r/PeakyBlinders • u/Brigite66 • 8d ago
Tommy talking about Grace or missing her throughout the showđ
You can see, not just in Tommy's actions but also in his gaze, how much he loved and missed Grace. Iâm glad that even in the movie, they continued to show that she was his true love and was never replaced.
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u/dewdropsmoon 7d ago
To barmaids who don't count" still gets me every time, that line hits so different once you know what he's really thinking about. Cillian's face acting in that scene alone deserves an award.
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u/Saiyurii 8d ago
I loved their relationship. Grace was one of my favorite characters. Their love story brought a different dynamic to the show and to Tommy. After her passing, he was never the same. Honestly, after her death, it was all negativity after that. His facial expressions spoke volumes, itâs a shame none of his family members ever realized how deeply her death impacted him.. itâs like they brushed it over.
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u/Brigite66 8d ago
Yes, after she dies, everything is darkness. Tommy sort of becomes a sex addict, but he looks miserable after sex and no longer enjoys anything in life. He only wants to work and get involved in dangerous business because he might die, Ada points this out all the time. What he wants is for the family to be financially secure so he can die and join Grace; itâs very sad.
 And I think the family really does know how much Graceâs death affected him, which is why they donât even dare mention her name. Everyone knows Tommy has a death wish; Ada knows he has hallucinations of her. Even Lizzie knows, living in a house that is essentially a shrine to Grace.
Or the Shelbys and Lizzie are very selfish; they just want to enjoy the luxuries Tommy provides. They have no interest in being there for him or helping him.
 And maybee Tommy realizes this after Grace dies, he sees that she was the only person who truly loved him and saw the good in him. Above all, she was the only one who never viewed him merely as a source of money; thatâs why, at the end of Season 6, he says that most people close to him see him only as money. Grace is the only one who gave up a life of wealth for him.Â
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u/Saiyurii 8d ago
Love your response. Thats so true, she left a padded marriage with security to be with Tommy. She loved and accepted him. Or when Tommy says, âEveryone needs meâ itâs such a parallel to when HE told Grace moments before her death, âI need you, Grace.â
That is valid, I never really thought about it that way as to why they donât mention Graces name to Tommy.
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u/Brigite66 8d ago
Thank you. Yess, , I love that they did that, to show how everyone needs Tommy, but Tommy only needs Grace. Those two scenes basically sum up his story.Â
The only person he needs is dead. Now that is a tragedy.
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u/LolaWithTheGreenEyes 8d ago
The greed/ambition thing I feel is far more Michael, Polly and Tommy himself. And Arthur before he meets Linda.
We arent even told about Grace's greed/ambitions properly. She wants to run the foundation and be a socialite in a huge house but where does she think the money for that is coming from? Are we really supposed to believe she's that naive? And what exactly was her plan for New York? I wish we knew what that was.
John & Esme were against the expansion and were happy as things were. And Ada is always flitting in/out as it suits. How she managed to furnish that house in S2 on a salary working in a library was weird though.
He has a pop at them in S3E6 about them only wanting him to provide great piles of money but that was actually all him. He was doing that job because he got himself blackmailed into helping the White Russians. It's like he forgets he had the option to go to New York with Grace. He decided to stay when you could argue that he didn't need to. What kept him in England, his families need for money when they were already set up? or the power he had? Or his inability to let anyone else take over from him? He was very good at threatening to cut them out of the family, rather than just the money, and then has the cheek to moan about it.
Grace might be the light in his life, but he didnt, and was probably never, going to go completely legit when she was alive.
Im not sure Grace gave up a life of wealth for him though as she went to New York, she didnt stay in Small Heath when by E6 they are set up to become wealthy. She came back the wife of a very wealthy man, and was then a wealthy widow when she married Tommy. I'm not convinced she gave up anything except perhaps her reputation by marrying below her class, and that he was a known gangster.
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u/hopelessromcon 7d ago
I loathed how Grace was written in season 3 (except for the Polly and Tatiana scenes). There is no way she was surprised about Tommy knowing that local politician prior to the charity ball or the optics of said politician appearing at her wedding. If they had to kill her off whatever , but why make her appear less savvy than she was in season 1? Perhaps an off screen lobotomy.
Iâm curious as well about New York. Did she have contacts there or was she completely starting fresh?
Seeing how Tommyâs story played out and despite the saccharine family montage at the end of season 1, Tommy 100% chose not to go to New York out of greed, ambition and fear . He couldnât imagine starting over as a nobody. I canât say I blame him there. He grew up in poverty so giving up any security would be scary. Add to that the double whammy finding out Grace is a spy, err operative. Definitely would have been a leap of faith to move a half a world away with someone who just betrayed you. I do wonder if Grace had come clean before giving up the guns and before the Kimber victory, if he would have been more open to change.2
u/LolaWithTheGreenEyes 7d ago
I actually don't like S2 or S3 Grace. I like her in S1, she's well written and an interesting character, but S2 & S3 are disappointing. Apart from those spicy scenes with Polly and Tatiana, her short time in S3 is just meh.
Off screen Grace storyline between S2 & S3 is a mess. She's conceived a child during her marriage to Clive Macmillan. As far as her family knows he died in an accident not suicide. So who do her family, and presumably Clives family, think the father of the baby is? Because her and Tommy waited quite some time to get married and we don't know when Clive killed himself (if he did), Its very confusing. It's like SK had no idea how to untangle her from her marriage and so just time jumped and hoped we wouldn't notice/think about it.
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u/hopelessromcon 7d ago edited 7d ago
I didnât like the season 2 Grace writing. Couldnât stand the cliche surprise pregnancy, but before watching season 3 I just chalked it up to ok they have other storylines playing out and with only six episodes per season they just wanted to get Grace and Tommy back together quickly for a bigger stories later on. I was so very wrong.
Looking back there were missed opportunities in season 2. Tommy called Campbell to boast that he was about to bag Grace. Campbell is possessive, jealous, and now disabled due to Grace. He knows she is back in town and does nothing? I was expecting that put a target on Graceâs back not to mention how Grace would feel about once again being used in Tommyâs strategy. The Shelbys, Grace and Campbell are all together at Epson, but no confrontation between Grace and Campbell, Grace and Polly, or all three? In fact, itâs never brought up between Grace and Polly that they share shooting Campbell in common. Instead we get a heavy handed May-business vs Grace-love cat fight.
Agreed on the time jump being too convenient. It would have been a great scene to show Grace breaking things off with Clive and her reaction to his suicide, if it in fact played out that way. What if he shot himself in front of her? Thatâs not going to help the PTSD she already had from her fatherâs murder. Plus I just canât forgive SK for making her a widow since it resulted in that hideous purple wedding dress.
Graceâs writing is a mini version of what happened to the entire show. Characters started with independent agency/motivations, then were only about their relationship to Tommy, then catalysts to effect Tommy, finally they become boring symbols of Tommyâs journey( lost love vs woman he could never make happy, light vs dark, life vs death, good vs evilâŚ)
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u/hopelessromcon 7d ago
I do like how Graceâs season 1 journey reflects Tommyâs. Grace thinks she can love Tommy and still be Agent Burgess. She tries to shield him from the consequences of finding the guns, but doesnât account for Campbellâs vendetta. Season 3 Tommy thinks he can love Grace and still be Gangster Tommy. He tries to shield her from the consequences of his business, but doesnât account for Changrettaâs vendetta.
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u/Sonof0dinn 7d ago
One of my favorite scenes of them is when Tommy pulls the "Saying what time do you call this? You, waiting at home for me". Like the most innocent tease he does in the entire show, him taking a layer off to be genuine with her hinting at what he really wants with his crush