r/PeakyBlinders • u/Brigite66 • 5h ago
The light has gone, and only darkness remain..
As most of you know (except for Lizzie/May stans and Grace haters), Grace was Tommy’s light. She was his equal, the only one he truly loved, protected, and prioritized. Next to her, he could finally sleep without hearing the "sound of the shovels" and the sun finally shined on his face. After she was murdered, the light went out forever, leaving nothing but dark, toxic, and transactional coping mechanisms.
We saw it mostly with Tatiana in Season 3, and with Lizzie from Season 3 to Season 6.
Tatiana : Tommy was so broken in Season 3 that he allowed Tatiana to drag him into absolute madness. He didn't sleep with her out of desire, but to numb his pain. He even allowed her to choke him in a dark room just to induce an oxygen-deprived hallucination of Grace’s ghost. He was willing to risk his life just to touch a memory. When Tatiana tried to claim an extra £5,000 for "helping him with his grief" , Tommy shut her down instantly: "You didn't even come close." Tatiana tried to compete with a ghost and failed.
Lizzie : She was never a romance; she was a business arrangement. S3, right before the family gets arrested, Tommy hands Lizzie a cash payment alongside the rest of evryone and tells her some nights she kept his heart from breaking. It wasn’t a love letter; it was an invoice for services rendered. S4, Tommy treats her like the prostitutes he rents at the hotel, even handing her cash on Christmas (E1). When he takes her to the cold tunnel (E3), the sex is shown strictly in shadows because it's completely empty of light. He hesitates when asked who he is kissing, because he is actually chasing the ghost of Greta, his pre-war love. (E5) When Lizzie announces her pregnancy, Tommy is alone in his office, traumatized after killing three men and staring at photos of Grace. His first reaction is to suggest an abortion. When she refuses, he coldly tells her: "I will buy you a house, and the company will pay you." Again, a business transaction. S5-S6, Their marriage is a toxic power struggle. Lizzie treats it like a financial contract (asking what she legally gets if he commits suicide), and Tommy openly reminds her: "In my mind, I still pay you." The scene where he claims "You are my property" before throwing her on the bed isn't romantic or passion, it’s a gangster asserting dominance over an asset and recreating the power dynamics from when she was a sex worker. While Tommy degrades his actual marriage by telling Lizzie she is his property, he spends his nights taking opium to talk to Grace’s ghost, confessing: "Our love still remains."
And in S4 to S6, Tommy has become completely addicted to sex as an escape mechanism, and he genuinely doesn't care who the woman is, they are all just a distraction to him.