S6 EP6

In the series finale of Peaky Blinders, Tommy Shelby goes off on his own to kill himself before dying from tuberculoma. His doctor, Doctor Holford, had confirmed the disease with X-rays, and Tommy’s daughter had died of tuberculosis, so there was no reason to question the diagnosis. Tommy burns his possessions and puts a gun to his head, but a ghost of Tommy’s daughter appears and directs him to a newspaper clipping. The newspaper displays an image of Oswald Mosley’s wedding and Tommy’s doctor is in the background. Tommy had planned a failed assassination attempt on Mosley, so his daughter clarifies that Tommy is not sick and alludes to it being a plot by Mosley. Then the scene cuts to the home of the doctor. He looks out on the hills and notices a gypsy caravan, so he fears that Tommy is closing in. While walking through a tunnel, he asks if someone has filled the car with petrol, but the camera remains behind the doctor and blocked by the car, so we do not see who it is. Then, the camera rotates to show the side of the doctor, but it does not follow him around the car, so the man behind the car is still hidden. The doctor’s second question is cut short as a man grabs him, covers his mouth, and holds a gun to his head. The camera spins around the open hood of the car to reveal Tommy Shelby holding the doctor hostage. Tommy questions the man, but clearly does not want to hear the answers because he keeps his hand over the doctor’s mouth. As the camera approaches, Tommy lowers his voice to a whisper. The doctor whimpers, but is not able to speak. Then, Tommy pushes the doctor to his knees, while Tommy’s gun is inches from his forehead. First, the gun and the doctor are only on screen, so the doctor’s frightened eyes are intensely staring into the barrel of the gun, but then the camera flips to the point of view of the gun on Tommy’s face, slowly adjusting from blurry to focused. Tommy taunts the doctor by reciting their whole plan back to him, in which the doctor responds: “you may not have tuberculoma Mr. Shelby, but you are sick, sick with guilt.” Then, the doctor tries to convince Tommy not to kill him, but Tommy inches the gun closer to prepare to kill the doctor. Before Tommy pulls the trigger, the bell tower rings, and Tommy whispers “the eleventh hour. Armistice. Peace at last, peace at last.” The courtyard erupts with the shot of Tommy’s gun, but he shoots the cobblestone behind the doctor. Without saying anything, Tommy turns and walks out through the tunnel. This ending is fitting because World War I is the root of Tommy’s violence, so it is only right that the war is responsible for sparing the final victim of his violence. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fadpjGwOEDY