Why Does The ‘Peaky Blinders’ Season 6 Ending Not Feel Like A Series Finale?

Peaky Blinders’ season 6 finally landed on Netflix this weekend, after airing on the BBC some time ago. Now that us Yanks have been able to catch up, you may have some questions after the finale, which is supposed to be the last episode of the series. I know I did.

The finale struck me as…odd in a few different ways, like it was setting itself up for further seasons given the unresolved storylines. Turns out there are a few different reasons for that. Spoilers follow.

As the clocked ticked toward the end of the final 80 minute episode, I figured that surely, any minute now, we’d see some sequence of Tom kicking in the door of Mosely’s home and executing him and his wife for being Nazi scum, saving the heart of Europe from the future fascist menace.

That…never happens. Tom instead just figures out Mosely tricked him into thinking he was dying with a planted doctor. The final confrontation has Tom choosing not to execute the doctor, showing he’s changed to some capacity. Mosely and his wife and never mentioned again.

Well, the reason for that is because Oswald Mosely and Diana Mitford are real historical figures. And they did not die at the hands of an Irish gangster in the 30s. While Mosely was eventually jailed for a brief period of time and effectively exiled from England, he lived out his days a rich man on his various estates in Ireland and France. His wife, Diana Mitford (they really were married with Hitler in attendance), was a controversial figure throughout her life as well, but she didn’t even die until 2003.

I guess Peaky Blinders didn’t want to mess with actual history, as this isn’t a Quentin Tarantino movie, although I’d say there’s what’s good for the story, and what’s good for historical accuracy. I’m guessing 99% of the Peaky Blinders audience had never heard of Mosely or Mitford, and to see them not face justice was pretty unsatisfying. I call this “Deadwood Syndrome,” where that show had George Hearst appear as a villain, but because he was a real historical figure who did not meet his end in Deadwood, he couldn’t be killed, even if that made for an unsatisfying ending.

But besides the Mosely’s, there are a lot of odd things in the final season. The refusal to kill off Tom. The exile of Finn and the out-of-nowhere introduction of Duke as Tom’s long lost son. It very much seems like these are seeds being planted for the future, and despite this being a series finale, I imagine that’s what’s happening, given that showrunner Stephen Knight wants to do more with a movie and spin-offs (via the NYT):

“I’m interested in concluding during the Second World War. So the film will be set during that war, and then the film itself will dictate what happens next.

But I’m quite interested in keeping that world going into the ’40s and ’50s and just seeing where it goes because as long as there’s an appetite, then why not do it? I probably won’t be writing them all, but the world will be established.”

Star Cillian Murphy says he’s down for whatever Knight has planned:

“I’d be as excited as anybody to read a script. But I think it’s good for everyone to have a little break. That’s always a healthy thing and then we can regroup. Steve is an insanely busy and in-demand writer, but I know that he loves writing Peaky above all. He adores it. So I think when the time comes, if there’s more story to be told, I’ll be there.”

So, that’s why. The show wanted to both stay somewhat aligned with history, and also there’s a movie and future shows coming, hence the wide range of loose threads and planted seeds in this final season. We’ll see what grows in a few years, I imagine.

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