At the end of John Wick 2, with what looked like the entire city of New York about to take up arms against Keanu Reeves` titular hero, it seemed like the next chapter in the assassin`s saga would have to wrap things up one way or another. We were pretty surprised, then, when John Wick Chapter 3: Parabellum concluded not with John`s death or his triumph over the High Table, but basically where it began: with John Wick on the run, out of friends, the whole world against him. But was Winston`s betrayal of John real, or is there more to it than that?At the end of John Wick 2, Winston (Ian McShane) gave John an hour`s head start. He was still on the assassin`s side, despite the reality of John`s affront against the High Table`s laws when he spilled blood on Continental grounds. By John Wick 3`s conclusion, Winston has fully turned on John, shooting him repeatedly and sending him careening over the edge of the Continental`s roof. But are things really that black and white?The Continental vs. The High TableFirst off, let`s talk about the conflict that served as John Wick 3`s climax: the fight between the Continental (well, really John and Charon (Lance Reddick), since Winston mostly hid in a vault with John`s dog), and the High Table`s elite strike team. The High Table doesn`t take lightly to being defied, and the hour Winston gave John at the end of 2 was enough to get the NY Continental manager in deep trouble with his overlords. They sent the Adjudicator (Asia Kate Dillon) to negotiate Winston`s `retirement,` and the High Table`s Elder (Saïd Taghmaoui) sent John back to New York to kill Winston.Obviously, the High Table`s plans in this case didn`t work out, largely thanks to the bond that Winston and John share after years of working together. Winston had no interest in stepping down, and John didn`t really want to kill him. John may have gone through with it in order to survive, had Winston not offered him an alternative--teaming up to fight the High Table.The Con ...
|
