This one Peaky Blinders death still hurts me to the core (but it led Tommy Shelby's second reincarnation)

Cillian Murphy's Tommy Shelby remained a troubled man throughout the six seasons of Steven Knight's Peaky Blinders.

Tommy started as a disturbed man plagued by the horrors of WWI, but with Grace's introduction, he started to envision a happy future. Grace was an undercover spy for the Birmingham police and the couple was destined for doom from the beginning.

After Tommy's near-death experience in the Season 2 finale, he makes the most of his reincarnation and marries Grace. However, this happiness does not last long as Grace is fatally shot by Vicente Changretta's men.

I believe Tommy had a chance at redemption after marrying Grace but after her death, he became an even violent man who was hell-bent on revenge. This marked a turning point in his life and led to his second incarnation.

More on Grace's death in Peaky Blinders in our story.

I think Grace's death was a cataclysmic event in Tommy's life in Peaky Blinders

While saying goodbye to a fan-favorite character was certainly hard in Peaky Blinders Season 3, killing off Grace was important for Tommy's character.

As Aunt Polly once revealed to Grace in Season 1, the war changed Tommy for the worse. Not only did he return with war PTSD (like most men), he also became cold and opted for a nihilistic approach towards the world.

However, his views about the world and his vision of the future started changing when he met Grace in Peaky Blinders Season 1. Not only did Tommy begin to become a happy man, but he also envisioned a happy future with the woman he loves and considered leaving the criminal world behind.

While the couple had their roadblocks, they eventually got married and had a baby in Peaky Blinders Season 3. Just when it looked like the antihero was finally moving towards his redemption, Grace was fatally shot and Tommy's world came falling apart.

While Grace's death was hard on fans and Tommy alike, Knight discussed that it was essential to kill off her character (via a Reddit AMA):

"The point with Grace is that if she had lived, Tommy would have been happy. He wasn't meant to be happy."

As the leader of a criminal gang, Tommy was meant to be unhappy and Grace's death was the turning point of his life. While he was already a cold and ruthless gangster, he was starting to soften with Grace's touch. However, all the promises of a happy future and Tommy's redemption came crashing down with Grace's death.

Moments after Grace's death, when the Shelbies are planning on their next move, Tommy's regret, anger and frustration are palpable when he says:

''Since my f*cking wife took a bullet meant for me.''

Tommy's trajectory changed after this scene and Grace's death, and avenging her death from the Changrettas became his life's motive. The once ruthless gangster who planned to leave the criminal world behind was again caught in the fire of revenge.

Grace's death was like Tommy's second reincarnation in Peaky Blinders as he was constantly motivated by his loss. Not only did he blame himself for the tragic fate that befell his wife, but Grace's absence also made his life more bleak and he kept falling into a spiral.

Throughout Peaky Blinders Season 5, Tommy is plagued by Grace's hallucinations which highlight his disturbed state of mind. I wondered when Grace would appear in the show's final season, but she did not.

Grace's absence in the Peaky Blinders final season also has a significant meaning as it suggests that Tommy is finally moving towards his redemption, which will likely be complete in the upcoming feature film The Immortal Man.

While Grace was absent, Tommy rode away on a white horse (named after Grace) into oblivion after supposedly dying to the whole world.

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