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The two rules of the Continental are:

  1. No blood on Continental grounds.
  2. Every marker must be honored.

But the punishment for breaking those rules vary between the two movies. In the first, when Ms. Perkins (played by Adrianne Palicki) broke the first rule, Winston, the owner of the Continental, executed her himself. But when John Wick broke that very same rule by killing Santino D'Antonio (in front of Winston eyes), the punishment came as an Excumminicado for John Wick and not as an execution.

So why did Winston, the keeper of the rules, execute Ms. Perkins?

And I think the excution took place on the Continental, if that is true, doesn't it mean that Winston also broke the same rule?

Also, why did Ms. Perkins come to the meeting? She probably already knew that they knew of her breaking of the rules.

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  • Winston kinda bent the rules for John, I think. He got into pretty big trouble for that later, because of D'Antonio's status.
    – Mithoron
    Commented Oct 5, 2023 at 14:22

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Excommunicado is clearly a 2nd film invention retconned into the Wick universe so applying it back to the first film doesn't necessarily work, but...

No blood on Continental grounds.

It's actually "doing business" but let's assume we can translate that to just killing so, effectively, you are correct.

So why did Winston, the keeper of the rules, execute Ms. Perkins?

Because she broke the rules and took money to kill at the Continental.

Why did Ms. Perkins come to the meeting?

There was no "meeting"...she was walking along and they surprised her...she clearly wasn't expecting Winston and his associates to be there. Although she probably should have.

But when John Wick broke that very same rule by killing Santino D'Antonio (in front of Winston eyes), the punishment came as an Excommunicado for John Wick and not as an execution.

True...but we don't know that Ms. Perkins wasn't also excommunicated..Winston tells her that her membership of the Continental has been "revoked" (by her own hand)...and then she's killed. That sounds like Excommunicado.

As for why Wick isn't also killed...he's clearly expecting it.

He even asks....

WICK: "So why am I not dead?"

The answer is Winston...

Obviously, as a Continental "manager" Winston has some authority as to the punishments involved in breaking the rules...this is entirely logical for any manager.

WINSTON: "Because I deemed it not so."

WINSTON: "You have one hour, I can't delay it any longer".

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    Particularly with that last quote, it seemed clear to me that the intent was that he would be killed, but that Winston generously allowed him an hour's head start first. In all honesty, he probably did this because knowing Wick, he didn't want to try it himself since he knew the odds of Wick fighting back and killing him instead were pretty darn good.
    – Steve-O
    Commented Jun 28, 2017 at 13:39
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    I think also Winston respects John (like a friend or even more).
    – ibrahim mahrir
    Commented Jun 28, 2017 at 17:23
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    @ibrahimmahrir And, moreover, Wick was not motivated by money and his target was clearly exploiting the rules by using the Continental for protection from Wick. Even so, rules are rules and Winston can only bend them a little.
    – matt_black
    Commented Jun 29, 2017 at 11:11
  • I wonder if it might also go back to the fact that he must follow the 2nd rule, so the responsibility for the killing ultimately goes to the owner of the blood marker who ordered him to kill on Continental grounds.
    – jep
    Commented Dec 7, 2018 at 21:30

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