In Peaky Blinders season 6, episode 1, Ruby had a vision of a Green-Eyed Man. In episode 2, Tommy Shelby has already explained the vision’s meaning.
Warning: Contains spoilers for Peaky Blinders season 6, episode 2.
In Peaky Blinders season 6, a mystery arises when Ruby has a vision of a Green-Eyed Man, however, episode 2 appears to have already provided the answer. Visions and spirituality have played an important part of Peaky Blinders since the beginning. In season 1, Tommy would have visions of the enemy breaking through his bedroom wall, while later on he would believe that his wife, Grace, had died because the necklace he gave her had been cursed.
In Peaky Blinders episode 1, “Black Day,” Lizzie (Natasha O’Keefe) tells Tommy Shelby (Cillian Murphy) that Ruby is ill, has been speaking Romani words, and had a vision of a Green-Eyed Man. When he returns to Birmingham from America in Peaky Blinders episode 2, “Black Shirt,” Ruby appears to be well again, but Tommy is still unsure and by the end of the episode it is revealed that she has been drawing horrific images of a Green-Eyed Man and is now hearing voices. When she takes seriously ill again, she says that the Gray Man is coming for Tommy and for Ruby. Meanwhile, Tommy has a seizure and believes he is fighting off a man he killed in World War I.
While it is unclear why or how it is Ruby that is having these visions, in Peaky Blinders episode 2 Tommy’s narrative quietly answers the mystery of what the visions mean and shows that he is being haunted by them in his own way. The Green-Eyed Man and the Gray Man may be the same person and represent Tommy’s battle to survive and threats that lead to his death. The first of these is revealed when Tommy talks to Jack Nelson, Nelson asks Tommy who the first person was that Tommy killed and Tommy tells him it was a green-eyed Prussian boy. The descriptor cannot be accidental, and Tommy relives the event when he returns to his office in Westminster. Tommy Shelby’s seizures clearly pose a very real risk to his survival, and with them being tied to the war and the Green-Eyed Man, a soldier who would appear as a gray to a child from the mud he is caked in, this is a symbol of Tommy’s PTSD which might finally kill him in the Peaky Blinders movie.
However, Ruby and Tommy’s visions work twofold and the second threat that they represent is Polly’s son Michael (Finn Cole). In Peaky Blinders season 5, Tommy was concerned that someone wanted his throne and feared that it was Michael, meaning that the Green-Eyed Man is a metaphorical descriptor for Michael’s envy of Tommy’s life. The Gray Man title also makes natural sense for Michael whose last name, taken from Polly, is Gray, making him quite literally a Gray Man.
These visions in Peaky Blinders season 6 represent a major departure for the series when it comes to spirituality. Previously, the question of whether there was any truth to the notions of visions, psychics, and curses was left open-ended, with both Polly and Tommy putting their faith in them at different times. However, the apparently shared visions between Tommy and Ruby in Peaky Blinders season 6 indicate that these visions are genuine and are providing Ruby with knowledge that she could not otherwise have.
Peaky Blinders releases new episodes Sunday on BBC.
