The Big Picture

• Tommy Shelby faces the consequences of a Gypsy curse in Season 6.
• Despite believing he is cursed, Tommy confronts his fate and legacy.
• Peaky Blinders ends with Tommy breaking the curse and surviving, but still facing some remaining threats.

Peaky Blinders Season 6 brings an end to the adventures of Tommy and the Shelby family, at least for the time being. Fans of the crime drama loosely based on the real-life Birmingham gang had the opportunity to see how it all ends for Tommy Shelby back in 2022 when the season first aired, and they got to learn whether his story ends peacefully or if he will be another victim of the Gypsy curse that has haunted him while stealing his loved ones away.

Throughout the previous show, we have been introduced to a very calculated and violent Thomas Michael Shelby (Cillian Murphy). His ingenuity and ruthlessness in that period and help from family members, in particular his aunt, Polly Gray (Helen McCrory), has helped the Peaky Blinders rise from just another gang in Small Heath to the dominant force both there and with business holdings across the Atlantic. Mr. Shelby himself works his way up the social and political ladder to the House of Commons, where he becomes an MP.

After Multiple Tragedies, Tommy Feels the Weight of the Curse in Season 6 of 'Peaky Blinders'

Season 5 wrapped up with his conflict with Sir Oswald Mosley (Sam Claflin) coming to a head. Shelby ordered an assassination, which eventually failed after he was betrayed. Although we don't know who the traitor was in Season 5, the final season revealed it was Billy Grade (Emmett J. Scanlan) who was the culprit, having tipped off the IRA. Tommy Shelby is many things, and he adapts himself to whatever the situation might require. He could be both the devil and a savior. It all just depends on what is required.

In Season 6, what was required of him was simple: beat the Gypsy curse. He spends a good part of the season doing exactly that. Shelby is a Gypsy and believes in the curses. He is certain he has been cursed due to events earlier on in the series, and losing his wife, Grace (Annabelle Wallis), reinforces that belief. To escape his demons and in honor of his aunt Polly at her death, he forswears alcohol. Whatever control over the curse he thought he had soon evaporates with the death of his daughter, Ruby (Heaven-Leigh Clee). At her funeral, he declares, “But in her name and in her memory things will change.” But they do not change significantly enough as he goes off to enact his revenge on the lady he believes laid the curse that took his daughter.

Tommy Is Freed From the Curse in Season 6 of 'Peaky Blinders'

For a man who believes he is cursed, things do not get any easier for Tommy Shelby. He is informed by Doctor Holford (Aneurin Barnard) that he has tuberculoma and has, at best, a year and a half to live. He is certain now that his death is imminent. For a man who has never been scared of dying since he returned from France in World War I, he sets about putting his legacy in order. Rather than live with this fate hanging over his head, Tommy decides to end it himself. However, he discovers that he is in fact not dying, and he had been lied to by the good doctor at the behest of Mr. Mosley.

In typical Tommy fashion, he confronts the doctor with the intent of killing him. After a conversation that unmasks who he had become over time, Tommy lets the doctor go and rides off into his new future, free of all the ties that have held him bound for long. He has broken the curse.

Having silenced his demons, Tommy is free from the threats in his head but those that breathe still remain with the likes of Boston gangsters Jack Nelson (James Frecheville) and Gina Gray (Anya Taylor-Joy), who would definitely seek vengeance for the death of Michael Gray (Finn Cole). There is also still the threat of Mosley, and with his growing power and influence, a lot more people could get hurt, aside from Tommy.

A feature film and future spin-offs were planned but there has been no news on the upcoming film. In 2022, Peaky Blinders creator Steven Knight confirmed that the film would start production in 2023 with the film coming to theaters in 2024. However, due to the strikes last year, it's unclear where progress is on the film. Until then, the saga ends.

All of Peaky Blinders is available to stream on Netflix in the U.S.

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