Peaky Blinders review – 5×04 “The Loop”

“Peaky Blinders subverts expectations again even as it risks swallowing itself up.”

This series is starting to make a habit of undermining expectations. After setting up the Angels of Retribution as the big threat in the first episode, the second undercut this by introducing the Billy Boys, who seemed nailed on to take their place. Now they, in turn, seem to have been replaced by Mosley, who is fast emerging as the show’s most interesting villain in years. 

Opening with Tommy dreaming of Grace again, we jump to a meeting between Tommy and McCavern at Charlie Strong’s yard, where it quickly transpires that Tommy has somehow managed to broker a peace treaty off-screen. Tommy reveals that he has a piece of business that he thinks McCavern may be interested in, which does mesh with the fact that the reason for the stalled gang-war was because the Billy Boys wanted a slice of Tommy’s business, so cutting them in voluntarily is a smart move.

Meanwhile, the football scam from the second episode continues, with Finn and Arthur pushing Billy Grade to set his sights on the first division referee’s, to Grade’s dismay. Leaving Finn to deal with the particulars, Arthur visits the Garrison, catching Tommy dealing with his constituents, including a woman distraught by her husband killing her three song-birds. (Something I do appreciate about this series are the small chinks of humour shining through all the darkness)

After she’s gone, in walks a Chinese man called Brilliant Chang. At the same time, a Chinese woman puts a gun to Finn’s head. Now, this sequence is entertaining enough, even if it’s absolutely clear there’s no chance of anyone we care about dying. But considering all Chang was going to do was offer the Shelby’s a deal, it seems absolutely bizarre that he decided to pre-face it by putting a gun to their younger brother’s head. 

Peaky Blinder’s isn’t the first genre show to panic and throw threat into an episode for the sake of threat- Sons of Anarchy did it, Gotham did it all the time- but I wish the show would have the confidence to let suspense grow organically, rather than just throwing it in because it doesn’t know what else to do.

Anyway, the Chinese have a problem. They have seven-tonnes of pure Opium crystal that they need somewhere to store, and they think Tommy is the man to do it for them. Later, at a family meeting at they yard, Tommy outlines his plan to store the opium on canal boats at Charlie’s yard. Arthur reacts like he’s never heard any of this information before, despite being literally in the room as the deal was brokered, allow Tommy to explain his plan in a classic piece of Tommyposition. 

Leaving Arthur and Polly alone to attend a meeting, the two discuss the Quaker Arthur slashed last week. (Apparently, he’s alive. Not dead as I assumed) Polly advises Arthur to give up on Linda, but Arthur wails that he can’t.

As the rest of the episode passed and we didn’t hear much about this point, I began to worry that the series was just going to overlook last weeks brutality for a while. And then Linda pulled up to the Shelby house. 

Honestly, as a character, she won’t be missed. Introduced a little bit haphazardly in the third series, she lost her purpose when she couldn’t keep Arthur sober and became basically a less interesting and poorly written version of Lizzie. Her constant demands for Arthur to undermine his own brother were irritating and inconsistent and her sudden snap back to religion this series uninteresting.

Crime as a genre is always quite touch and go for female characters. Steven Knight mostly manages to do well with them but really dropped the ball with Linda, and if I’m being honest seems poised to do the same thing with Gina, who currently comes across as a non-religious version of Linda.

If anything comes out of Linda’s death, it will probably be to distance Arthur from the rest of his family, which is a whole new can of worms as killing off female characters to further male character development is something that is getting called out more and more often these days.

If nothing else though, her death, timed in unison with the death of the swan in the production the ballet company was putting on, certainly looked pretty. Possibly it will also force the Shelby’s to think hard about the lives that get destroyed in their wake. Billy Grade is a prime example at the moment.

I mentioned before that Mosley is fast emerging as one of the shows greatest villains so far. Part of the reason is Sam Clafin’s fantastic performance, but also because of the similarities the show has started drawing between Oswald and Tommy. Oswald points them out explicitly in this episode, saying “Two men for who forbidding is forbidden.” Tommy seems to agree, later confiding in Ada that Mosley was right. I mentioned last week that Tommy seems ready to cast off any sense of morality in pursuit of his goal and this week seems to suggest he’s starting to realise it more and more. This, plus the fact that Tommy no longer needs to take opium to hallucinate Grace, makes it clear that Tommy’s mental health, never the best, is really about crash.

Away from Mosley, there are still several unresolved threads running through this series, almost too many to list. Off the top of my head, there are the Angels of Retribution, whether or not Michael did betray Tommy, who betrayed the gold’s, and young Finns football fixing scam. While this series has done a good job of undermining my expectations, there’s a very real danger that the show will collapse under the weight of its many disparate threads. Introducing the Chinese and Tommy’s plan to double-cross them this late is a risk. After last year’s conclusion, which I found very disappointing, I’m nervous this series will end with a whimper, rather than a bang.

Verdict: 4/5

• Lizzie has formerly shagged Mosley, which I’m not really sure what to make off. Her reaction suggests it may have been slightly more than a onetime thing, though.
• Polly getting married to Aberama is quite sweet and something I’m definitely a fan off.
• Apparently, Tommy has been seeing a psychiatrist. To which I can only say good luck to you mate.