Gold
Episode 3 of Peaky Blinders Season 6 starts with Ruby being raced into hospital. Tommy Shelby is urged to hand over his daughter, who undergoes some tests to find out what’s wrong. It turns out Ruby has a tubercular infection in her left lung. Thankfully the doctors have caught it early and will do more tests to try and help cure Ruby. However, the catch here is that she’ll have to become more ill first before there’s even a hope for her to recover. It’s a horrible disease and something that threatens to completely tip Tommy over the edge. He’s still clinging to the notion that this is the gypsy curse, and decides to try and strike a bargain with Esme to save Ruby’s life. Tommy rides out to meet the Lee family, meeting with Esme. Apparently she knew he’d be coming, having heard rumblings of him asking about. She got curious, and in private Tommy admits Polly was the one who told her to find Esme. At least in his dreams anyway. Esme is shocked to hear she’s passed, eventually admitting that there are a lot of people who hate Tommy, with lots of “grieving and hate in the shadows.” In order to figure out what’s happening, Tommy puts his trust in Esme who leads him off to a “wild place.” In Tommy’s absence, he tasks Ada with stepping up to the plate for the next five days. That’s tough going because the first course of action comes from a game of verbal chess with Diana, Oswald’s wife. The pair trade scathing assessments of one another, with Ada more than holding her own. When Oswald arrives, he’s not exactly thrilled at Tommy’s absence but does perk up when he learns Tommy has arranged an invitation for him and Jack Nelson. Ada eventually reveals where Tommy is, going on to admit she’s done some research on Nelson’s past too, including how his siblings actually succumbed to Consumption in the past. With the conversation swinging in her favour, at least for now, the invitation is given which happens to be an extension to Tommy’s place for a more formal meeting. Ada arrives at Shelby Limited next, immediately slinging her weight around, making some changes. Arthur has locked himself in the safe while Ada has her reservations about Isiah, deciding to test him. That comes from sending him out to Liverpool to deal with a particularly bad leak. The opium in storage at the Salthouse docks has been stolen, organized to be taken by the bucketful by a union convenor by the name of Haydn Stagg. Ada has instructions on where to find him – and when. Isaih is to take Arthur with him, who’s only 10 days sober. Wandering into a warehouse full of opium isn’t exactly going to be easy for Arthur. But then Arthur’s name is well-known in these parts and reputation alone should be enough to shake things up. Isaih? Well, he’s been making private bets on the side and keeps a calm head when Ada challenges him about it. Isaih invites his cousins from Alum Rock along for the ride, promising to look after Arthur as they show up to rustle some feathers. Arthur is still unhinged but he remains focused on finding Haydn Stagg. And find him they do. However, Arthur is compromised by Haydn who brings up his addiction and how word of this has traveled up the canal. Haydn has been where Arthur is and offers him some words of wisdom, “walk like it’s a flat plain rather than a mountain.” Unfortunately Arthur takes his words to heart and decides not to physically beat the man after all. He orders a frustrated Isaih to leave with him without any punishment for his actions. Given how ruthless we know the Peaky Blinders can be, this is surely going to have some serious repercussions. Out in the mountains, Tommy is taken on his wild goose chase to a graveyard, and to the grave of a young girl called Connie Barwell, who died when she was 7. Esme believes it’s her mother, Evadne Barwell, who has cursed Tommy, waiting until Ruby turned the age of her deceased daughter to inflict maximum punishment. The reason? Well apparently to “know how it feels.” Tommy flies completely off the handle, desperate to bargain for Ruby’s life, even offering £10k to Esme in order to do so. Esme wants gold though, given money is uncertain and can lose value at any moment. And of course, Tommy knows exactly where to find it. When Tommy shows up at the hospital, Lizzie is there waiting for him. She’s furious, pointing out that Tommy wasn’t there…when Ruby died. At 5.17pm.
The Episode Review
This is the moment that Tommy Shelby completely snaps. His whole wild goose chase this episode work as a sort of visual metaphor for Tommy not being there for his family when they really need him despite trying to do everything he can to make them feel safe. It’s quite the bitter taste of irony, and something we’ve seen numerous times over the seasons – but not quite with this level of repercussions. You can see the Shelby family start to slip, ever so slightly, every single episode and there’s a really depressing and poignant tone hanging over a lot of this. Arthur is once again struggling but this time there’s no Polly to straighten him out. The only saving grace for the family actually comes from Ada, who’s really the only sane one left in the Shelby clan now! With John and Polly dead, the whole empire is coming tumbling down and I genuinely can’t see how this one is going to end well. Will there be a happy ending for Thomas Shelby? Or is everything destined to fall to dust?
