"The past is not my concern": When Tommy Shelby from Peaky Blinders proved that heartbreak doesn't hold him back

BBC's crime drama, Peaky Blinders, gave its fans many memorable gang fights and intense action sequences, but the show also had an epic but doomed romance.

The show's star-crossed lovers, Cillian Murphy's Tommy Shelby and Annabelle Wallis' Grace Helen, were doomed from the start, and their tragic love story is a compelling element of the show.

Tommy was the Birmingham leader of the titular gang, and Grace was a spy for the Crown who was sent to keep an eye on the Shelby family. While things were not in their favor initially, romance eventually blossomed. But, Tommy learns Grace's secret in the Peaky Blinders Season 1 finale and delivers this iconic line:

"The past is not my concern"

This line signifies that Tommy might love Grace with all his heart, but it does not stop him from going after Billy Kimber and protecting his family. When he learns about Grace's betrayal and her eventual feelings for him, he decides to let her in the past and focus on his family and business.

Tommy's heartbreak in the Season 1 finale was a defining moment for his character. It showed that he is capable of love but will not let it get in the way of his business and family.

More on Tommy and Grace's relationship in our story.

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Exploring Tommy Shelby's heartbreak in the Peaky Blinders Season 1 finale

Tommy Shelby, the Birmingham gangster who got everything he wanted, by hook or crook, suffered a devastating heartbreak in the Peaky Blinders Season 1 finale, proving that even a man as strong as Tommy is not immune to the matters of the heart.

The Season 1 finale saw Tommy planning a back-stabbing attack on Billy Kimber with the Lees, making Shelby Private Limited the proud owners of the biggest racetracks in the world and legitimizing their business.

Tommy looked forward to this opportunity because, in a way, it was his one chance to leave his criminal past behind and start something new with Grace. But after his plan goes haywire and Billy Kimber is about to approach and kill the Shelbies with his men, Shelby realizes that Grace betrayed him by leaking his plans.

In a conversation with The Garrison pub owner, Harry, where he asks him if he would go looking after her when all this is over, Tommy Shelby replies:

''She is in the past. And the past is not my concern.''

While Tommy was heartbroken by this betrayal, this did not stop him from protecting his family and going into battle against Kimber, where he eventually took him out by putting a bullet through his head.

Shelby realizes that he has fallen hard for Grace, but her betrayal stings deep in his heart, and the fact that they represent two opposite sides stops him from pursuing his romantic interest in her.

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Tommy Shelby envisioned a future with Grace in Peaky Blinders

Throughout Peaky Blinders Season 1, Tommy Shelby suffered from PTSD from his time in France. As Aunt Polly rightly said, no man returned the same, and Tommy also changed for the worse. While he maintained meaningless and casual relationships with many women after the war, Grace was the first woman he envisioned a future within Peaky Blinders Season 1.

After being outed by Kimber, Polly says this to Tommy, and the realization also dawns upon him:

''There’s only one thing that can blind a man as smart as you Tommy…love. It’s that barmaid.”

While Tommy-Grace did have a chance after the Season 1 finale because Aunt Polly realized that Grace had fallen for Tommy for real and conveyed this to him, he still chose not to go with her to London when she asked.

Leaving everything behind and starting a new life with the woman he loves would surely have been tempting, but Tommy proved his loyalty to his family and business, and that heartbreak could not hold him back.

After the Season 1 finale, he resumes his life in Birmingham with his family, and the couple eventually marries in Season 3.

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Also Read: When that iconic line from Cillian Murphy sparked the chemistry between Grace and Tommy in Peaky Blinders