Warning: Contains spoilers for Peaky Blinders season 6, episode 2.
Polly Gray's (Helen McCrory) death, four years after the events of season 5. Tommy is planning his biggest scheme yet and promises to leave the Peaky Blinders afterward, but his daughter Ruby (Orla McDonagh) is coughing blood, and Tommy's health appears to be rapidly declining as well.
Peaky Blinders season 6 episode 1 ended with Tommy rushing back to the UK after Lizzie (Natasha O’Keeffe) told him Ruby was sick. Tommy was scared for his daughter when he learned she had visions (and was muttering the Romani phrase "Tikna Mora O Beng"). The following episode, a doctor visits the Shelby home and gives Ruby the all-clear, but it's Tommy who starts worrying Lizzie as he has a violent seizure in the bathroom. Incidentally, he tells Lizzie he experienced another seizure on the boat back to the UK, right after he heard of Ruby's illness. Ruby's visions return by the end of the episode, and it's evident her illness is entwined with her father's, as she utters "it's the grey man. Says he's coming for me. And he's coming for Daddy as well."
Indeed, Tommy's seizures in Peaky Blinders season 6 episode 2 come hand-in-hand with the visions he would experience during his opium-induced sleep in season 1. Tommy relives the moment he fought the green-eyed Prussian cavalryman in the French trenches—a moment which has haunted him ever since World War I—and that can be interpreted as the source of his PTSD. Tommy's vision-seizures return just as Ruby gets sick, and as he is juggling extremely complicated relations with Oswald Mosley (Sam Claflin), Jack Nelson (James Frecheville), Alfie Solomons (Tom Hardy), and even Winston Churchill (Neil Maskell) and President Roosevelt. It's a very stressful time for Tommy Shelby, and the seizures might be just the tip of the iceberg, with a much more dangerous illness hiding in the background.
What Tommy's Visions Mean & Why They're Back
If Tommy's plan in Peaky Blinders season 6 succeeds, he will have eradicated fascism from the UK, avenged Polly’s murder, made more money than his family would ever need, and earned his long-awaited escape from Shelby Company Limited. But Tommy is juggling the IRA (via Charlene McKenna's Laura McKee), Boston gangster Jack Nelson—who is scouting the country's potential for fascism on behalf of President Roosevelt and Nazi-sympathizer Oswald Mosley—all the while actually promising Alfie the opium. As Ada (Sophie Rundle) perfectly sums it up for Tommy: “You’re still looking for trouble big enough to kill you.”
Although Tommy is clearly looking for a way out, he keeps drawing himself back into the trenches, his Prussian soldier visions exemplifying just that. Even Jack Nelson sees his proclivity to self-destruction stating, "Every war hero I ever met, they're just someone who wanted to get themselves killed." Tommy's stratagems in season 6 are more dangerous than ever, his quest for vengeance and for going out with a bang trumping any self-preservational instincts. But his seizures come as a warning: unless he wraps his business soon, Tommy will be the master of his own demise. The visions are back to let Tommy know this is his last chance to "let the Peaky Blinders rest."
What Illness Does Tommy Have In Peaky Blinders Season 6?
In Peaky Blinders season 6 episode 1, Tommy sees Ruby after her "Tikna Mora O Beng" episode, which most closely translates as "daughter, death/friend, the Devil". Ruby seems fine the next episode, until its very end when her fever spikes to above 100 and she coughs up blood, with the doctor even warning Tommy and Lizzie to stay away from her. Ruby's worrying symptoms suggest that she has contracted tuberculosis, which wasn't vaccinated against in the UK until World War II. Tuberculosis spreads easily and the doctor knows this, so it's likely Tommy is already suffering from TB himself.
But Tommy's violent seizures may also signal a brain tumor. This would come as no surprise, as Tommy once had a fractured skull and serious brain hemorrhage in season 3—not to mention a tough recovery in season 3 episode 5. Tommy dying in Peaky Blinders season 6 looks ever more likely, as he ignores all warnings (literal and symbolic) and heads towards a very dangerous conflict with a potentially tragic end. Tommy refusing to put out his cigarette in Alfie's basement is a pretty obvious way of pointing out his self-destructive behavior.
Tommy Dying Of Illness Suits His Perfect Ending Better
Roma culture has always been an important part of the Shelbys' lives. Although Lizzie wants to hear none of it, Tommy insists that Ruby might be the victim of a gypsy curse in season 6. He demands Johnny Dogs' (Packy Lee) wife put a black madonna around Ruby's neck and it seems to solve the problem, but in episode 2, Ruby's illness and subsequent visions only get worse, with Tommy calling for Esme's help. The "grey man" Ruby mentions could be Michael Gray (Finn Cole), who will definitely be coming for Tommy as he holds him responsible for his mother's death.
But the grey man could also be the Prussian solder in Tommy's visions. He was Tommy's first kill, and can very well be seen as a symbol for the retribution Tommy has had coming for a while. As Ruby draws images of the man with the green eyes from her first vision, Tommy tells Jack Nelson his first victim was a green-eyed Prussian soldier, thus solidifying the connection between Ruby's vision and Tommy's downfall. Peaky Blinders is known for its slightly supernatural dimension—Grace's death being amongst the best examples—and it would be fitting for Tommy to fall victim to the very curses he is trying to protect his daughter from.
In Peaky Blinders season 6, Tommy is left without his rock, Polly Gray. She was there to offer Tommy personal and professional advice, and she was the only one with better knowledge of Roma culture than Tommy. Now, Tommy is truly vulnerable, and the dismissal of his seizures means he will most likely be the master of his own demise. This is fitting for Tommy, who has always been one step ahead of his enemies (with one exception: Mosley) but has never been aware of his limitations.
Peaky Blinders releases new episodes every Sunday on BBC.