This article contains spoilers for Peaky BlindersPeaky Blinders was an explosive TV show about early 20th Century England, where you never knew what the next obstacle for Tommy (Cillian Murphy) and the rest of the Shelby family would be. There’s talk of a movie, but for now, the Peaky Blinders story ended after six seasons. Here are its best episodes ranked:
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8 Lock and Key (S6 E6)
Netflix
The series finale. Peaky Blinders always knew how to do great season finales and leave with a bang, and this one was no different. It didn’t resolute everything as there’s going to be a movie, but it ended the three most important plots of the season: Michael (Finn Cole) and Tommy’s fight over whose fault it was that they killed Aunt Polly (Helen McRory), through Arthur (Paul Anderson), they get revenge against the IRA members who killed her, and we found out the truth about Tommy’s illness. There are also some breadcrumbs about the newest generation of Peaky Blinders, like Finn’s (Harry Kirton) treason, that will probably be resolved in the future movie, or the many spin-offs we hope to see.
MOVIEWEB VIDEO OF THE DAY
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7 The Noose (S4 E1)
BBC
Season three ended with a big cliffhanger as Tommy betrayed the family. Season four starts with Arthur, John (Joe Cole), Polly, and Michael, about to be executed for their crimes, and just in time, Tommy saves them. A year passes and the rest of the episode shows us not only how everything has changed, but their new rival, the Changretta Mafia, who will stop at nothing to get the Blinders’ territory and tries to kill the whole family. John dies in an excruciating and surprising sequence that shows us that no one is safe. It was the biggest loss for the family since the show started, and one that changed them forever.
About the writing, Cillian Murphy told Entertainment Weekly: “The thing that we have, which I think is rare on a TV show, is that we have six completed scripts before we start. We always know where we’re headed. The scripts are exquisite always, so I never have any input in the script, I have input in post-production and music and stuff like that, but Steve is such a brilliant, dynamic writer that they’re so unpredictable in a great way. You never know what’s going to happen. That’s what’s so brilliant about his writing; it’s never predictable.”
6 The Duel (S4 E5)
Peaky Blinders has always shown its influences; The Godfather is a big one, for example. In this episode, there’s a lot of The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly as Tommy fights the Changretta Mafia through Birmingham’s streets and back alleys, showing what looked like treason by Polly and Michael, was part of Tommy’s plan to lure the Italian mafia into a false sense of security. The idea works, and most of the Italians are killed. Leaving Luca Changretta (Adrien Brody) to create a new alliance with Jewish gangster Alfie (Tom Hardy). This episode had more action than most in the series, showing how it had become artfully cinematic, as you always knew what was happening, and where was everyone, and it left us with many beautiful images during the fight.
5 Mr. Jones (S5 E6)
BBC Studios
Oswald Mosley (Sam Claflin) might have been Tommy’s worst enemy, as he didn’t deal in violence and crime, but in politics and influence, while getting more and more power as the fascist voice in the UK (this is a historical character, by the way). In this episode, Tommy tries to assassinate Mosley, and for the first time, he not only fails spectacularly, but gets the whole family in big trouble. The reasons Tommy might be slipping are looked at more closely in the next season, but it’s clear something is not great, as he keeps seeing visions of his dead wife. It was a surprising episode for the audience, as we were not expecting the plan to fail, and the episode left us wanting more.
4 S3 E2
The first episode of the season showed Tommy marrying Grace (Anabelle Wallis), the love of his life. We should’ve known something bad was going to happen, as Tommy can’t be happy. It still is surprising and tragic when she gets killed during a public event. The Shelby brothers go against the shooter. Except for Tommy; for once, he doesn’t follow the violence but love, as he stays with his wife, trying to keep her alive. With Grace’s last breath, the possibilities of Tommy being a happy, good man also leave this world. It’s a tragic scene that would reverberate throughout the rest of the show, as Tommy was never the same.
3 S3 E6
Season three might have been the one that broke Tommy the most. His wife was killed, and in the last episode, his son was kidnapped. Tommy threw up when he found out. We’ve seen him in many horrible situations, but this was the first time he was so afraid his body reacted this way. That was all we needed to know to understand how worrisome this was. As with all Peaky Blinders finales, this one also had many moments where it looked like it might be the end for Tommy and his family. Like many times before, they managed to end their rivals with some smart out-maneuvering. This time, though, it was not enough, as the whole family (minus Tommy) got arrested at the end, creating a new unique circumstance for the Shelbys that wouldn’t get resolved until the next season, while changing the relationship of Tommy with the rest of the family forever.
2 The Company (S4 E6)
A boxing match, a fake death, a real death, and some of Tom Hardy’s Alfie mixed in. This season finale had everything. For a while, it looked like Arthur had been killed by the Changretta, but it was all a fake-out. This episode has an incredible ending (or what at the moment looked like an ending) for the unique character Tom Hardy created as Alfie, in a great duel ending between him and Murphy’s Tommy. About that final scene, director David Caffrey told Esquire: “The two guys pretty much improvised [Tommy and Alfie’s shootout on the beach]. In terms of the dialogue, it was pretty much as was but in terms of the action, that was very much Tom and Cilian had a certain way they were going to go about it – they’d both fire, and they’d both fall over. That was their idea.”
1 S2 E6
The ending of season two is the best in Peaky Blinders history (and that’s saying something), as we see Tommy getting ready to die. This show has always been about him, so killing him made no sense, but it looked like it might happen. Thank God for a Churchill double agent who saved him. This episode has many other memorable moments: from Polly ending Campbell (Sam Neill) after he had assaulted her during the season, to the scenes at the Epsom races, Alfie’s assist, Michael becoming a real Peaky Blinder, and Grace being pregnant. Crime, love, action scenes, revenge, fun twists; this episode had everything we loved about Peaky Blinders and used it in a perfectly packed forty-five minutes of pure adrenaline, scares, and pleasure.
