'Peaky Blinders': Sam Neill's Major Chester Campbell started out good but sinks into evil blinded by vengeance
Set in the aftermath of World War I in Birmingham, England, 'Peaky Blinders' follows the exploits of the Shelby crime family. With brutal violence and revenge strewn at every path in the show, the lines are blurred between the good and the bad. Perhaps that is why it is difficult to choose sides in the show that puts as much spotlight on the antagonists as the protagonists. Through the first and second season, Cillian Murphy, who plays the gang's leader Tommy Shelby, is at loggerheads with Sam Neill's Chester Campbell, a commissioned detective from Belfast hired by Winston Churchill to locate and recover a missing consignment of guns from the Birmingham Small Arms Company factory.
Once he enters Small Heath, Birmingham, he gets into a fierce rivalry with the Peaky Blinders and Tommy Shelby in particular. First, he captures Arthur Shelby (Paul Anderson) and targets Freddie Thorne (Iddo Goldberg), a communist and Tommy's best friend from the war who goes on to marry Ada Shelby (Sophie Rundle). As if that was not enough to instigate the gang, he sends undercover agent Grace Burgess (Annabelle Wallis) to find out what's brewing in the family. The tables turn when Grace falls for Tommy and rejects Campbell's proposal.
On learning that Thomas escaped with Grace, he calls off the mission and pries on the two from their window. Later, Campbell bitterly retorts when he meets Tommy, "One thing that I have learned is that you and I are opposites. But also just the same. Like an image in a mirror. We hate people. And they, in turn, hate us. And fear us. Before the day is over, your heart will be broken, just the same as mine. Men like us, Mr. Shelby, will always be alone. And what love we get, we will have to pay for."
The first time he really stoops down low is when he follows Grace to the train station and points a gun at her. However, in season two, it is found that she shoots him in defense and the bullet hits his leg. "I imagine being shot by a woman hurts the same as being shot by a man. It's just more shameful," Tommy mocks him. As Grace comes back into the picture, he ridicules Campbell again: "You once said to me that men like us can never be loved. She loves me and all you got was a bullet."
Campbell's hatred for Tommy only increases with time — turning him into an organized crime boss out of his personal vendetta. The enmity and contempt can be seen in the scene when he tells Churchill, "Sir... with the greatest respect... Thomas Shelby is a murdering, cutthroat, mongrel gangster."
Call it a bitter tale of vengeance, but towards the end of the season, he manages to get Arthur Shelby and Michael Gray behind bars when he hires The Red Right Hand of the Ulster Volunteer Force to murder Thomas as soon as he carries out his assassination. Over time, it can be seen that Campbell has little respect for women. While he first injures a prostitute during a sex act, he later begins to pay for sex to his landlady, showing little regard for her. His evil deeds reach the heights when he forces Polly Gray (Helena McCrory) into doing him a sexual favor in exchange for the release of her son. Perhaps, that is where his doom begins.
Shortly after the assassination in season two, the police gather around the King, giving Polly the chance to corner Major Campbell in a phone booth while on the phone with Winston Churchill. As he pleads with her, she shoots him in the heart and exits the bar taking an eye for an eye. She utters the words, "Don't f**k with the Peaky Blinders" as he bleeds to death.
