Annotated 34-8
“Stop shooting yourself, stop shooting yourself!”
Taking the gun from Shanna, as JJ is on his way to doing, clearly carries risks. Even a nervous shooter might’ve found the killing instinct in that last second before he seized her wrists and threw off her aim. But JJ relies partly on his sense of people, and he’s assessed, correctly, that Shanna doesn’t have it in her to kill, no matter how just the cause, no matter the risk to herself and others if she doesn’t. At least, that’s how things are at this moment in time. People do change.
What would’ve happened had Xan not pulled himself together behind JJ’s back? I think it’s a bit better if we wonder. It’s not inconceivable that Shanna could’ve cracked when her only options were “renounce the story or die immediately.” By giving her an out and setting terms for her survival, JJ is effectively playing good cop and bad cop. It’s also possible that she could’ve found the strength to squeak out a “No,” in which case, she would’ve won a small moral victory and literally no other victories. JJ would’ve sighed, shot them both dead, and started the process of covering his tracks.
Got to give boy props and cons for not using the knife.
He’d bleed faster for sure, but from there he could really drop a gfool by slashing some tendons. Wouldn’t make him less angry, but much less mobile.
I guess pulling that knife out would also have provided him with some royal pain one or two levels above what he’s inflicting on JJ here. I can understand if he’d rather avoid that right now (and it would have taken longer, and made some noise which could easily have alerted JJ
And: Xan is probably also not the type of guy who can push a knife into somebody else without some considerable inhibitions. So what he did there is probably the maximum he was physically, logistically and psychically able to do.
I want to know whose desktop icons were used for that total annihilation shot. Nice details back there
JJ’s also doing good by the way he speaks to her. By the time he starts walking, he’s already said he doesn’t like killing people. Which is supported by the fact that Xan is very much NOT dead. What he’s telling and showing her is that there’s a way out of this situation in which nobody else dies. Her already frail resolve to shoot to save lives is further weakened by the argument that those lives don’t require gunfire to save.
It’s not the most believable argument, but JJ is selling it quite well in this moment, and she WANTS to believe she doesn’t have to kill him, so it does the job it needs to.