Why I Love And Hate The Immortal Man As A Tommy And Grace Fan
Let's start with the good- for a movie that distinctly lacked a lot of important characters from the series, there were actually a fair amount of subtle references to Grace. There was:
-the painting in Tommy's writing room was of Grace, as confirmed by the artist who painted it.
-Tommy still has his tattoo of his, Grace's, and Charlie's initials on his left bicep, next to his heart.
-Tommy says in the Garrison that "music in pubs is always a bad idea" with a sad look on his face, connecting it to memories of Grace.
-Kaulo reads Tommy's palm and sees that his heart has been broken twice, referencing Grace and Greta.
-During Tommy's thought montage, there are nine images of Grace, the most out of all, and specific shots of her getting ready for the Cheltenham races in season 1 were colored in a way to tie them to other shots of Ruby and a white horse which implied that these images were taking place in the afterlife. These images are dark but with a golden sun behind them, implying that they are the light in the dark that Tommy has been waiting for, and particularly that Grace is preparing to meet him again.
-Not only that, but there was also a specific shot of them talking during their wedding dance when Grace was about to ask him to "please not let anything happen tonight" and to "get away from things like this", asking him to eventually leave the bad business behind. This image was set next to the image of Arthur's cap in the car where Tommy killed him and the following image is of Tommy cleansing himself, taken from his own Cheltenham races prep montage. This implies that both of those images represent moments that Tommy feels he must cleanse himself of, and when we examine why he would feel that way of that moment when he's dancing with Grace at their wedding, it can only be because he sees that as the moment when he caused her death. There she was begging him to leave it, asking him to view it as a wedding vow, and he instead promised that there will be no guns in the house and Charles will never see one. This was a very satisfying admission of guilt since previously we have seen so much emphasis on the sapphire, so it was nice to see that he recognized that moment as the true cause of her death and the death of the happy life he'd had but cast away in this moment.
I am very grateful for all of these things and writing them out here makes it sound like they put a whole lot of work in here, so why should I complain at all? The problem I have is that so many of these things were so subtle, so shrouded, that it will be like they didn't exist at all to most people. If you're watching the movie, there is no way to see all of the images in Tommy's thoughts when he's dying, so it will appear to most people, as it did for me when I first watched it, as merely a collection of random memories. There is actually so much meaning and beauty in it, but you have to stop and pause every half second just to see it all, and most people aren't going to do that. The same is true for the painting in Tommy's room, there is no clear shot of it, the closest we can see is when Tommy is pointing a gun at Kaulo, and you can see the painting in the background from the eyes up. Even as a fan, even with comparing the shot with the photo I thought it was based off of, the image of the painting is so blurry that it felt foolish to say for sure that it was Grace. We really did need the artist to confirm it was her because you just cannot 100% tell from the movie. Again, something that if you're a regular audience member, you won't notice at all and it will have no effect on your perception of Tommy or his story.
This is exactly what angers me so much about the movie. Sure, Grace's presence and influence has often been subtly dealt with in previous seasons like 4 and 6, but time was always taken to make it known to the audience. It was never as subtle as a blurry painting in the background. Even in season 6, when Tommy sits under Grace's painting after having slept with Diana Mitford, the camera starts off with a clear shot from the back so that we can see Grace's painting, so that we know the point of him sitting there is to take comfort from it.
Grace has always been treated by the series as hugely important to Tommy and his story. One of the few things that humanized Tommy was his care and love for others, often his family, and more so than anyone Grace. She represented purity, true love, and peace to him, light and warmth, and actual happiness. His devotion to her, even after her death, again, played an important role in showing us the audience that Thomas Shelby is capable of love and his actions, especially in reference to other women, showed how he was unable to move on from her loss.
Every reference to Grace in the movie is incredibly minimized so that many people I've seen review it think that she wasn't mentioned at all. If you were to watch it, you would largely only see two or three images of her in Tommy's last thoughts and maybe get the music in pubs reference or the line about his heart breaking twice- that's it. Clearly that's not doing a good job of showing her importance.
Part of why this feels so disappointing is because it really felt like the show creators were heavily promoting Tommy and Grace before the film's release. The official Peaky Blinders YouTube channel continually released content about them, with at least three video compilations titled 'Tommy and Grace's Epic Love Story'. These videos were often an hour long, showcasing most of their scenes together, and yet they still got hundreds of thousands of views. That shows how popular they are, something that the creators are certainly aware of. I suppose it makes sense now that they would make these complete compilations of them since the movie did not anything that they could include, except maybe the ten second montage. Not only that, but they also created videos of Tommy's Smiles and others which were deliberately tied to Grace and the effect she had on him. As interviews of the cast and writer began, the subject of Grace was brought up, such as how upset the audience was when she died. In videos made to inform the audience about key aspects and characters by the show, Grace was spoken of being Tommy's true love and soulmate, "the person whose memory still haunts him".
And this is what we got for all of that? Even if I had only watched the promotional material and interviews, not having watched the show before, I'd be disappointed that the "love of his life" and "soulmate" isn't specifically mentioned and only got a few thoughts at the end. As a longtime fan, it feels like a huge disappointment,especially when so much time was devoted to a "new love interest", memories of a one-night stand that are presented as romantic, and no sign that Tommy cared at all about the son he had with Grace, instead a whole movie about his other son that he barely knew who he now claims as his "true heir".
I have no doubt that they knew we would interpret the scene in the trailer of two people reaching out for each other in bright sunlight as something that would involve Tommy and Grace, perhaps a reunion scene between them or at least a dream. It wasn't. It was about a one-night stand Tommy had that he reminisced about as he had sex with the dead woman's twin sister- and they tried to portray both as somewhat romantic, somewhat soft and tender- certainly more so than what we saw Tommy have with other women since Grace died. She teases him afterwards, he smiles. Yes, he looked still blank and lost right after, she comments that his smile only shows how sad he's been, but it all just feels like they're trying to straddle a line between trying to stay true to the idea that this isn't a real love interest for fans who wouldn't believe it and still having something of a romance for first time watchers.
One of the things that gets me the most is that throughout the entire show, Tommy's sexual behavior had always been informed by the idea of whether he can be with Grace or not. When he thought he could be or was with Grace, he didn't sleep around and when he thought he couldn't be with her, he did sleep around. Even in season 2, there was a time when he decides to break things off with May just after talking with Grace on the phone because he knew, whatever happened with Grace, he clearly couldn't try to continue a relationship that was so beneath what he had with Grace. After she refuses to continue their affair, he drives to see May to break things off, but as he talks to her, recognizes that this could be an opportunity for him to have a small amount of happiness before he dies (as he thinks Campbell will kill him in a few weeks). Again, this was him believing that he would never see Grace again, and he was still at first resistant to it. But here with Kaulo, she tells him that if he goes to save Duke he can finally have his peace, which he of course interprets as him dying. Not only that, but what with her representing a blackbird because if her name, he recognizes her presence there as the adage Polly used to say, that death would follow a blackbird coming into your house. On top of that, he figures from her calling him "Rom Baro" and connnection to her nephew that her real purpose is to have Duke kill him. That's three solid reasons for him to believe that death will finally be coming soon, and I think he absolutely accepts them. Tommy also believes in the afterlife now. He sees his daughter's ghost as well as others. So how does it makes sense for Tommy to have three signals that he will die soon and therefore will be finally reunited with his long lost love. Grace, yet, he just had to have sex all night with one last woman before then- and thinking of her twin sister while it happens. Romantic, huh? Guess they'll meet up in the afterlife and he can thank her for the proxy sex that "brought him back to life".
I just can't believe how much they promoted Tommy and Grace fans to watch the movie just for us to get this. Zelda gets the hand reaching for each other scene, a bunch of happy, romantic memories, a sex scene, and the person to call Tommy back to himself and to save his son Duke which the whole movie is about- and we get a blurry painting in the background, a few covert references, Tommy not showing a single emotion or word about Charlie and no clear shots of him in the film, and a few seconds of reused images to imply that there will be a reunion which hardly anyone will take the time to understand.
And that's the part that angers me most because given that they did that sequence in such a veiled, secret way- they knew that we Tommy and Grace fans were the only people who would go to such lengths to understand it. We've spent much of Peaky Blinders doing that, combing through scenes to find hidden meanings that go over other people's heads. Given that there was such clear attempts to repromote Tommy and Grace before the release of the film, that signifies how many fans there must be and how much they wanted us to popularize the film.
And this is the thanks we got?
