While BBC's crime drama series Peaky Blinders has seen the Shelbys kill many of their enemies throughout the six seasons, season 2 was the most befitting.
Sam Neill debuted as Inspector Chester Campbell, the show's primary antagonist in seasons 1 and 2.
While Campbell was sent by Winston Churchill to locate the missing guns in the show's premiere, his vendetta against Tommy became personal when Grace chose him over the Major. After his season 1 finale confrontation with Grace, he returned to Birmingham after two years in season 2 to destroy the Shelby family.
After his inappropriate proposal to Grace and brutal behaviour to Aunt Polly, I think his end was the most befitting and satisfactory. After assuming that he has won, Aunt Polly fatally shoots him in the Season 2 finale.
More on Campbell's death in Peaky Blinders Season 2 in our story.
I think Inspector Campbell got the most befitting death in Peaky Blinders
While intense violence was a regular occurrence in Peaky Blinders as it chronicled the titular gang and their leader Tommy Shelby's rise to power, season 2 episode 5's confrontation scene between Aunt Polly and Campbell was the most brutal.
Knowing full well that he is not capable of taking Tommy out and that he is not afraid to die, Campbell targets his brothers.
Campbell wants to assert the upper hand over the Shelby leader, which is why he sent Arthur to jail (for a false murder) and cunningly arranged Michael's arrest for burning down The Marquis of Lorne pub.
While Tommy was working behind the scenes to get both Arthur and Michael out of prison, Aunt Polly took matters into her own hands. After being separated from his son in the past, she was reunited with him in season 2, thanks to Tommy.
Knowing her son is in trouble, Aunt Polly visited Campbell in Peaky Blinders Season 2 Episode 5 and asked him to let Michael go. Revealing his villainous intentions, Campbell offers to sign Michael's release papers only if Polly agrees to sleep with him.
Left with no choice, Aunt Polly reluctantly complies with Campbell's demands and he r*pes her. This brutal scene was enough for every Peaky Blinders fan to announce Campbell the most despicable antagonist of the show, who treated women for his pleasure.
The brutality of this scene was so intense that even Neill addressed this scene and Campbell's character in his memoir, Did I Ever Tell You This?:
“Easily the most difficult bed scene I’ve ever done was in ‘Peaky Blinders.’ My character, the hideous Major Campbell, rapes Aunt Polly, played by Helen McCrory. It is deeply disturbing, and I was anxious about how we would go...''
First, Grace and then Aunt Polly, Campbell proved that he was not only against Tommy, but also looked down upon the other sex and was a misogynist.
While every fan wished to see Campbell die, his murder in the Peaky Blinders Season 2 finale is one of the most satisfying antagonist deaths in the show. In the finale, after he assumes that Tommy is dead, he calls Churchill to announce this happy news.
Aunt Polly enters the phone booth with a gun and confronts her abuser:
''Tommy told me you'd be here. Then I told Tommy it should be me who finishes you.''
While Campbell tries to sweet-talk her and claims that he has fallen in love with her, even gaslighting her into thinking that she also wants him, Polly takes one fatal shot and ends his life.
As Campbell thuds to the floor inside the booth, Polly walks out with a red blood stain on her white outfit, a proud mark of her and the Peaky Blinders' victory over their tormentor.
Polly shooting Campbell to his death was the best poetic justice the show served, and it was easily the most befitting character death.
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