#pb 6x04

[peakyblinderstho]

Boats as a metaphor for guilt, escape, power, and powerlessness in PEAKY BLINDERS

[achillescome-down]

the way tommy couldn’t keep eye contact with jack nelson, the way tommy’s eyes kept flicking away and then back away and then back and then finally resting on ruby’s chair. he’s telling himself he’s doing it all for her. but still, he burnt the chair.

[peakyblinderstho]

I burnt her chair. The paint on the wood left a smell in the air. I didn't open a window. I quite like the smell. Not yet... not yet. I have this work left to do because now I know... That I will change. That I have to change... and change for good.

[peakyblinderstho]

"I'm in trouble I'm in trouble I'm in trouble I'm in trouble fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck FUCK"

[peakyblinderstho]

Signals from the camera about Tommy's thoughts and feelings via wedding rings (version with commentary)

PEAKY BLIINDERS 3x04, 3x05, 5x03, 5x04, 6x04, 6x05, 6x06

[peakyblinderstho]

Also I never understood why Tommy burnt Ruby’s chair?! That was weird but at least he took her scarf and kept it when he disappeared

Season 6 Tommy is #Not Well and people already do strange things when they grieve. But there IS a reason. I made gifs here. Ruby’s chair features prominently the night before, when Tommy holds his meeting with Nelson and the Mosley’s at Arrow house. This is the same day of Ruby’s funeral, the same day Tommy flipped out and ran off and killed a bunch of people, and hours after he had a terrible fight with Lizzie, and it culminates in this awful meeting that Tommy does not want to attend (because he hates these people he HATES them) but is forcing himself to attend. He has to have Frances give him a pep talk and have her check to make sure he doesn’t look like he’s about to burst into tears at any second before he goes down there. The thing is, he IS about to burst into tears at any second… and the timing of this meeting is useful in this awful, AWFUL way, because Tommy can say “Doesn’t the fact that I’m here talking to you on the day of my daughter’s funeral prove my commitment?” They STILL make him do a nazi salute, but Nelson tells him after that he’s agreeing to the drug trafficking partnership (the one that’s supposed to set the Shelby’s up for life) because Tommy has proved his commitment in “the most extraordinary way” (and in fact, Nelson has had family members die of TB). Tommy’s eye catches Ruby’s chair while Nelson is staring him down right after telling him essentially that his daughter’s death was strategically useful and Tommy starts fucking losing it. The thing is Diana is staring at him and Oswald is staring at him and Jack is staring at him all like they’re waiting for him to burst into tears at any second, but Ruby’s chair faces him as if she is also there, watching him from that chair, and Tommy CAN’T he just gets up and leaves.

He stays up all night and Lizzie finds him the next morning in his office typing up his recollection of the meeting for Churchill and he’s burnt Ruby’s chair. Like him saying the paint made a smell and he didn’t open the window because “I quite like the smell” also tells us he was Not All There when he did this (and still isn’t). But like he could not look at that chair because every time he looked at it from then on he would have remembered that he held that awful meeting the night of her funeral and was told her death was useful by a room full of snakes.

[peakyblinderstho]

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).

[peakyblinderstho]

On top of every terrible thing that happens in 6x04 (the funeral, killing the Barwells in a very mentally unwell spiral, having a terrible fight with Lizzie about it, the meeting with the fascists), the fact that Arthur comes over to… drink in the wine cellar (???) makes me so… idk.

Like EYE don’t know. Maybe Arthur came over the night of the funeral with the idea of apologizing for not being able to speak for Tommy at the funeral earlier in the day (which he does) and with the idea of trying to be there for him now.

But what he actually does is come over, drag himself down into the wine cellar, and pour himself the worlds slowest most pitiful glass of wine and talk about his addiction and how hard it is to his brother who just lost a child, and when Tommy drinks the wine Arthur poured, tell Tommy he’s going to hurt Arthur’s sobriety.

While Tommy is having one of the worst days of his life, he ends up comforting Arthur in the basement and giving them both a pep talk (that also does not work). And like. I do think Arthur’s presence can be incredibly comforting to Tommy and there are shades of that in the conversation… but more as wistful illustrations of how much Tommy wishes he could depend on him.