But not all accounts are closed. While Caine has supposedly filed away his ledger with the High Table, and certainly with John, there remains one person he is permanently in the red with: Akira (Rina Sawayama), the daughter of the Osaka Continental manager Shimazu Koji (Hiroyuki Sanada).
Banking on the fact that in a three-hour movie, audiences may forget details from the first hour, the post-credits scene is a reminder that no story is really over until we’re in the ground. John might’ve had reservations about killing his old friend, but young and vengeful Akira does not. She was there that night when in an epic sword fight, illuminated only by the soft glow of neon lights, the blind Caine managed to kill her father in a throwback to samurai duels. Already badly injured herself, Akira knew she could not avenge her father during the moment he fell. Yet even Caine acknowledged he’ll be expecting her. And she warned John Wick, too, if he did not kill Caine she one day would.
In the post-credits scene it looks like that one day is today, with Akira approaching the blind and smiling Caine on a crowded street, a knife emerging from her sleeve, a look of determination on her face. Does she get her revenge, and does Caine follow John into the grave?
It is entirely left up to the viewer to decide. This is fitting because Caine and John debate briefly, in their own laconic ways, the nature of life and death, both wondering what comes after. It might be apropos for the pair to likewise be reunited sooner than Caine might’ve expected. Also in a strangely civilized underworld obsessed with oaths, honor, and blood debts, Caine killed Shimazu, a man who unlike Caine never abandoned his friendship to John, even when it cost him his hotel and his life. Akira was introduced to be a true heir to her father’s ways, and by rights should be able to avenge him. Now that Caine has fulfilled his obligations to the High Table, his daughter will be safe without him, though orphaned much like Akira.
