Peaky Blinders’ Most Shocking Episode Is Why The Crime Thriller Is Still A Masterpiece 9 Years Later

Spoilers for Peaky Blinders ahead!

The most shocking episode of Peaky Blinders is exactly why Steven Knight’s historical crime drama is just as popular now as it was when the episode aired in 2017. Set in early 20th-century Birmingham, Peaky Blinders follows the exploits of the titular gang, led by the ambitious and formidable Tommy Shelby (Cillian Murphy).

Over six seasons and a movie, Tommy leads the small-time bookmakers into a powerful organization, with members in the highest reaches of English politics, and with enemies to match. Each six-episode season of the show tends to introduce a new villain for Tommy to conquer, inevitably chipping away a piece of his soul along the way.

It’s played more like a pulp fiction magazine of the late 1800s and early 1900s, with dames, sneering rivals, and our heroes who just barely get out of trouble. Peaky Blinders is remarkably consistent for a six-season show, and it manages to keep the story growing and transforming.

Peaky Blinders would be an easy series to get wrong. Its stylized nature, over-the-top performances, and anachronistic musical drops could be grating if the story never went anywhere. Knight is a clever showrunner, though, and he makes sure there are some major moments in the series, including one in particular, that keep you guessing.

John’s Death In Peaky Blinders Season 4 Changed The Show’s Trajectory

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The most shocking moment in Peaky Blinders comes in the season 4 premiere. By this point in the series, Tommy has overcome his most dangerous foes and seems to have the British government in his pocket as well. However, the arrival of a card marked with the Black Hand of the Sicilian-American Mafia suggests things are going to get worse.

The Americans arrive in Birmingham, and before we even know their plans, they shoot up John (Joe Cole) and Arthur (Paul Anderson), killing John. John was one of the series’ main characters, and his death comes as a complete shock. Until this moment, the immediate members of the Shelby family seemed like they were off-limits. John’s death changes things.

The third season of Peaky Blinders is probably the weakest of the six, and the series was starting to feel like a procedural, with a new villain every season, who would get the upper hand on the Shelbys only to be trounced, and nothing much would change. Season 4, episode 1, showed there were real stakes in the show yet.

The Sicilian Mafia Instantly Became One Of The Show’s Most Formidable Villains

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This episode also set up the Mafia as one of Peaky Blinders’ most formidable opponents. Previously, Tommy was able to handle a local gang leader, a corrupt detective, some remnants of the IRA, and the exiled members of the Russian royal family. Tommy took care of them all, little worse for wear afterward.

By killing John in the season 4 premiere, the Mafia is set up as a group capable of killing anyone. Even at the end of the season, when it appears that Arthur has also been killed, the audience readily goes along with it, because of what we’ve seen the Mafia capable of. It’s an opening salvo that ensures the Mafia has to be regarded.

More Shows Need To Take Unexpected Swings When They Go Multiple Seasons

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This was not the first time Peaky Blinders took a big swing, killing off Grace (Annabelle Wallis) in season 3. That wasn’t as much of a surprise as John’s, though, considering how close she was to Tommy, and how that often spells doom for people. But that moment and the season 4 premiere are brave moments for Peaky Blinders.

Instead of just going with what they knew would work, the Peaky Blinders showrunners decided to surprise the audience, and the story possibilities that come out of killing Grace or John are immense and novel. More shows should try something new instead of going along to get along. When you do that, a show just gets stale.

Release Date

2013 – 2022-00-00

Network

BBC One, BBC Two

Showrunner

Steven Knight

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