Peaky Blinders - Ending Explained

Across six seasons, the plot of "Peaky Blinders" is driven by Tommy Shelby's relentless expansion of his family's empire and the formidable enemies he acquires. In Season 1, Tommy outwits Inspector Campbell and consolidates power in Birmingham after secretly keeping a lost crate of government guns. Season 2 sees the Shelbys expand to London, leading to a brutal war with gangster Darby Sabini and a complex alliance with the volatile Alfie Solomons. The season culminates in Tommy narrowly escaping execution by agents of the Crown, for whom Campbell had forced him to carry out an assassination.

Season 3 marks a tragic turn with the murder of Tommy's wife, Grace, by the Italian Changretta family, sending him on a path of vengeance and deeper into a dangerous alliance with Russian aristocrats. The season shockingly ends with Tommy seemingly betraying his family, leading to their arrest. Season 4 reveals this was a gambit to save them from the gallows, as they face their deadliest threat: Luca Changretta and the Sicilian mafia seeking revenge. This season features the shocking death of John Shelby and a faked death for Arthur, used to lure Changretta into a final, fatal confrontation.

In Season 5, Tommy, now a Member of Parliament, battles the rise of fascism by attempting to infiltrate Sir Oswald Mosley's party. His plan to assassinate Mosley is thwarted by a betrayal, leading to the death of Aberama Gold and leaving Tommy psychologically shattered. The final season, Season 6, deals with the fallout. It is revealed that the IRA, working with Polly's son Michael and American gangster Jack Nelson, foiled the assassination. Polly is killed off-screen by the IRA as a consequence, fueling a deep feud between Tommy and Michael. The central plot twist of the series comes in the finale: Tommy's diagnosis of fatal tuberculoma is revealed to be a hoax engineered by Mosley and his fascist-aligned doctor to drive him to suicide. Upon discovering the truth, a renewed Tommy chooses to live, sparing the doctor and riding off to a new, unknown future, leaving the Shelby empire in the hands of his sister Ada and his newly discovered son, Duke.

While the finale is largely seen as Tommy Shelby's rebirth and liberation, an alternative interpretation suggests it is not an escape but a different kind of damnation. Having lived by violence and calculation, Tommy's ultimate fate is not death, but to be left alone with himself, forever a man apart, unable to truly rejoin the world. His ride into the distance isn't a ride to a new life, but an acceptance of his perpetual state as a haunted outsider. Some viewers also interpret the show's treatment of violence more critically. Instead of a cautionary tale, they argue the series overly romanticizes and glamorizes gangster life, making antiheroes like Tommy aspirational figures, which can obscure the real-world brutality and negative impact of such criminal organizations. Furthermore, the supernatural elements, especially in the final season, can be interpreted in two ways: either as literal ghostly interventions in a world where Romani mysticism is real, or as manifestations of Tommy's severe PTSD and deteriorating mental state, with his daughter's 'vision' being a moment of psychological clarity rather than a paranormal event.