Have you heard about the guy who got a call from his doctor and went straight to the hospital
to get checked out?
You haven't, of course.
This is due to the fact that some people have won Olympic gold medals for burying their
heads in the sand.
This avoidance of the inevitable appears to date back at least to 1933 for Thomas Shelby
(Cillian Murphy), who spent much of episode four of Peaky Blinders ignoring urgent calls
from his personal physician.
But first, as we start the second half of the final ever Peaky Blinders TV season, let's
take stock of what's happened thus far (sob).
There are spoilers ahead.
Ruby Shelby, Tommy and Lizzie's (Natasha O'Keeffe) daughter, was re-admitted to the hospital
with tuberculosis in last week's episode.
Tommy went up a mountain in pursuit of his brother John's wife, Esme Shelby Lee (Aimee-Ffion
Edwards), who fanned his anxiety about a gypsy curse being placed on his daughter.
Sister Ada Thorne (Sophie Rundle) held down the fort in his absence, not only stomaching
a nauseating lunch with Oswald Mosley, his mistress Lady Diana Mitford, and the Americans
(cousin-in-law Gina Gray and her uncle Jack Nelson), but also sorting out Liverpudlian
thieves making off with the family's opium stash under the direction of union man Hayden
Stagg (Stephen Graham).
Ruby eventually succumbed to consumption, and we left her sad parents on the Shelby
Sanitorium's rain-splattered stairs.
Tommy pursues vengeance, but is hit with yet another surprise.
Another episode, another day, and another funeral in Birmingham's Small Heath, but this
time it's for Ruby.
The doctors may have identified tuberculosis, but Tommy is convinced that her death was
caused by evil magic.
She's burnt in a gold and red caravan at Charlie's Yard, near the canal, in accordance with custom.
Tommy does what he does best and seeks retribution against "the monsters who perpetrated this"
rather than address his anguish.
It's not long until he finds the Barwell camp, thanks to Esme's information (in the previous
episode, we heard John's widow speculate that the curse was placed on the Shelbys' youngest
member after he palmed off a cursed Russian sapphire that killed a kid, Connie Barwell).
Everyone is fabulously shortsighted as a result of this eye for an eye business).
Tommy tracks down Connie's mother and unleashes a chamber on the entire camp, greatly increasing
the series' death toll.
Series six is set before WWII begins, but there are plenty of surprises in store: Esme
reveals that Tommy has an illegitimate son who was conceived before he went to war.
Duke is the name given to a little boy with hazel eyes.
Tommy can have him if he offers Esme more gold, which will give him enough to think
about (it must be an absolute buffet of conundrums in his head).
The planned takedown of the Fascists is still in the works.
Lizzie is waiting at home, enraged that Tommy has killed someone in Ruby's name.
Tommy isn't in the mood as she conveys an urgent message from the medics.
Instead, he discovers Arthur (Paul Anderson) lying in his cellar, where the two broken
men reminisce about the glory days of their youth.
They're both looking for a ray of light in the gloom.
"Just a few more yards to go; you'll alter your ways, and I'll change the f**king world,"
Tommy tells his elder brother after four years off the sauce.
Whether or not there is a bereavement, the fascist takedown is still ongoing.
At the Fascist Funhouse, deals are made.
Unsavory folks arrive outside Tommy's country mansion to start the world's strangest house
party.
Mitford (Amber Anderson), Mosley (Sam Clafin), Jack Nelson (James Frecheville), and IRA head
Laura McKee are all present (Charlene McKenna).
Tommy stands in the shadows, locking eyes with the odious Mitford before joining the
table and beginning to work.
Robert Viglasky/BBC/Caryn Mandabach Productions Ltd.
The east Atlantic contingent sweet-talks Nelson, who has the President's ear, by laying out
how they might help 'the cause;' they regard themselves as game-changers capable of bringing
fascism to Europe.
However, the Bostonian is only interested in one man.
He challenges Tommy, who is there at the conference just four days after his daughter's death,
to go above and beyond.
It turns out that all he needs is a simple Nazi salute and the words "Perish, Judah!"
to prove he's serious.
Deals are made, but it's all too much for Tommy, who stops the meeting and vents his
rage into the night sky with his weapon of choice, a machine gun.
Lizzie discovers him pounding away at his keyboard in the early hours of the morning,
composing his remembrance of the encounter while it's still fresh in his mind so he can
pass the information on to Churchill.
Her doctor's urgent message gets thrown to the side once more.
Tommy enlists the help of a hesitant spy.
Robert Viglasky/BBC/Caryn Mandabach Productions Ltd.
We weren't the only ones who saw Mosley and Gina (Anya Taylor-Joy) staring at one other
at the end of season five; Tommy has his suspicions as well and follows them both.
He sees Gina post-coitus in Mosley's flat and threatens to inform her uncle, assuming
he would disgrace his niece for snubbing his business partner: "He's a Catholic: men do
what they want, women do what they're told."
Gina is more upset by this than by the prospect of her husband Michael finding out (he's still
withering away in a Boston jail cell).
Tommy wants her to be his eyes and ears during the meeting between her uncle and the German
high command in Berlin, reporting on what is said and agreed.
Tommy has snagged a sly double-crossing blonde rat.
Thomas Shelby is summoned by a doctor.
Tommy's physician, Dr. Holford, is tired of chasing down an elusive (but hazardous) patient,
so he pays him a visit at home.
A doctor who pursues this relentlessly can only have terrible news, and it is.
undefined
Tommy has tuberculoma near the base of his skull, which explains his seizures, hallucinations,
and unusual periods of weakness, according to blood tests.
He's not infectious, but because it's embedded in his brain, it's inoperable, and no physicians
will treat him.
How terrible is it going to get?
Tommy will require round-the-clock care from individuals who care deeply about him.
How long do you think it will take?
He's just got a year, maybe 18 months.
Tommy presents Dr Holford as his accountant and sends him on his way when Lizzie interrupts
the meeting.
"Was it anything serious?"
says the narrator.
Lizzie inquires, oblivious to the fact that a nuclear weapon has just detonated.
"No, just an unexpected bill," Tommy responds.
"I'm going to have to pay it."