Liam Hoofe reviews the fifth episode of Peaky Blinders season 4…
With 2017 drawing to a close, Peaky Blinders is making a late surge to make it on to our ‘top 10 of the year’ lists. The season’s fifth episode ‘The Duel’ was another tightly packed, high-octane thrill ride that set the show on course for an explosive finale next week.
The show started as it meant to go on, with Luca Changretti and his men ambushing Tommy, only to discover that they had been set up by him and Polly. The sequence was perfectly executed and a thrill to watch. Tommy managed successfully to box in the Italians, coming face to face with Changretta in one of the episode’s most tense moments. Of course, though, we are going to have wait for their big final showdown until the next episode, and this week’s collision was halted by the arrival of the local police. Adrien Brody has been a superb addition to the cast this season and he looks as if he is having as much fun playing Changretta, as we are watching him.
Brody hasn’t been the only great addition this season, though, and Aiden Gillen’s Abrama Gold was given a chance to shine this week. His romantic interactions with Polly were fun to watch and both actors managed to make what could have been otherwise ridiculous, feel genuinely quite sincere.
While Brody and Gillen have made for excellent new characters, the brightest light in this show is still Blinders regular, Tom Hardy. Hardy’s Alfie Solomon has stolen every single he has ever appeared in during his time in the show and his appearance in ‘The Duel’ was no different. His interactions with Brody were easily the highlight of the episode, and it looks as though he is going to have a big part to play in next week’s finale. Hardy clearly has a great time playing the role too and if I were to put together a list of potential TV spin-offs I’d love to see, then a Solomon based show would be the top of that list.
Tommy himself was also kept busy after returning from his fire-fight. Late in the episode, we saw him wining and dining Jessie, the socialist worker who could just be Tommy’s way into the revolution. The scenes between the pair were just as riveting as the ones we saw between the gangsters earlier in the episode, as the two played a subtle power-play with each other, leaving fans wondering where this would all lead to next week.
The show always has one eye on the future, though, and Archie’s unravelling after being ousted from his jobs two weeks ago is no doubt going to be a problem for his wife and the gang next year. There is every chance he will make some sort of mistake in the season finale, what with him being as high as a kite just as the Italians look set to attack the boxing match. Will his drug-fuelled state prove to be a fatal mistake when Changretta comes knocking?
‘The Duel’ did everything a penultimate episode of the season should do. It set everything up nicely for the final, bringing all the characters together in one place and leaving just enough questions left unanswered. If I had one complaint to make about Peaky Blinders, it’s that these seasons just aren’t damn long enough.
What did you think of ‘The Duel’? Let us know in the comments below, and let Liam know on Twitter @liamhoofe
Originally published December 14, 2017. Updated April 19, 2018.
