‘Peaky Blinders’ Creator Steven Knight Says Grace Is No Longer a Savior for Tommy
Thomas Shelby has been through a lot since Peaky Blinders began. He saw unimaginable horrors in World War I and came home with PTSD. Yet, he was still expected to resume a normal life. Grace helped him to come back from the trauma of war. Then, after the pair got married, Grace was shot and killed.
After her death, Grace came back to Tommy in the form of visions. These visions told Tommy very different things than the real Grace. In a recent interview, Peaky Blinders creator Steven Knight stated that Grace is no longer a savior for Tommy. The visions of her have become something a lot more menacing.
Who is Grace in ‘Peaky Blinders’?
Grace arrives in the first season of Peaky Blinders. She becomes a barmaid at Tommy’s pub, The Garrison, while secretly working undercover for the Birmingham Police. After betraying the Peaky Blinders, Grace flees to America and marries an American man. She returns to England in season 2 and begins to see Tommy again. Grace eventually leaves her overseas husband and marries Tommy. The two have a son together named Charles. Then, Grace is shot and killed by an Italian assassin. The hit was meant to kill Tommy, who was then devastated by the loss of his wife.
Grace’s name is symbolic of her role in Tommy’s life
Tommy returned from the war a changed man. At one point, Polly remarked that he was different before, laughing and smiling often. Grace helped Tommy heal from his trauma in some ways. “Tommy was locked up and frozen inside for a long time. Then he met Grace and she changed things, she unlocked the doors a bit,” said Knight in an interview. However, Grace’s death destroyed all that progress. “Then as soon as that happens, it gets closed down again because she gets killed,” Knight continued.
Knight also confirmed that Grace’s name has a symbolic meaning. “She was exactly that, the old Puritan Christian concept of grace,” he stated. “The idea of an unearned saviour coming to save you is exactly what Grace was, and Tommy sort of didn’t deserve it.”
Vision-Grace is no longer a savior
Although Grace was once a kind of savior for Tommy, Knight makes it clear that this ended the moment she died. Tommy’s ghostly visions of Grace are something else entirely.
“She’s the opposite now,” Knight said. “She’s trying to get him over the line, trying to get him to stop, to end it. You could argue maybe she’s doing him a favour by doing that.”
Knight is referencing vision-Grace’s whispers urging Tommy to take his own life. At the end of season 5, Tommy saw this vision of Grace again. He screamed and pressed a gun to his head. If vision-Grace returns in season 6, fans can only assume that she will continue to lead Tommy down a dark path. His hallucinations are sure to mean nothing but trouble.
