Michael, Polly gave him a crapload of cash to get the hell out of Birmingham, which he turned down to work for Tommy and “make some real money.” Kid’s a quick learner.

3. Even though Grace is apparently carrying Tommy’s unborn child, May might be the lucky Mrs. Tommy Shelby. Not only is she wicked smart and an amazing horse trainer, but she has those gambling connects that Tommy so desperately needs.

4. Tommy and Sabini have it out at one point during the episode, but count on him being back next season. He’s just too crazy to go quietly.

5. Arthur gives an arrogant, yet poignant, speech after the derby ceremonies about how the Blinders “are fucking kings” and nothing is going to stop them, but at this point no one seems sure if the Blinders are even the same family any longer. Expect next season to be even wilder if they keep going at this rate. Thank you, Steven Knight, for one helluva season.

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Photos: BBC/Netflix