Warning: This article contains spoilers for Peaky Blinders season 6, episode 1.
Gina Gray (Anya Taylor-Joy) seemed like she was going to be Tommy Shelby’s (Cillian Murphy) worthiest adversary in Peaky Blinders season 6, but episode 1 proves otherwise. The BBC show’s sixth season deals with the Shelby family four years after the events of season 5, amidst the end of the American prohibition in December 1933. But Aunt Polly (Helen McCrory) was killed by the IRA because of Tommy’s schemes, and Michael (Finn Cole) wants revenge on Tommy, much to Gina’s delight.
Throughout Peaky Blinders’ season 5, Gina puts pressure on Michael to have Shelby Company Limited restructure and relocate to New York. This decision puts him at odds with the Peaky Blinders and his uncle Tommy. Peaky Blinders season 6 shows that Gina has her own gangster uncle with great political power and a criminal background: Jack Nelson, a character based on Joseph Kennedy. Irish-American Jack runs the city of Boston, and Tommy is hoping to strike a deal with Jack in order to sell his opium into the States. But Gina is adamant Jack will never work with Tommy – however, this doesn’t put Gina in a good position.
While it seemed as if Gina will be Peaky Blinders’ season 6’s true villain, season 6 episode 1 already puts Gina in a position of inferiority to Tommy, Michael, and to her uncle Jack. Her most powerful moment in the episode was her explaining to Tommy why her uncle won’t work with him. Tommy even jokes: “So it’s Uncle Jack you fall on your knees for, eh? Not Michael.” Gina is not the mastermind behind any scheme, just an aid to Michael’s plan to get his revenge on Tommy, and a sidekick to her gangster uncle Jack. With Michael in jail indefinitely, it appears as if Jack Nelson will be Tommy’s true adversary in season 6, with Gina by his side as she backs the winning horse (which, at the moment, is Jack, not her husband Michael).
Gina would have worked as Tommy’s real threat if Polly was still alive: Peaky Blinders has a proud history of women being the real ones pulling the strings (of course, with Aunt Polly at the top of the list). With Polly gone (thanks to Tommy’s attempted assassination of Oswald Mosley), Michael is the more powerful of the Gray couple, as he seeks revenge for his mother’s untimely death. Gina might still be a thorn in Tommy’s side, but she won’t be the queen bee it looked like at the end of Peaky Blinders’ season 5. Furthermore, the introduction of Uncle Jack clips her wings – a character based on Joseph Kennedy (whose 1933 trip to the UK reportedly involved a business deal with Sir Winston Churchill) promises to be a big deal for season 6, much bigger than his niece.
In fact, it almost seems like Gina Gray’s character was a gateway to Jack Nelson. Peaky Blinders season 6 will see Tommy Shelby deal with brand new enemies, but as always, Tommy seems prepared. Season 6 episode 1 saw Tommy put Michael in prison and convince Uncle Jack to leave him there for “a while longer.” It remains to be seen how Tommy’s relationship with Jack Nelson will develop, but one thing is clear: Gina won’t be Tommy’s fiercest adversary in Peaky Blinders season 6.
New episodes of Peaky Blinders air every Sunday in the UK, with a Netflix date for the US to follow.
