Okay I want to draw attention to something about the 2x06 conversation between Tommy and Lizzie at the derby that I find soooo interesting that I think gets overlooked (or at least—EYE had overlooked it).
This is also very much adjacent to my previous post about Lizzie keeping her regulars, sabotaging her relationship with John because she wasn't ready to give up the financial independence her regulars represented and didn't actually want to get married as a way to achieve legitimacy.
Tommy: Lizzie, I know what I said. Lizzie: Yeah, you know. You know you told me I shouldn't do that kind of work anymore.
Right off the bat here, I want to note: That's not exactly what Tommy said. Tommy said:
"You can stop the other work too. All of it, this time. No exceptions."
When EYE heard Tommy say that in 2x01, my interpretation was, "You will be financially secure and won't need to do that stuff anymore" (especially because he kind of puffs up his chest about how things are "changing" financially for Shelby Company Limited) and when he said "No exceptions" what he meant was "I am not setting you up as my secretary/whore—just my secretary. AKA you don't have to have sex with me to have/keep this job."But Lizzie interpreted what Tommy said as a command to NOT take any customers on the side as a term of the employment deal.
Then there's something that perhaps Tommy misinterprets from Lizzie, which is that she says, "Just once I wish you wouldn't pay me as if we were ordinary people" and what Tommy hears is "I want to stop doing prostitution" but what Lizzie actually said is "just once" not "I'm ready to stop doing prostitution". And in fact, what she may have meant is, "I kind of like hanging out with you and it would be cool if we had sex just because some of the time... if you were into that or whatever." I'm... not sure it's a musing that she's actually ready to give up prostitution. But it makes sense that Tommy interprets it that way, because 1) He is NOT rocking her world and he knows it 2) Tommy thinks Lizzie kept her regulars while engaged to John out of financial need (because that's what Lizzie's sister told John, and that's what John then told Tommy). So he hears she's been pursuing typing courses, and assumes it's because she plans to pursue secretarial work as a path out of prostitution... but Lizzie actually implies at the derby that she would have done secretary work and prostitution at the same time:
Tommy: I just need you to isolate him is all. Lizzie: No exceptions, you said. Tommy: I have drawn a map... alright? Of where exactly you need to take him. Lizzie: For months I make no exceptions because you told me not to.
It's sooo easy to get caught up in Lizzie's disappointment and the romantic angle (and the part of Lizzie that does want to leave that work behind and feels betrayed) that one misses... she is telling him she would have made exceptions if he had not specifically asked her not to. She is telling him SHE WOULD HAVE KEPT UP HER WORK ON THE SIDE while doing the secretarial work, if Tommy had not "ordered" her to quit. And like... she started down this educational path with no idea Tommy would ask her to work for him. Thus the plan was ALWAYS to do secretarial work + prostitution on the side (and yes—I think this does connect back to the sense of safety both Tommy and Lizzie find in retaining the illegal aspects of their respective careers as mirrors of one another).
A bit later, Lizzie adds,
No exceptions has been no hardship. You know why?
Again, I have been so caught up in the romantic implications I miss... this woman is again saying "I would have kept doing my other work on the side if you hadn't asked me not to". Because she still wasn't thinking toward completely stepping out of that work, but maybe slowly working herself up to leaving it?
I just think that's very interesting! Tommy thought he was giving her the legitimacy she wanted and the financial security to leave prostitution, and that his betrayal was breaking the promise that she could stop by asking her to do this. Lizzie thought he was implying something about his own feelings by asking her to stop doing prostitution on the side, and then realized he wasn't romantically interested in her and went "never mind not telling you shit about my feelings, then." Like her tears are about feeling stupid for thinking he liked her like that, then deciding (in contrast to John later) that Tommy might not even be capable of feelings like that (though that's also wrong).
The thing is, Lizzie also agrees to help Tommy anyway, and not because she thinks she has to. Her tone if anything conveys she is doing him a favor by lending her experience. "Just hand me the fucking chalk" and even more vehemently, "Do not talk to me about money now. Not right now, I swear I'll break this glass in your eyes." Like. You don't threaten to blind your boss (who happens to be the leader of a gang called the peaky blinders) because you're afraid of crossing him. This is the shit you say to your asshole friend/situationship because he's pissing you off but yeah fine. FINE, asshole. (And of course, this agreement was also predicated on her trusting him when he said it would go no further than luring the guy). The "Irish business" was so on the down low that only Polly knew what it entailed. Arthur and John didn't know any details (only ever heard it called "the Irish business"). Then at the derby, Tommy trusted her with it, and Lizzie's not an idiot. She would have put two-and-two together that this was the Irish business. So he didn't love her, but he trusted her with a secret government sponsored assassination plot his own brothers didn't know about.. and he told her when he hired her he needed someone who could look the other way, and goddammit it—he knew she'd agree to help him when he was in a bind. The thing is, it's made extremely clear Tommy is oblivious to her romantic interest in him at this stage. He knew she'd help him if push came to shove (with an assassination NO ONE BUT POLLY KNEW ABOUT) not because he thought she was some dumb lovesick puppy he could use, but because she understands sex in a very similar way to him, and she has a similar emotional wavelength to him, and she's Lizzie, and it's simply a fact of the universe that he can trust her to help him. And she clocked that and was like "Fuckkkk you. FINE."