The use of sounds like those can have multiple meanings that complete each other, whether you interpret it through the characterâs thoughts and beliefs, state inside the storyline or the hints the director wants to communicate to the viewers. There isnât definitely one clear meaning behind the breath sound effect and I think itâs deliberately like that to be unsettling, but I have personally interpretated its presence in two different complementary ways:
1. Tommyâs perception of himself - the interpretation that could be linked with the hallucinations of Grace is the threads binding the breath sound effect with the curse Tommy thinks he carries within himself.
Grace hallucinations are caused partly by the fact Tommy rehashes Graceâs death, the cursed sapphire representing at the same time his guilt and the idea that he is the curse. The latter slowly imposed itself and got ingrained in Tommyâs mind as his mental health decreased. âAnyone you touch. Which means anyone I touch.â - Ada, without knowing it, reinforced this idea in S5, after Ben Youngerâs death.
An ungraceful line of gothic ghost Grace in S5 supports this idea: âit wasnât the blue stone Tommy, it was you.â. Tommy feels responsible for the death of Grace, Ruby, Polly, Ben Younger, John, etc. The breath sound effect is often present in the event of these deaths. When Grace appears, the breath accompanies her presence. Itâs generally when Tommy is suicidal and she pushes him to end it, to end him and the curse he spreads to anyone he touches.
This potential meaning is more evident in S5 with Graceâs apparitions, despite being very present as well in S6 in the scenes around Rubyâs sickness and death.
âWho brought this on? We brought on this curseâ; âI will undo the many wrongs that I have doneâ; â[âŠ] Ruby will be well if I make amendsâ; âI will make it go away. I will strike a bargain.â - there is this notion that he is soiled and could make up for the bad he inflicted.
On the same note, some sounds of breath are heard at the beginning of Tommyâs encounter with Diana, when he drinks his first mouthfoul of alcohol after 4 years of soberness, the discovery of his (fake) sickness, which could all be seen as events which are further tarnishing / soiling his integrity, and therefore strengthening the curse that is his person.
Throughout S6, he keeps saying he has no limitations, but he in fact keeps crossing them. Heâs just reached a state where it doesnât matter anymore.
2. The audienceâs perception the director may have wanted to communicate - the sound is heard generally in events of high stress for Tommy (and the viewers since we follow him so closely): deaths of Tommyâs loved ones, his daughterâs sickness, meetings with the fascists (Mosley and/or Diana, and even once Nelson), before or during seizures (that I suspect are partly triggered by high stress). We hear the breath sound multiple times during the planned assassination of Mosley and when it fails as well. Even his first mouthful of wine can be catalogued as a high stress element for Tommy. Heâs been sober for 4 years because alcohol was probably worsening his condition on some aspects. He knows how hard itâd been to stop and how easily he could spiralled down again at that point, especially after his daughterâs death. Itâs a bit like jumping from a bridge and not knowing how deep the fall can go before you crash.
He needs the numbness the alcohol provides like he needed the numbness of the opium because his feelings overwhelm him. The breath sounds can be the manifestation of these (sometimes conflicting) feelings: anxiety, fear, guilt, tension, restlessness, regret, frustration, confusion, dejection, distress, etc.
Tommy had been numb for years after the war and Tommyâs feelings are resurfacing after all these traumatic events. There were all in a box he buried inside him and the shell of it is slowly cracking. Itâs overflowing and canât stop once the dam broke.
The choice of these repetitive breaths isnât trivial though. This is a sound that could symbolize panic attacks, difficulties to breath, asphyxia / suffocation, on top of possibly Graceâs last breaths.
I think these two interpretations are intertwined. Itâs confusing because itâs a retransmission of how chaotic and muddled it is inside Tommyâs mind, but also how it perpetually goes round in circles (âitâs just myself talking to myself about myselfâ).
(thanks to the list made by @daisybrekker, it was very helpful to check my memories of the scenes)
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