Had John not attacked Angel Changretta, Grace wouldn’t have been accidentally killed, Tommy wouldn’t have tortured Vicente, and Luca wouldn’t be here now. You could say that as John was responsible for escalating last series’ conflict with the Changrettas, he’s the most just casualty of a war with the Italians. It’s Michael who delivers the verdict on the state of the family, “they’re all fucked, the lot of them” and him who has the episode’s key thematic line “We’re not the Peaky fucking Blinders unless we’re together.” Christmas 1925 and the loss of John sees the family at its lowest point – the bleakest of their bleak midwinters, if you like. Even Michael tells Tommy he’s suffering nightmares after “what happened” (though whether he means prison, slitting Father Hughes’ throat, or being abused as a child, who can tell).
John’s miserable, Arthur’s bored and Polly’s strung out on medication and spirits of both kinds. Tommy might affect contentment with freedom and a carousel of paid-for women, but his request for “someone new” reveals dissatisfaction with his commitment-free, family-free life. Each one is living in a remote house that isn’t making them happy. That’s how we find the family at the start of season four scattered and in pieces. That’s the perverse joy of a drama with casts as strong and characters as well-written as this – even though you love them, you most look forward to seeing them broken apart. It’ll be fascinating to see how each of them responds to John’s death. The Shelby family has lost people before-Freddie, Grace, Arthur Sr.-but until now, never one of the central core. She was proven wrong about that in the cruellest way. Less comedic was Esme’s vow that her and John’s family can look after themselves. There was Lizzie’s gag about not even Esme pulling a razor in a baby’s presence, John taking a pistol to the game birds on his new estate, and Esme’s “Fuck me, it’s Father Christmas”. Feeling similarly doomed for slaughter, a long-haired Arthur commiserated with a goose on Christmas Eve. To throw us off the scent of impending tragedy, there were some great comedic moments before all the blood. The last-minute reprieve from the noose, Adrian Brody’s introduction, and the bloody butchers-hook fight among the dangling carcasses were all proof of that.
For all its surprises, this show isn’t afraid of leaning on familiar images when it works.
WATCH PEAKY BLINDERS SEASON 4 EPISODE 1 MOVIE
Luca’s arrival at Liverpool docks, the face of a 1920s movie star peering up from under the rim of his hat, was stylised gangster perfection.
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