In the world of “John Wick,” where characters and their motivations range from different shades of gray all the way to pitch black, there’s no option to look for binaries. While the ‘dignified’ criminals continue to live under the false pretense that their theatricality and rules make them better than animals, the existence of any distinguishing features among varying degrees of evil gets blurred as the predators eat each other up in the urban jungle. Still, there are those who, strengthened by their power and wealth, think themselves to be untouchable and dare to mess with the Baba Yaga, only to end up six feet under.

The first three movies in the “John Wick” saga didn’t stress the necessity of a singular character as the antagonist, and except for some bits of Michael Nyqvist’s performance as Viggo Tarasov, the franchise lacked strong antagonistic performances. In the fourth chapter of the franchise,...