Whether in the universe of Marvel, Game of Thrones, or Peaky Blinders, being a Stark has weight. In this case, Lizzie (Natasha O’Keefe), the prostitute who was the joke among the Shelbys, who John chose as his wife (but who Tommy, in his best style, got in the way), is now an elegant and rich lady of English society, married with the leader of the family and certainly one of the most important female figures in the series. The evolution of the character, who has always been in love with Tommy, is exciting and worth remembering in this last season.

We met Lizzie (Natasha O’Keefe) in the 1st season when she caused a certain family crisis. Lizzie was born and raised in the poor area of Small Heath, and, like many women during the War, found prostitution the only way to earn money to avoid going hungry. Her clients were varied, from wealthy lords to common men like Tommy Shelby and John, her younger brother, but somehow, Lizzie was so well known that even Polly Gray, a feminist who knew about the hardships women went through in the war, laughed when the young woman dared to plan to change her life.

John, a widower with three children, seems half in love with Lizzie and stands up to the Shelbys over his choice to marry her. However, she is clearly in love with Tommy, who creates a trap for her: he offers a high price for a goodbye, but, when she accepts, he threatens to expose her if she insists on marriage.

But, despite destroying Lizzie’s worthy future, Tommy “compensates” by hiring her as a secretary, so that she can stop prostituting herself on the streets. Lizzie then follows Tommy and Grace’s love story from afar, suffering in silence.

Lizzie’s loyalty is one of the most impressive in the entire series. After being humiliated, she is also used as bait by Tommy in more than one of his strategies, in one of which she is raped by a British officer. Still, she forgives him and becomes his lover after he is widowed. She has a daughter, Ruby, and marries, finally, Tommy, in season 4, officially becoming Mrs. Tommy Shelby. Lizzie is no longer the shy and silent woman behind the scenes; she stands up to her husband, but supports him unconditionally, also raising Grace’s son with him as her own.

One of Lizzie’s regular customers was Oswald Mosley, a man she feared but hated equally. In the final stretch, without Polly to support Tommy, Lizzie gains leadership in Peaky Blinders, a well-deserved rise for a woman of fiber, perfect for Tommy Shelby.

Unfortunately, even with a certain kind of love between them, it isn’t enough to sustain Lizzie and Tommy’s marriage. Shattered by the death of their only daughter, Ruby, the couple ends the series apart — Tommy consumed by guilt and a thirst for revenge, and Lizzie, too tired to keep fighting for him. She leaves, choosing to raise the son of Tommy’s first wife, and the two of them find solace in what they never truly received from the man they both loved so deeply.

The absence of actress Natasha O’Keefe from the film saddens me. Many of us had hoped — perhaps because we know Tommy Shelby cannot find redemption on his own — that she might appear, even if not reconciled with him. Ruby’s death is an unhealed wound for both, but in the end, Peaky Blinders was always about her too — about the woman who loved the immortal man and, when everything turned to ashes, was the only one who chose to stay alive. Let’s see how Steven Knight will handle that unfinished thread of the story.

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