How Peaky Blinders Season 6 Explains Polly's Absence (& Why It's Perfect)
Warning: This article contains spoilers for Peaky Blinders season 6, episode 1.
The explosive first episode of Peaky Blinders season 6 explains what happened to Helen McCrory's Aunt Polly in a perfect, but heartbreaking twist. The episode — set four years after the end of Peaky Blinders season 5 — sees Tommy Shelby (Cillian Murphy) dealing with the fallout of the failed assassination of Oswald Mosley, with new conflicts, new strategies, and a new endgame for the enduring antihero.
For all of the new and returning names on Peaky Blinders season 6's cast list, the question of how the show would deal with the death of main cast member and Harry Potter alumnus Helen McCrory was always a particularly pressing one. Polly leaving the show, even in retirement from the Shelby Company, was unthinkable by her own admission: only in season 5, she said "we all try to get away. But we never do." An almost chilling prediction from a character gifted with second sight. The option to send her away to Australia was obviously always there, but Polly was a founding stone of the company, of the family, and of Tommy Shelby himself, and a quiet exit never seemed appropriate to the character. Such was the big conflict, as the call for reverence in the wake of Helen McCrory's death was just as loud a concern.
Related: Peaky Blinders: Polly's Absence Already Doomed Tommy In Season 4
As Peaky Blinders creator Steven Knight teased ahead of release, Polly Gray is killed off in the opening episode, in a devastating but genius twist that actually honors Helen McCrory's legacy and pays off Polly's tragic story. Here's how it happens, why it's perfect and how the show handles the tribute to McCrory.
Peaky Blinders season 6 picks up Tommy Shelby's story
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