'Peaky Blinders' season 5: Paul Anderson's Arthur Shelby is back from the dead, but will he be more responsible now?
With its dramatic twists and turns, 'Peaky Blinders' brings a huge turnover for viewers as Thomas Shelby (Cillian Murphy) gets elected as Labour MP. While he embarks on a new role in Parliament, Arthur Shelby (Paul Anderson) might need to fill his shoes. The eldest of the Shelby siblings, he is also the Deputy Vice President of Shelby Company Limited.
Arthur is more brawn than brains. He might be the firstborn, but Tommy is the real leader of the criminal gang. Many times, he tends to give way to lunacy and it is then that Tommy has to get him back on track. As much as his wife, Linda, desperately tries to keep him on the right side of God, Tommy needs his right-hand man by his side. After all, Arthur is the strongest weapon in the armory.
In a mind-boggling plot twist, season three saw him come back from the dead. At first, two Italian men sneak in and attempt to kill him, but luckily he survives. Soon after, when the Shelby Company invests in Bonnie Gold, the son of their ally Aberama Gold, a man at a boxing match raises Arthur's suspicions. To trace his actual identity, Arthur follows him all the way back. The henchman violently and mortally wounds Arthur, such that it seems he would lose his life any moment.
However, Arthur makes a sensational comeback in the season finale. As their arch-nemesis Luca Changretta (Adrien Brody) prepares to pounce upon Tommy, Arthur jumps the gun and shoots the antagonist. While many viewers actually believed that Arthur breathed his last at the boxing fight, it turns out that the Shelby clan staged Arthur's death to set a trap for Changretta. Who knows, in the upcoming season, he may take up a whole new identity as well!
The aftermath of World War I seems to have taken a toll on him. Most times, he lets his heart do the talking more than his mind. His emotional outbursts and pangs of hysteria have several times turned out to be a roadblock for the Shelby family. In one scene, he tells Ada Shelby (Sophie Rundle), "I'm emotional, I just don't know what fucking emotion it is." However, in season five as Tommy is all set to take the plunge as an MP, isn't it high time that he takes up more responsibility? With Thomas Shelby busy with politics, Arthur needs to up his game in handling the business and helping it grow.
While he lets his sentimental side take the best of him, he is savage too. "Tell your boss what you saw here today. Tell him you don't f**k with the Peaky Blinders," he tells the Italian mafia's member.
As season five premieres on BBC One this August 25 at 9 pm, it is yet to be seen whether or not Arthur wears more than one hat and gets to the frontline.