#Post brought to you by the fanficcer’s retrospective justification for the desperate need to write Tommy attending a Chinese restaurant

[divinekangaroo]

I’m intrigued at the season 5 shock at Brilliant Chang walking into the Garrison —> not only did season 1 episode 1 open with Tommy in the Chinese Quarter knowing enough about the Chinese to use the Chinese to add (drama) to his racing scam, demonstrating clear communication with them, there are also elements of awareness/peripheral mentions of the Chinese enterprise/s featured multiple times, and these half-comments increase notably through Season 4.

So my theory is that Tommy always had a watch on them, as a market force, even if Arthur and co were unaware, and Tommy pulling out that hilarious little notebook on Chang clearly shows this; by counter they always had a watch on him and correctly identified a time when he’d be open to a very risky opportunity. Operating adjacent and mostly in parallel but rarely converging.

Now Arthur was surprised because ~~fucking hell it’s the Chinese where did this come from and how do they have the guts to walk in here like this~~; Tommy was only surprised because (?) it was someone as high ranking as Brilliant Chang (?) and they went so absolutely balls deep (!) on the first real play.

A play of both desperation on Chang’s part (what do you do when you have 7t of opium on your hands and no way to move it or liquidate it=mild panic) but also a sense of ‘just because you think we might be desperate for your canal network to move our shit, just be aware 1) you don’t have the option of saying no even if you think you might and 2) we will destroy you if you fuck us around’

And would BC have even come in to the Blinders, if Tommy hadn’t laid breadcrumbs in some way shape or form indicating he might’ve been interested in the opportunity, even if those breadcrumbs were simply letting it be seen that he was watching/counting/aware of their actions.