Love your blog and all your posts! What do you make of the scene when Tatiana tells Tommy the sapphire is cursed and nothing on earth would make her wear it? Is she just playing into his fears?
Ahhh the cursed sapphire... the origin point of Tommy's eventual religious delusions (depending on how you interpret things). I think Tatiana's fucking with him a bit, but she is serious in a way as well.
Tatiana: Does your wife know that the sapphire she's wearing has been cursed by a gypsy?
Tommy: What did you say?
Tatiana: Nothing on earth would make me wear it.
It's just that Tommy interprets her quite literally at first. But the gypsy who has cursed the sapphire who Tatiana is talking about... is Tommy.
Like I think Tatiana pretty quickly clocks that Grace doesn't really know much about what Tommy's up to (though she's trying to figure it out). And Tatiana knows (from how pissed he was the night of his wedding when she showed up) that Tommy's trying to keep a firm separation between his personal life and the business. She probably views the attempt to maintain that separation between business and family/marriage as a fools errand (especially considering how her family is). It's possible she might have a hunch that Tommy, being gypsy, might get paranoid about a sapphire being literally cursed by a gypsy, but we know she knows that he's scared of what his business could do to his fragile little happy life that the business isn't supposed to touch.
Like the sapphire is a jewel representing the wealth Tommy's work with the Russians can provide to Grace (why it's worth it), but it's also a sign of commitment and love (like a wedding ring)... and idk... to me it's like... her saying "The wealth you provide and the commitment you provide to this woman... no one who knew what you are would ever agree to be bound to you like that."
The distinction between the jewel being literally cursed versus Tommy being “cursed” is expounded on well in the following episode imo, when Tommy brings the sapphire to Madam Boswell:
Tommy: Would you take it?
Madam Boswell: I'd take it.
Tommy: Would you wear it?
Madam Boswell: Why would I not?
Tommy: That's my question... my wife was wearing it the night she was shot... and... I lie awake at night, at four in the fucking morning, and I blame myself for her death. I pushed some people too far.
Madam Boswell: You want me to tell you this jewel is cursed... and then her death won't be all your fault.
Tommy: If I believed in priests... I would confess and ask for forgiveness... but all I have is you, Madam Boswell. I have a son, I have a business... I need to get some sleep.
Madam Boswell: It is cursed. I feel its curse burning through my hand.
It's pretty clear that Madam Boswell doesn't actually think the jewel is cursed. In fact, that's the exact conclusion Tommy comes to—that she lied to him to give him comfort.
Tatiana also clarifies her meaning at the end of the season, after killing the guy who made the sale of the jewels legal:
Tatiana: At home, these jewels saw way worse... that's why they are all cursed... as are we, Mr. Shelby.
So yeah. I think what we're supposed to get... is that Tatiana was saying Tommy is “cursed”.
Pointedly, this idea of Tommy's wives being cursed through marriage to him (the jewels, the wealth he provides because of how it is acquired) comes back up in 5x04, when Mosley comes by Tommy's office, and basically straight up tells Tommy that he wants to fuck Lizzie and expects Tommy to give him permission. Tommy is NOT going to let that happen and tells him to fuck off, but when Mosley leaves... Tommy starts spiraling and contemplating suicide by gun to the head, specifically triggered by the threat to Lizzie's safety. I talked about this here, but TL;DR—he starts hallucinating Grace (for the first time without having taken laudanum first) bleeding out from her gunshot wound, the sapphire in her hand, saying,
Hallucination!Grace: It wasn't the blue stone, Tommy... It was you. It was you.
In season 6, the idea of Tommy being cursed has turned into full religious delusions where he jumps from saying "We have brought on this curse" to gunning down Madam Boswell's fam because Esme (who could tell he was Very Unwell) was like "Yeahhhh they totally put a curse on you, Tommy. Give me some gold dust?" Shifting blame to the stone becomes a way of displacing terrible guilt off himself... when he's not to blame for Ruby's condition either! She contracted a disease and that's not his fault! He didn't make that happen! But he feels like he is responsible because he is quite literally delusional, and by buying into Esme's idea that Ruby was cursed by the sapphire/other gypsies, he thinks he can assuage his feelings of guilt (except he can't and it only makes everything in his life worse).
