Warning: This article contains spoilers for Peaky Blinders season 6.
Peaky Blinders season 6's ending leaves the door open for the Peaky Blinders movie, with Tommy Shelby's gypsy curse coming to a head. The epic crime series received a mixed reaction to its final season, with a story that primarily focuses on Tommy, at the expense of other of the Shelby clan. However, that focus allows the show's creator, Steven Knight, time to explore Tommy Shelby's psyche, including his obsession with legacy, and the breaking of his perceived gypsy curse.
Tommy Shelby spends most of Peaky Blinders season 6 running from what he considers to be the curse of his blood and the demons of his past. Losing both Grace and Ruby to curses, along with PTSD, has left him a shell of his former self. With Tommy believing he has an inoperable tumor, the ending of Peaky Blinders season 6 has him blowing up his home to make way for social housing, severing ties with his family, and going away to end his life. A vision of his daughter Ruby, though, leads to him discovering that he's been deceived by his doctor, on Mosley's orders. This brings him back from the brink, ending Peaky Blinders season 6 on a note of triumphant relief at him breaking his curse.
As the clock strikes 11:00 am, Tommy Shelby notes the hour as Armistice, saying "peace at last." The weight of the curse he's been carrying around is finally lifted, further embodied in the next scene by the burning of the caravan, symbolic of a funeral pyre. As he rides away framed in the flames of the burning wagon, Tommy is free of the curse, free of his ghosts, and free of obligations. Whether Tommy’s curse was real or in his head isn't definitively answered by Peaky Blinders season 6. In the world of Peaky Blinders, curses are perceived to be real, at least in the eyes of Tommy and his gypsy brethren. While the tragedies that befall Tommy Shelby have real-world explanations, they are also presented in such a way that connections can be made to the supernatural.
At the end of Peaky Blinders season 6, Tommy only learns concrete facts that save his life from the vision of Ruby, suggesting that her ghost isn’t a product of his imagination. Following that logic, it could be argued that other supernatural phenomena in Peaky Blinders, such as curses, visions, and premonitions, are also real. Whether Tommy’s curse is real or not, though, is largely immaterial for the overall story of Peaky Blinders, as regardless of how he reached them it’s his actions that drive the story. If Tommy Shelby believes the curse to be real, then that is enough to inform his decisions, for better or worse.
At the end of the day, audiences are left to make up their own mind whether the curse in Peaky Blinders season 6 is real, or a result of Tommy Shelby's psychological trauma and circumstantial coincidences. Whether he’s truly broken free of his curse will likely be answered in the Peaky Blinders movie, which will likely end Tommy’s story. Though he may have silenced his demons, for now, he’s got a long road to redemption, and still has enemies out there that want him dead. Mosley's power continues to grow, and Boston gangsters Jack Nelson and Gina Gray will have revenge on their minds for the death of Michael. The Peaky Blinders season 6 ending may give Tommy Shelby peace, but it won’t last for long.