Will the Shelby family’s only sister (Ada) take over as matriarch? Let’s find out in this article. What exactly is gonna happen in season six of Peaky Blinders?
Warning: the text below contains plot details from the show Peaky Blinders
Huge Victory
Ada (Sophie Rundle) dresses up, walks into the Shelby company offices, and declares them her own in the most recent episode of Peaky Blinders.
This looks like a significant win for a character that has been ignored throughout the show, giving her the place of honour she has earned.
Since the first episode of the long-running series, Ada’s egotistical, power-hungry, and spiteful brothers have overshadowed her.
Tommy (Cillian Murphy) is the family’s most powerful member, with Arthur (Paul Anderson) as his vicious right-hand man and John (Joe Cole) offering emotional support.
Finn (Harry Kirton), the youngest brother, was brought in over time. However, if series six is any indication, you might not remember him, since he hasn’t been seen much by the halfway point.
Aunt Polly The Only Real Woman
Even though wives and lovers have come and gone, Aunt Polly, played by the late, great Helen McCrory, has always been the only real woman in the family business. The thing that made everything stick together. But now that she’s gone, it’s almost impossible to step into her shoes.
Not that anyone would really want to move up in the family to take her place.
Polly’s family responsibilities cost her a lot and made her work hard while she cleaned the boys’ noses.
The IRA “removed the Shelby organization’s crutch” by executing her (made all the more poignant by the real-life death of the beloved actress).
For people who didn’t pay close attention to the show, Ada often seemed like an afterthought. She went off on her own, away from the rest of the group, and fell in love with and married communist Freddie Thorne. They had a son, Karl, before Freddie died too soon.
As Ada Thorne, she is so far removed from the family at this point that she doesn’t even have the family name. She stays with them in London while the rest of the group works in Birmingham.
Ada has a formal title in season 3, but she doesn’t use it often. We don’t know her job, only that she has one.
Steven Knight didn’t know what to do with Ada, who chooses to remain alone. In season 5, she has a cordial but loveless relationship with Ben Younger (Kingsley Ben-Adir) (well, blown up). She was pregnant then.
At the time, their relationship had some racial implications. Karl, still a youngster in the fifth season, informed Younger he “didn’t want a Black dad.” If Ada’s son picked up on this kind of discourse, you’d think she hid their relationship.
Until series six, she’s been pushed to the side, hidden, and mostly ignored. She added color to the boys’ story, but except for Polly, Peaky Blinders was a man’s game.
But this new series is very different.
Ada has stepped up in more than one way in the first three episodes.
In episode 1, she tells Karl she “no longer works for Tommy,” yet by episode 3, she’s the only one who can fill his shoes.
Ada Shelby has finally assumed the place in the family and on the programme she deserves as Tommy’s spiral into darkness continues and Arthur’s opium addiction takes over the once-dark but hilarious character.
Ada’s role has been small, but it has been fully realized and fleshed out. She tried to be a voice of reason, but no one paid attention to her before, and now she’s starting to run the whole show. It’s been a long time coming, but it’s better to do it now than never.
No one can take Polly’s place, and everyone, including actress Sophie Rundle, knows this.
Steven Knight has finally ripped the thread after five lengthy seasons, or decades in the show’s narrative. Ada matures. We have a new, bright female character that doesn’t need a man’s plot.
In one episode, she’s as respected as Tommy and makes office choices like she was born to. She wears Polly-like but still her own clothes and teases Isaiah about betting on manipulated races.
Since Ruby’s death was sad, it’s understandable and even necessary for Tommy to focus on other things, like his young family and the revenge he’s sure to want to plan. Arthur is now a mushy mess, and he is trying to get clean. He is nowhere near as strong as he used to be.
Now, it looks like the Shelby family name is in her hands, and we can’t wait to see what happens.
The sixth season of Peaky Blinders airs on BBC One and BBC iPlayer every Sunday at 9 p.m.
