#or at least I did in S5 S6 was a bit emptier in that regard but I'll get to that in due time if I do write a post about it lol

[skania]

Tommy & Lizzie in S5

I’m a sucker for parallels and show-and-don’t-tell, and Season 5’s writing of Lizzie and Tommy was so good in that regard, that it honestly kind of shocked me. I was absolutely not expecting that because subtlety isn’t exactly their forte when it comes to the Peaky Blinder romances lol

I ended up gathering my favorite bits as I watched it but I wanted to finish S6 before posting this, to go over everything at once. Having finished the series, I think I’d much rather just share my thoughts about S5 and S6 separately, so here it goes lol

The TL;DR is that before watching S5, I kept seeing people say that Tommy doesn’t love Lizzie. Since I had seen so many people say it, I assumed there must be some truth to it.

But when I watched S5, I found the show told me the exact opposite.

In the first episode, Lizzie and Ada get angry at Tommy because of what happened in Chinatown. Lizzie is particularly offended by the fact that he kept this from her. What does Tommy do?

Lizzie, you need to understand. Lizzie? Lizzie, if Finn had listened to me. He keeps going Lizzie, Lizzie, Lizzie. He zeroes in on her, something he doesn’t do with Ada.

It’s a very simple scene, but it stablishes something important in regards to Tommy’s and Lizzie’s marriage. Despite what he might not say, Tommy cares about Lizzie’s opinion. He values it.

This is further developed in Episode 2. The very moment he is alone with Arthur, Tommy asks him about Lizzie and Ruby.

He doesn’t need to know what she’s been saying, because he trusts her—and her reading of him—enough to know it must be true. This, again, shows just how highly Tommy values Lizzie’s judgement.

But that’s not the only thing it shows.

Since he knows Lizzie would say nothing but facts, knowing what she’s saying about him isn’t really important. So, he asked because through that information, Tommy would be able to gauge where Lizzie stands in regards to him now.

What Tommy wanted to know is how Lizzie is feeling about him.

Again, this is further developed in their next scene together.

Just like Arthur, Tommy burns Lizzie’s letter. Unlike Arthur, Tommy does read it first.

I feel like that alone sets the context for the scene. The reason Arthur didn’t read Linda’s letter is because he knew it was going to hurt him. He was scared of the contents. Tommy said so himself, earlier, that he and Arthur are the same person. Tommy could’ve easily burnt the letter without reading it, for the very same reasons Arthur himself did it.

But, Tommy read his. Tommy knows Lizzie is so disappointed in him that she’s even thinking of divorcing him.

So, Tommy deliberately tries to hurt Lizzie because he is hurt. Whether it’s because of ego or his own feelings, at this point it’s ambiguous. But what matters is that Tommy isn’t being callous because he doesn’t care. He is being callous because he does care, and he doesn’t like it. Because caring means giving Lizzie power over him, and no one can rule over Tommy Shelby but Tommy Shelby himself.

There’s a lot to say about their conversation here, specially about what Tommy tells her about the dreams he has been having. But this is already long enough as it is, so I’ll focus on two things:

Lizzie is hurt by everything his dream implies—that he has considered taking his own life, that living in peace and quiet with them isn’t enough for him—but she refuses to give him that pleasure, so she talks business. Lizzie puts on an act and implies the only thing she cares about is knowing whether there would be enough money left for her and the kids. So, Tommy does the same. He puts on an act and talks business; tells her he still feels like he pays her for it. Neither of them are saying this because they mean it. They’re just building a wall so the other won’t be able to get through to them.

Despite all this, Tommy still shows up to Ruby’s birthday just like Lizzie asked him to do. Which once again plays into everything the show has stablished about them so far this season.

Despite what Tommy may or may not say, he cares and he cares a lot. The way his usual mask breaks when Lizzie comes out screaming that she doesn’t want him back says it all. There’s raw hurt on his face, which shows it isn’t all about his ego, no.

But of course, Tommy is awfully good at making it all about his ego either way. So he pulls himself together and lashes out. When he tells her that everyone (she) fucking needs him, it’s as much of a reminder to Lizzie as it is Tommy convincing himself that it’s true.

But the moment Lizzie shows she’s willing to take him back? The guy literally melts into her.

When Lizzie asks him to let her into his head, Tommy says that doing so would “clear out” that which “needs clearing out.” This immediately reminded me of the scene where Tommy revealed that it was Lizzie who kept his heart from breaking some nights. No one else.

This is extremely important. Huge, even. But it’s not the most important line in their scene.

His wording here is pretty funny. You’d think he would tell her that he loves her, but that would be too big an admission—it would leave him too vulnerable. So instead, he tells her he owns her. That she is his.

And, really, hasn’t Tommy always been rather possessive of Lizzie? He’s always had good excuses as to why. She wasn’t telling John the truth, she shouldn’t be dating rival families.

Except, now they’re married. So, Tommy finally admits that he wants Lizzie to belong to him. That he wants no other man touching her.

But this parallel right here reveals what Tommy doesn’t say aloud.

Remember the S2 finale, where Tommy gives his infamous speech?

For Tommy, having everything meant having the woman he loved (Grace), his business, his family, his status. Everything.

And now, he is telling Lizzie that “everything” belongs to him. Including her.

So, by this point, Tommy does indeed already love Lizzie, because everything is already his. I love how the series shows it through subtle clues and parallels rather than spelling it out. It fits the characters perfectly and gives their dynamic a layer of complexity that really caught my attention.

Episode 4 only further confirms Tommy’s feelings for Lizzie. When Mosley implies that if he wants Lizzie, he will have her, Tommy has a melt-down. It’s not the business and the dangers Mosley represents that get to Tommy, no; it’s the thought of putting Lizzie in danger.

Right on cue, Grace shows up to haunt him. And what she tells him says it all. It’s not the stone that was cursed, it’s him. It’s Tommy who got her killed.

Grace bringing that up at this point shows that what is making Tommy freak out is the fact that he is terrified that the same fate will come to Lizzie. That he will bring her harm, too.

In the next scene, he is contemplating jumping off a bridge when he sees himself ferrying Grace off, buried under coal. While Tommy refuses to accept it, Ada spells it out. That vision is a representation of his guilt.

Of course, the show just happens to confirms this through a conversation between Tommy and Lizzie out of all people.

When Lizzie feels guilty about her past as a prostitute, Tommy caresses her cheek and tells her that it’s all a “pile of bodies” just “floating by”. The imagery is clear parallel to when Tommy saw Grace’s body ‘floating by’.

It’s at this very moment that the season finally confirms what Tommy hallucinating Grace actually means. The first episode is a misdirection; Grace doesn’t manifest because of the love they felt for each other.

No, Grace manifests because she is the embodiment of Tommy’s guilt. She is not there because Tommy is still in love with her.

After this, the season is much more straight-forward about Tommy and Lizzie. Tommy went as far as to convince Aberama Gold to temporarily let go of his grudge so Tommy could carry on his business with Mosley. But if Mosley “lays a hand” on Lizzie, Tommy will disregard it all and murder him.

And then we get this gem.

So, I really do think that when you look at all the parallels and calls-back, the show does make its case clear even without putting it into words.

To wrap this up, I feel this scene right here plays an important role into Tommy’s behavior around Lizzie in S6.

He trusts Lizzie, he trusts that she knows him. So when Lizzie tells him what she sees on his face, Tommy doesn’t want to deal with it because she’s seeing things that even Tommy himself doesn’t want to admit are there.

Lizzie knows him, yeah; but she isn’t supposed to know him better than he knows himself. That scares Tommy, because he needs to be in control and how can he do so when Lizzie can read him like a book?

But I digress because I’ll probably end up writing a post about S6 too lol