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Peaky Blinders S6 Ep 2: Black Shirt

from Decider.com: https://decider.com/2022/06/11/peaky-blinders-season-6-episode-2/#:~:text=Tommy%20breaks%20his%20balls%20about,one%20of%20Mosley's%20fascist%20rallies.

By Benjamin H. Smith @bhsmithnyc Jun 11, 2022 at 12:05pm

Reunions are a good way to reconnect after too much time apart. They’re also a chance to settle old scores and for the Peaky Blinders, there’s plenty of old scores to go around. If there’s one thing we’ve learned about gang leader Tommy Shelby, though, he likes his revenge served cold. Two episodes into the sixth and final season of Peaky Blinders and it’s time for Tommy to revisit a rogue’s gallery of adversaries from his past.

Last episode began with the devastating revelation that the I.R.A. had killed Shelby matriarch Aunt Polly and ended with Tommy’s daughter Ruby afflicted with Gypsy ghost fever. Tommy returns to find her on the mend but takes her to the doctor just to make sure. Ruby gets a clean bill of health, which means she’s totally gonna die.

Back home, Tommy has a seizure and has flashbacks of the first man he killed back in World War I. Later, he addresses his constituents in South Birmingham where he’s a Member of Parliment for the Labour Party. Afterwards, he meets up with I.R.A. angel of death Laura McKee, A.K.A. Captain Swing, who tells him “You have a reputation for moral turpitude.” “Moral turpitude…it’s a good name for a racehorse,” Tommy responds, which wins the award for best line of the episode.

It turns out that not only are the I.R.A. ensconced in the Shelbys’ opium business, McKee is a fascist sympathizer. Both impulses find common cause in Jack Nelson, Irish-American businessman and gangster, who we meet later in the episode and also apparently loves the fash. This puts Tommy on a collision course with Season 5 nemesis Sir Oswald Mosley of the British Union of Fascists as well.

Tommy later explains to his sister Ada that he intends to infiltrate the fascists so he can undermine them, and hey, if he can make some money in the process, all the better. We know he’s already pals with Winston Churchill and apparently has a line to Franklin D. Roosevelt as well. “Fuck…opium and Presidents,” says Ada, which is the episode’s second best one-liner.

Side note: there’s so many references to Tommy’s newfound sobriety, it’s just a matter of time before he hits the bottle again.

From there its off to Camden Town where Tommy catches up with frenemy. Alfie Solomons, played with relish by Tom Hardy. The two have a checkered past with Solomons betraying Tommy so many times he eventually had to shoot him in the face to make him honest. Tommy breaks his balls about Nelson killing one of Alfie’s uncles and offers opium and revenge. Alfie seems interested, which means there’s still a 70% chance he’ll stab Tommy in the back in the end.

Having started shoring up his end game, Tommy makes his way to one of Mosley’s fascist rallies. Far be it from me to pity dead fascist scum, but Sam Claflin’s portrayal of the real-life British politician is so unlikable you almost feel bad. It’s also one of the show’s great performances, with Claflin leaning into every line with a snide smugness that makes you thirst for his end.

Following the death of his wife, Mosley has shacked up with Diana Mitford, a historical figure who would one day become his wife. As Mosley makes his entrance, Diana makes googly eyes at Tommy, who’s there with his wife Lizzie. In other words, they’re gonna shag in a couple episodes.


The Shelbys hobnob with the future Mr. & Mrs. Nazi Britain of 1936, and Tommy gets the green light to meet with Jack Nelson to discuss the fine points of the international opium trade and introduce him to Britain’s next top fascists. To review, Nelson is the uncle of Gina Gray, American wife of Tommy’s cousin Michael Gray. A political mover and shaker as well as a South Boston crime boss, Nelson is roughly based on Joseph P. Kennedy Jr., father of U.S. presidents and senators, who was also an alleged bootlegger and anti-Semite who ran afoul of President Roosevelt during World War II.

Interesting side note: Nelson is played by James Frecheville, who portrayed the same character in the original Australian movie version of Animal Kingdom as Finn Cole, who plays Michael, plays in the American television series.

When we finally meet Nelson, he’s far less impressive than past villains, though he’s got all season to improve. You get the sense the script writers peppered his dialogue with lots of words that would sound good with a Boston accent, and Frecheville does a decent job, though leans a little too close to New York at times.

Over small talk Tommy tells Nelson the first man he killed was “a Prussian boy with green eyes.” Later, Ruby’s fever returns and she says she’s hearing voices, “It’s the green man. He says he’s coming for me and he’s coming from Daddy as well.” At his office in Parliament, Tommy imagines he’s being attacked by the ghost from his past before rushing home to take Ruby to the only people who can help her; his Gypsy kin.