‘Peaky Blinders’ director says the series finale is about revenge

The final season of Peaky Blinders has been a wild and, at times, emotional ride for longtime fans of the series, but director Anthony Byrne is here to tell you the forthcoming feature-length series finale is going to dial everything up to eleven, which is frankly terrifying given everything that has happened in the last few episodes.

In a recent chat with Radio Times, teasing fans about the concluding chapter in Tommy Shelby’s story, Byrne claimed that retribution is the theme that brings the entire final season together.

“Episode five is classic Peaky. It starts and is absolutely relentless. And there’s a lot going on. It’s a really busy episode. And it’s Tommy Shelby highly motivated and putting everything in motion. And then six is revenge. That’s how I kind of view it.”

But what does revenge imply in the context of season six’s narrative? Is Byrne talking about Tommy’s plan to exact vengeance on Oswald Mosley and all those who’ve wronged him in the course of this story? Or is he talking about Michael Grey, who blames Tommy for his mother’s death?

Whatever the answer to that question, things aren’t looking well for the Shelby clan at the moment, with the plot showing an inclination to keep fans at the edge of their seats until the credits roll on the final episode. Byrne had previously said the 81-minute runtime served as a dry-run for the upcoming movie sequel, so there’s still hope that our characters will make it out of the chaotic final outing alive.

You can catch the series finale, “Lock and Key,” when it premieres this Sunday on BBC One and BBC iPlayer.