#the fact that it's my favourite season and i constantly rewatch it and didn't notice it

[buryme-atmakeoutdawn]

Someone once pointed out that a main them of bojack horseman season 4 is motherhood and I've never been the same since

[pebblysand]

[THOUGHTS ON PEAKY BLINDERS, EPISODE 2 - SERIES 6, “BLACK SHIRT”]

in no particular order, just as i’ve had them. obviously, spoilers ahead. (if you've missed last week's thoughts, see here).

after "black day" and "black shirt", i lay my bets that the last episode will be called "black star." because, of course.

still no red right hand. i've just started rewatching s5 and i noticed it's mostly not there either.

i didn't take notes for the first five minutes because I was too absorbed.

per his speech, i reckon i'd vote for tommy.

i really enjoy all of tommy's scenes with lizzie. although their relationship as a romantic pairing does feel like a financial transaction more than anything else, i do think they care about each other. i really enjoyed the way lizzie asked "do you feel this?" and how she commented he acts as though he's watching things through a screen. this season really feels like that, doesn't it?

“moral turpitude” is good name for a horse 🐎.

i'm still unclear as to tommy's relationship with the ira. do they work together? or does he work for them? the first scene in last week's ep seemed to imply that the ira had beat him and that he'd have to do their bidding now. i'm still mildly confused.

i don't know why but i really loved the diagetic train leitmotiv in the scene with the ira woman. the train that passes by and makes the glass rattle? we've never heard that in the garrison and i keep wondering if it might have been because tommy was always drunk and he never noticed?

talking about sound, aside from red right hand's absence, there's a distinct lack of "old school" peaky blinders tracks this season, and i reckon that's very intentional and significant. there was joy division last week, but that's about it. to note that anna calvi's cover of "ain't no grave" had become the new theme song - it's been in both episodes so far. from the bit of research i've done, it was in s5 as well.

tommy cites the bible now? now that's a new one.

we all know that ada is my favourite shelby brother - i really enjoyed that scene between her and tommy outside the garrison. i reckon that's probably the one and only time in the whole episode he actually told the truth to someone. they're really the only two left standing. her saying that she was "trying to be" polly made me sad.

there's another leitmotiv in peaky blinders (at least since s3), of "look at us! look at where we are/how far we've come." it obviously constantly asks the background question of: is this progress? does money/status make you happy? having this sort of moment in front of the garrison is, again, such a moment of brilliance in this show. it's this sort of: nothing's changed - but everything has changed moment between the two of them. the whole dialogue just broke me. “where are you tom? my big brother? do you even remember this place?” the whole thing about them carrying their father's bucket... him responding that they're "alive,” and her saying: "yeah, and you’re still looking for trouble big enough to kill you.” that was just - i've no words. 💔. i don't think ada's ever called him her "big brother" before, and it really broke my heart. especially after her saying he'd have to carry the bucket without her 🥺.

i'm not sure what to say about tommy's seizures apart from the fact that both instances were so. well. shot. and. edited. truly fantastic job.

i love how they’re revisiting all the old locations. alfie's warehouse and all. and i love how much darker and desolate it aesthetically looks now. the cinematography in this whole scene was through the roof.

"opera is fat people shouting" 😅

michael and gina are SO CRINGE. i feel like i have to physically recoil every time either of them are one screen.

tommy's white scarf look was 🥵🥵🥵🥵 was a bit sad when he gave it to arthur lol.

i adored that scene where they beat up the fascists, i've not seen enough people online comment on it. not only was the cinematography again through the roof, but i loved how arthur goes in, tommy steps away, changes his mind, comes back, rips the lads apart, and then goes about his business without a drop of blood on his suit 😆. the sport. this man is even more dangerous sober.

what the fuck was that look? i feel like it's the gina/mosley look all over again. so. much. speculation. will he sleep with diana? also, grace's breaths are back.

mosley's wife calling tommy sexist was lolz, but also strikingly reminded us of both polly and grace's absence. i couldn't help but think that had either of them been alive, they would have been part of that meeting, you know? it's not that he's sexist (in this instance at least), it's that he doesn't have any woman in his life he can trust with that kind of thing anymore. maybe ada? but obviously, she wouldn't want to be part of that. i know it was meant as a "funny" moment, but it just made tommy also look more alone.

as a side note, diana mitford and her family were the inspo behind bellatrix lestrange and black sisters, so here is another connection between hp and peaky - my life has come full circle!!!!!

i do love lizzie for both knowing when her presence is useless, but also knowing how to preserve her interests 😏. she may not be polly or grace, but she sure as hell can hold her ground in other ways.

i know everyone has been talking about that line where tommy says the last person he killed was himself, but one line that really struck me during the jack/tommy exchange (again - the ci-ne-ma-to-gra-phy in that scene 🤯) was this: "what made you angry?" jack nelson asks, and tommy says: "slowness in anything." i think that's such an interesting reflection on his character, and how we got to where we are since 1919.

i've also wrote this down: "every war hero i’ve ever met was someone who wanted to get themselves killed." i can't recall who says it, but i thought it was well put.

i think a lot of that 'one last deal' mentality in tommy, at the moment, isn't about money, or politics. i think it's about avenging polly. i think that just like he told michael, he's got a plan to avenge her death, and he won't rest until that's done. i think that's why he's so intent on the "one last time" rhetoric. although he might very much be lying to himself. i hope but don't think he'll ever really rest.

on that note, i've read online lots of people think tommy is going to die at the end. he could, but i don't think he will. he's tried dying before and it's never worked, i don't see why it would now.

regarding ruby, i just... i said last week that i didn't think/want her to die. i know literally everything is now pointing in that direction (especially with that snapshot of lizzie howling in the trailer at what very much looks like a gypsy funeral) but i don't know... i still hope not? our boy has lost polly, john, grace... i know he's a gangster and realistically these things happen but ruby was meant to bring life in this world, in s4, after so much death. i think he can survive pretty much everything, but the loss of a child... there's no coming back from that. if that's where the series is going, it's going to be so dark and grim - even i might not survive it.

i spent a very long time wondering whether he is calling esmé because she placed the curse, or because she could somehow lift it, before it occurred to me that there is no such thing as magic, ruby clearly has tuberculosis or something 😆. jokes aside, i don't know. tommy's view on religion is so complex. this is the man who clearly said in this very episode that he doesn't believe in god, and in s3 said "religion is just a foolish answer to a foolish question," and yet his belief in witchcraft seems unshakable. and, did anyone else notice how ruby's outbreaks seem to be coordinated with his seizures? is it a curse that's on him and impacting her? andisthereevenafuckingcursegoddamnitisthisallreal? 😭

generally, though, i really enjoyed this episode. it felt a lot less messy than episode one, and i feel like we did get some answers as to what/how tommy is doing. i also don't think i breathed the entire time, it really was a banger. i'm going to have to wait until monday night to watch next week's because i have a friend over on sunday night, so pray for me, haha.