Peaky Blinders S2 Ep 1: What does Sabini cut out of Tommy’s mouth?

It’s another bombastic Peaky Blinders premiere, and the stakes are twice as high, as expected from Season 2. Thomas Shelby wants to take his enterprise to the next level, that is London, which will obviously involve ruffling a few feathers.

As you may have noticed at the end of the episode, we meet one of the season’s main antagonists. So, who is he? What did he cut out of Tommy’s mouth?

Peaky Blinder S2 Ep 1 serves as Darby Sabini’s first introduction, where he corners Tommy with his goons, cuts off the insides of his cheeks, and takes out his gold tooth as revenge for attacking the Eden Club.

This encounter goes on to serve two purposes. The first one is to show that this was a direct consequence of the Shelbys visiting the Eden Club that comes under the jurisdiction of the Italian Sabini.

(We have to remember that the different communities are often at war with each other during the series, and trespassing locations or trying to seize them can often lead to more conflict.)

The Shelbys are thrown out of the bar after they pick fights with some of the customers, but as we see, that’s not the end of the ordeal.

The second purpose of this encounter, of course, is to put a face and personality to Sabini who will serve as one of the Shelbys’ adversaries throughout S2. Sabini is clearly ruthless, and I just don’t mean by his extracting Tommy’s gold tooth as a way to “take my name out of his mouth.”

He was out to kill Tommy that very night, had Campbell not interrupted him. Plus, we cannot forget how shocking it was to have Ada accosted and almost sexually assaulted as well.

This could’ve been the end of the legendary Thomas Shelby as we know it, and if he keeps at these games with Sabini, it won’t be the last time he’s on someone’s hit list.

Tommy was literally within an inch of his life and he has to remember that while being ambitious can be grand, it also comes at an equally steep price, and maybe even at the cost of his loved ones. 

About Peaky Blinders

Peaky Blinders is a British period crime drama television series created by Steven Knight. Set in Birmingham, England, the series follows the exploits of the Shelby crime family and their leader Thomas Shelby (Cillian Murphy) in the direct aftermath of the First World War.

The fictional family is loosely based on a real urban youth gang of the same name, active in the city from the 1890s to the early 20th century. It stars Cillian Murphy, Sam Claflin, Aidan Gillen, Helen McCrory, Paul Anderson, Finn Cole, and Tom Hardy

Netflix, under a deal with Weinstein Company and Endemol, acquired the rights to release the show in the United States and around the world. In January 2021, it was announced that the sixth series would be the last, followed by a spin-off film. The final series was broadcast in 2022.