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skania · 1 year

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THOUGHTS ON TOMMY & LIZZIE IN S6 (PART 2)

So this has been in my drafts for almost a year now. I kept putting it off because I wanted to rewatch the season to write my thoughts more coherently, but by now I think that’s just not happening so I’m posting it as is lol

Part 1 HERE

Once again, this post will contain tons of images, and spoilers for the entirety of Season 5 and Season 6. So, read at your own discretion!

So where I left off, Tommy and Lizzie had chosen to overcome Ruby's death and all the pain and stay together.

Tommy even makes her another promise, that he will change and change for good. For real this time. Just not yet.

The thing is, Tommy is right when he says has no limitations. He doesn't know when to stop. So, he doesn’t stop to think that other people may have a limit to how much they are willing to put up with. He figures that as long as he can keep providing for them, that as long as he can stay at the top of the chain, people will stay. That they will need him.

I feel like this is the crux of his behavior towards Lizzie, but when it comes to her, it’s not about the money. In his lowest moments, Tommy likes to pretend that it is; like in the S3 where he tries to give her money only for Lizzie to refuse to take it. Or in S5, when he lashes out saying that everyone needs him, she included.

But what keeps Lizzie by his side isn’t his money, it’s loyalty. It’s her love for him. Tommy knows this. It’s the reason why, whenever he does something he knows she will not like, Tommy feels guilty but still expects her to put up with it. And really, Lizzie has put up with so much throughout the series that Tommy's expectations aren't unfounded.

Until Diana happens.

Diana

The powerful thing about this scene is that all at once, Tommy knows that he has gone too far. He knows this is something he can’t ask Lizzie to overlook. Something she may not be able to forgive.

What Lizzie feared has come true. He has crossed the line.

The focus on his wedding ring tells us all we need to know, but what follows is just as striking.

His guilt, his panic is such that he feels trapped. He is back in those tunnels in France, a man with a death sentence and no way out.

And it’s all because he has stained Lizzie yet again.

Honestly, there’s a lot to say about Tommy’s dynamic with Lizzie. Tommy keeps most of his relationships transactional, but what Lizzie asks of him—what she deserves of him—is something Tommy doesn’t know how to give. I think this is part of what makes Lizzie get under his skin the way she does.

She loves him thoroughly and honestly and Tommy doesn’t know what to do with that because he doesn’t love himself, so he doesn’t know how to love her right, either. But—and that’s the thing—he wants to try. He sincerely wants to be a better man.

This is why he has such a visceral reaction to sleeping with Diana. Lizzie deserves better, she deserves so much better and Tommy is painfully aware of this. The fact that he was even capable of doing this to her makes him sick, because what does that say about the kind of man he is?

He changes the combination to the safe after this.

It’s not even because of his sickness, but because of this betrayal. He doesn’t want Lizzie to know. He doesn’t want to hurt her. Not yet. Not when he doesn’t have results that could perhaps, somehow, make her understand why he did it.

The saddest thing is that back when Tommy took Lizzie to that hotel room, he offered to let Lizzie into some of his plans, and she rejected his offer. She said she knew enough, because she was hurt at finding herself at the top of Tommy’s regrets. But now that she understands he doesn’t regret her, Lizzie is willing to give him another chance. She wants to know again.

But now more than ever, Tommy can’t let her in. All he can give her is a promise that he hopes he will be able to keep. That once everything is done, he will bare himself to her, sins and all.

The way he even restates his promise to her during the dinner shows the importance he is giving to it. Even now, Tommy thinks there’s time to make things right.

Of course, nothing ever goes the way he plans, so Diana comes in and the bomb explodes.

This scene is tragic but it’s so funny at the same time. He doesn’t even dare to look at Lizzie when Diana reveals they slept together. He tries to but immediately looks forward again. How sad is that lol

He is literally seething after Lizzie leaves. These two bastards humiliated Lizzie — and doomed his marriage — because he himself gave them the ammo.

And then Mosley goes and twists the knife right where it hurts.

How ironic! Tommy’s entire conflict with Lizzie this season is the entire opposite! The irony is not lost on Tommy, he kept to wine despite the american’s insistance that he switch to whiskey, but after this he does ditch the wine to pour himself a glass of whiskey lmao

This exchange pretty much summarizes everything Tommy has come to realize about himself and Lizzie this season.

Tommy tries and tries to do the right thing, but his means are always wrong. Sleeping with Diana is just the latest in a list of fuck-ups, and he has come to realize that even though he would like to believe the opposite, he can’t be what Lizzie deserves him to be because he does belong at that table.

And that’s the saddest ending.

The ending he has brought on himself.

Lizzie’s goodbye

It's funny because Tommy is an inherently selfish person. He is greedy and self-centered and single-minded. Despite having no plans of making her his wife, he tricked Lizzie into not marrying John in Season 1 and made sure she wouldn't date Angeal in Season 3.

What this all comes down to is that Tommy is caught in a hell of his own making but he's not selfless enough to let her go, because he wants her by his side.

Hell, if it weren't for his sickness, I bet Tommy would've found a way to convince Lizzie to stay, even after Diana. But his sickness and his lack of future (she doesn’t deserve what I’ll become) give Tommy the last push he needs to finally put Lizzie first and to free her from the curse (him), so he lets her go without a fuss.

The tragedy in all of this, is that this is the first time Tommy has been selfless about her. This is the first time he has truly put her first. But Lizzie doesn’t know this, because she never found out why the bomb was ticking.

This is literally the biggest act of love Tommy has ever done for her, but she doesn’t even know it. To her, his acceptance probably only confirms that he doesn’t love her enough.

Truly tragic from beginning to end.

The Rings

This was one of my favorite details this season. She takes hers off, but Tommy keeps his on until the bitter end. He wears it until the very day he intends to die.

Even though Lizzie has left him, Tommy keeps the reminder of their marriage on him. He chooses to stay married to her until his last moments.

Which is no surprise because even during that plane ride, Lizzie and all the ways he failed her kept weighting on his mind.

Right now, In this Moment

I wanted to wrap this up with this scene, because holy hell did we have to wait for it.

In Part 1, I talked about muy favorite bits: the parallels behind Lizzie knowing the combination to the safe, and Tommy saying that she married a man and she married a curse. But there’s something else that really stood out to me about Tommy’s wording, and it’s the way he choses to frame his long-time-coming confession.

I feel like this has so many layers; the wording is utterly deliberate and means a lot of things at once. Tommy chose that place because they have no history there; unlike Arrow House, there are no painful memories there. It isn’t tainted by their past and their mistakes. It’s a blank canvas where it’s just him and her.

But there’s more to it than that. Tommy dreads what he will become. Not only because of his business, but most of all, because of his sickness.

He fears he will have to crawl, grow insane and helpless. A few months from now, he may not even be aware of who he is and of the way he feels about her.

So I feel that he is essentially telling her: for the record, in this moment, when I am of sound mind, and in this room, where you and I are all that matter, I want you to know that I love you. I wanted you to know this, while I can still say it. Please remember it.

And of course, Lizzie knows at once that something is wrong. That Tommy is like a bomb waiting to explode, because why else would he be admitting that he loves her now? Why else would he be expressing it with such ominous wording?

So all in all, Season 6 is just really bittersweet because it’s like Tommy and Lizzie didn’t even have a fighting chance. He was dead because of Polly, dead because of Ruby, dead because of business, dead because of his illness; and then Lizzie is gone.

Throughout Peaky Blinders, we saw Tommy fight his love for Lizzie, we saw him accept it, then we saw him admit it; but we never got to see them happy the way we should have. There was always something bigger than them going on, and it’s a huge shame.

In all honesty, I have no idea what is expecting them in the movie. In a way, I think Tommy knows that finally letting her go is the best thing he has ever done for her. In that way, their chapter may truly be closed.

But if he does manage to change, to truly change for good and become a man worthy of having her by his side, then I’d like for him to think he deserves to fight for her. I do think that despite everything, Lizzie would likely give him another chance.

Because for better or worse, Lizzie loves Tommy Shelby. And while it was often for the worse, Tommy Shelby loves her too.

#peaky blinders #lizzie shelby #tommy shelby #tommylizzie #tv: peaky blinders #to the anon that asked me about this post a while ago #I'm so sorry it took this long!#I think I've played myself #back when I started writing these posts about them I didn't even ship them #I just really enjoyed their writing in S5 so I wanted to dissect it #but now I'd definitely rather they end up together lmao

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blues-valentine · 2 years

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Do do you think Tommy loved Lizzie? Sometimes I go back and forth with that.

This will be a long one. Yes. I think he loved her.

I find interesting how in this fandom there’s only black or white answers to that question. It’s yes or not. He either loved her as a family member or loved her romantically as if those are the only ways you could love someone. I think he loved her romantically but it wasn’t immediate. The reason why I feel people have such a hard time with it it’s because Tommy's love for Grace was drenched in the infatuation/honeymoon phase (and idealization). She was the first woman he had feelings for after the war so there was a lot of romantization to it. Then, his guilt and mourning over losing her and feeling like it was his fault makes it look like Grace was the only woman he could ever love. There’s not just one love of your life.

To answer that question I need to point out the differences in which each romantic interest of Tommy's are framed – it’s important.

Greta was Tommy’s first love. We learn briefly that he stayed with her until she died out of illness. Then, he went to war. We learn in a few occasions he used to be a very decent boy, even romantic and lively. Then there was Grace after the war. He was already dealing with PTSD, substance abuse, etc – she was the "light" he made up in his head. As I said, there was a lot of projection involved there from both sides. Now we move to May – I think Tommy liked her, a mutual attraction if you will, and while I liked their dynamic a lot and I believe he could’ve grown to love her, you could tell that they wouldn’t have lasted because of their social class differences (and Tommy’s work) would always be an issue (similar with Grace). In 405, he tells her "your people" when she questions him about his job, that’s already a distinction he is making about them. Both May and Grace wanted to be with a different Tommy because I don’t think they truly understood why Tommy wanted power and social status.

I don’t count Tatiana or Jessie Eden as love interest because they were more like business assets for Tommy. He slept with them in exchange of something and called it a day. Jessie Eden was interesting – I hate how they made this real historical figure into just another woman Tommy gets into bed. The dynamic should have been left as this woman that imposes Tommy’s views and isn’t charmed by his advances. With Jessie we see Tommy pulling the charming card even thought we know it’s an act. I don’t think she would’ve been able to handle Tommy in a romantic capacity and I don’t think they cared about each other as anything but a political asset to their cause.

Lizzie is a whole another story. She was a constant in every single one of those relationships. I always wondered why Tommy gravitated towards her in every occasion but it’s quiet simple. She was born the same class as Tommy so if there’s someone that knows what being poor is like – it’s her. The conversation between them on 601 about Johnny teaching Ruby how to steal and them smiling about it feels intimate because they know what stealing for food feels like. As opposite to Grace (and sometimes even May) there was not pretense in their relationship, he wasn’t regulating himself to be with her. Out of all of them, she was the closest to his business (illegal and otherwise). She knew the raw side of his business and still wanted him. The thing that drives Lizzie mad on S5 isn’t his business but the distance he created between them. He could’ve trusted her as an active asset to his business like he does with Polly but he couldn’t and i don’t think it was lack of trust because after all, she’s the name successor on his will but I think at this point he wanted to drive people away and was dealing with lack of trust on his own people.

I think Tommy always cared for Lizzie. He obviously was attracted to her and their relationship was so much more than just sex (306 speech told us that) but Tommy gets increasingly more detached and cold as the seasons go on. I do think he wanted Lizzie with him when he remembered Greta (even if he himself didn’t know it at the time) and I think he ultimately married her because she was pregnant and he is a family man at heart. The thing with them is that they never had a honeymoon period. A lot of people think he married her to build an image for his political party but everyone on Birmingham knows Lizzie was a prostitute (and it gets brought up again by Mosley on S6) so I believe it was more for responsibility than image for politics.

I didn’t get the feeling that Tommy loved Lizzie until season 6. On season 5, he was arguably in one of his worst moments mentally. I think he was very possessive of her mostly because he hated the idea of Mosley having something he thinks belongs to him. It was more about power than Lizzie, even thought I still believe he would have protected Lizzie with everything if she was in harms ways by Mosley or others. Season 6 created a level of intimacy that lacked on season 5 (except for that one scene on 505). I felt Tommy was actually trying to appease Lizzie, there was a quiet intimacy between them, he interacted with her as if there was an actual partnership to some degree. Yes, I do think Tommy loved her. I believed him on 605. The problem here is: Tommy realized he loved Lizzie when he knew he was losing her. She has always been there with him. She’s always been a constant. In the whole hotel scene he was trying to connect and even acknowledges "now it’s just you and me" because that’s always been a thing for him but then she learned he slept with Diana so this time he knew he lost her for good. It was when all the realization came to him but it’s late to fix it. I believe he could’ve fought for her and their marriage if he wasn’t under the false pretense that he was dying and he wasn’t going to put Lizzie and Charlie into a situation where they’d have to take care of him. Tommy is prideful. Letting her go was an act of love. The tragedy of their relationship is that he found out way too late that Lizzie was probably the woman he always needed in his life and he tried to show it late.

#asks #peaky blinders #lizzie stark #lizzie shelby #tommy shelby #tommy x lizzie #tommylizzie

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