The Reality Subtext from Keanu Reeves's life makes it even harshernote Reeves was in a relationship with actress Jennifer Syme; however, they split after their child was stillborn, with Syme dying two years afterwards.
The outcome of Helen's dying gesture is unbearably wrenching. She's pretty much the only true innocent in the franchise, and it's a blessing that she never knew what her parting gift's loss would do to, and unleash within, her husband.
In the first scene after the In Medias Res opening, John wakes up still sleeping on his side of the bed. When he goes to make himself a cup of coffee, we see that his wife's mug is still placed beside his. Her side of the bathroom is unlit and disused. All of this is the case even though it's implied to be the morning of her funeral – John presumably couldn't bring himself to change even the habit of setting out her mug yet.
While John letting Daisy sleep on him for their final night together is cute, she woke him with her barking and scrambling off when she heard the intruders. It's a no-win situation; if she hadn't woken him, he could have been beaten up unawares and dragged out of his bed, and Daisy killed anyway right in that bedroom. Because she had, she accidentally put him right in the way of his assailants.
The very first thing John does after awakening from his beating is cradle poor Daisy's dead body and then go outside to bury it.
What makes the scene worse is that, after the beating, the next scene starts by following a blood trail that leads to Wick and his dog. The blood trail looks as if Daisy actually crawled up to Wick before dying.
Before that, hearing Daisy yelping helplessly is absolutely awful. She's cowering behind a chair and utterly terrified. It's almost the equivalent of a little girl screaming and crying for her dad. To make matters worse, the only reason she was killed was that Iosef couldn't stand the sound of her howling.
When John later enters his garage to find his Mustang stolen, it can be seen that Iosef and his friends left one final petty act of cruelty. The other car in the garage, a silver Lexus, has had its tyres slashed, a baseball bat left lodged in its windscreen and the driver's side window smashed in. The sadness sinks in when you realise that that was likely Helen's car that John understandably couldn't bear to part with, and it's one more aspect of his beloved late wife that Iosef ruined for kicks.
Viggo laying it all out for Iosef, especially the anguished, forced hug. On the surface, it seems like he's browbeating him, but by the end, it's clear that he's trying to deal with knowing that his son is a Dead Man Walking and just struggling to get the stupid boy to understand in order for him to maybe Face Death with Dignity. The moment is surprisingly poignant, as is Iosef's horrified face as he realizes that his father is saying goodbye.
Viggo: John will come for you...and you will do nothing, because you can do nothing. So get the fuck out of my sight.
Iosef's death causes Viggo to finally snap, and thus two former friends are propelled into killing each other.
Even when Viggo sells out Iosef to save his skin, he takes a moment to process what he just did and has a smoke while John kills all his guards and his own son.
In the aforementioned scene, John starts screaming as he destroys the concrete floor with the sledgehammer right after Viggo brings up the story of him and the pencil. It is made clear that John Wick is still in a lot of pain from losing Daisy.
Viggo and John's conversation on the phone immediately afterwards. Taking the longest shot possible, Viggo dusts off an old notebook and calls John to try and reach a compromise, in an understated way begging his old friend and ally not to do what he knows he can and will do to his son. John stays silent throughout the call, and then hangs up.
Viggo:(puts the phone and leans over his desk, taking a long breath) Avi: What did he say? Viggo:(sounding subtly - and yet utterly - defeated) Enough. Avi:Oh, God.
The song "Think" by Kaleida (the song playing when John first goes after Iosef in the nightclub) has lyrics that are sadly poignant to John Wick's situation, which no doubt makes his choice to come out of retirement all the more painful (assuming he was listening to the song, and appreciated the irony of it).
"Go ahead, you've taken me down now." Of all the foes John Wick fought, none of them ever took him down except for Helen. His love for her ruined his devotion to being a hired killer, and took him away from that world.
"Give me, give me, give me, give me what you don't know." John is unused to love, but he's willing to give Helen something he doesn't know for her sake.
"Go ahead, take me all out now." Of all the enemies John fought, love was the only one he ever submitted to, and one that he submitted to willingly.
"Get this, get this into your game." John's "game" is about having mastery over death, but now that he's in love with Helen, he must learn the game of life and enjoying it with her.
"You got me in a heading drop." The elation John felt when he was in love with Helen was overwhelming, especially in light of how grim the criminal underworld is.
"I never wanna come off." John never wanted to leave the peaceful life that Helen provided him, saving him from the grim life he led as a killer.
"You got me with your beat of love." Helen's love enraptured John, and gave him the idea that maybe he could be a good person for once.
"I never wanna come out." Why would John ever want to go back in the darkness after seeing the light?
"Think of me." Obviously, Helen is the most important person in John's life, so, of course, he'd be thinking about her.
"I'll never break your heart." is an ironic statement since Helen did break John's heart with the circumstances of her death. However, the fact that John now has a heart that can be broken shows that the love Helen instilled in him was very real.
"You're always in the dark." Two implications here: A) John never told Helen about his blood-soaked past, and thus she was in the dark about who he really was. B) John's soul is always in the dark, because of the life that he's led, and even if he tries to ignore it he will always be a killer until the day he dies.
"I am your light, your light, your light" Helen was the source of light that redeemed John's soul, and allowed him to turn away from his violent past.
"You're never in the dark." John is never in the dark so long as the memory of Helen's love lives on inside him. However, this is an ironic statement since John is still very much in the dark, since he's going back to his vengeful, violent lifestyle in honor of Helen's memory.
"Now that I'm, making this all up..." John is reflecting on the fact that with Helen absent from his life, he's making this all up as he goes along and really has no clue what he's going to do with himself long term. Is John back in the game? He still doesn't have an answer.
"Let me, let me, let me, let me into your know." John is looking to Helen's memory for guidance, hoping that she will remind him of how to lead the loving, peaceful life that she showed him now that she isn't there to give him directions. He really has nothing left of her.
"You got me in your open hand." With Helen gone, he's no longer the stoic, invincible hitman he used to be and he's an emotionally vulnerable mess. He's henceforth stuck in the open hand of his enemies until he can regain the focus he used to have.
"I never wanna come back." John lamenting on the sad state of affairs that the game he left behind is pulling him back in, despite his best efforts to avoid this fate.
"How do we let you never found?" John is remorseful over the fact that he's letting go of a peaceful lifestyle that he arguably never found in the first place, and perhaps Helen only gave him the illusion that he could be a good person.
"You know it's gonna come out." With all these emotions bubbling under the surface, regardless of how much John fights it… his old killer nature is going to come back out, and it's going to be messy when it does.
Ms. Perkins killing Harry, who has been nothing but cordial to her up until that point and was simply doing John a favor by keeping her tied up.
The torture and death of Marcus. What's worse is that it looked like Marcus would make out it alive... only for Ms. Perkins to incapicitate him long enough for Viggo to finish him off.
Viggo:(seething) Unlike the others, you go out on my terms. Marcus: No, my good sir... I go out on my own. (Marcus fights and shoots dead the men restraining him before Ms. Perkins shoots and wounds him, leaving him vulnerable to Viggo approaching him) Marcus:(with a taunting smile) See? (Viggo finishes him off, with a few extra gunshots for good measure)
John's speech behind why he's going after Iosef. Seriously, just watching John going through the explanation, it shows exactly what it was that Iosef did to him. If Iosef had left the dog alone, John would have forgiven and probably forgotten about the car. But Iosef killed an innocent dog, taking away the last thing that John's wife gave him and any kind of chance of living in peace with it. How can you not feel sorry for John as he explains this and not side with him when he screams at Viggo to give up his son?
John: When Helen died, I lost everything. Until that dog arrived on my doorstep... A final gift from my wife... In that moment, I received some semblance of hope... an opportunity to grieve unalone... And your son... took that from me... stole that from me... KILLED THAT FROM ME!
How amazing is this? He's not just The Stoic, he's actually reflecting Stoic philosophy and showing some emotional intelligence, recognizing that this wasn't just a gift from his wife, but a method for him to process his grief that was taken from him.
