Heading to watch 'Immortal Man'? Here's 3 key 'Peaky Blinders' episodes to catch up on, as per creator
‘Peaky Blinders: The Immortal Man’ arrives in theaters on March 6 before landing on Netflix on March 20. Cillian Murphy returns as Tommy Shelby, the calculating Birmingham crime boss, and alongside him are several familiar faces, including Sophie Rundle as Ada Shelby and Stephen Graham as Hayden Stagg. The film also welcomes new additions like Rebecca Ferguson, Tim Roth, and Barry Keoghan, who steps into the role of Tommy’s son Duke. When viewers last saw Tommy in the Season 6 finale, he had left Birmingham behind. The gang he built from the ground up stayed behind while he rode off alone, chasing a different kind of future. Now the story picks up years later. But here’s the thing: after six seasons of the show, some fans might struggle to remember how it all led to this moment.
Who betrayed whom? Why did Tommy leave? And what in the world happened in those last episodes? Luckily, the show’s creator, Steven Knight, has offered a solution. In a video released through Netflix’s YouTube channel, Knight pointed out three episodes he believes viewers should revisit before heading into the film. First up: the very beginning. The pilot episode (Season 1, Episode 1) is where it all starts. According to Knight, “It really lays out what this whole series is about. It introduces Tommy Shelby in a way that I think makes it pretty unequivocal about who this person is. It really says so much about what ‘Peaky’ is going to be about and the whole episode is essential to know exactly what this family is and what they do and why they’re so fearsome.”
Then there’s the Season 2 finale. Knight highlighted Episode 2.6 as one of the most important chapters in the entire run. It contains a tense moment where Tommy is forced into a dangerous job involving a high-ranking military figure, all while knowing the people giving the order might plan to eliminate him afterward. At one point, Tommy is taken to a field by armed men who appear ready to end his life. A grave has already been dug, but the scene flips in a direction few viewers saw coming. Knight said, “He asks for time to smoke a cigarette, and in that time, he reviews his life. His regrets. The things he wishes he had done. I think as an audience we think this is it, and then there is a twist.”
One of the gunmen suddenly turns on the other two and shoots them, before passing along a message that Winston Churchill wants a word with Tommy. The creator expressed, “What that gives us is: Here is a man who is not sure if he wants to live or die… [in this moment] we can see that he actually chooses life.” Finally, Knight suggests revisiting the last television episode of the series: Season 6 Episode 6, titled ‘Lock and Key.’ The installment wraps up the long-running storyline surrounding Tommy’s supposed illness, which he later discovers is part of a scheme involving Oswald Mosley. By the end of the episode, Tommy stands over the doctor responsible for deceiving him, gun in hand. But he doesn't pull the trigger.
Knight remarked, “He decides not to, the Tommy previous to that would have done that. He puts the gun away, goes back to his horse, and he rides away into the sunset.” He added, “The horse he rides away on is a white horse. The horse he arrived on at the beginning of the series was a black horse. I think there is a contrast between the two moments and maybe we believe that Tommy is cured, that he’s better, that he’s riding away to have a simpler life.” Now, with ‘Peaky Blinders: The Immortal Man’ arriving, fans will finally see what happened next.
