when vincent vega takes a bathroom break… shit happens
Ever notice this? It’s true. Check it out. When Vincent is in the bathroom, Marsellus Wallace’s wife almost loses her life. At the diner, Pumpkin and Honey Bunny get their robbery on after Vincent goes to the john. While waiting in Butch’s apartment, our man from Amsterdam uses the head and winds up dead in a hail of lead.
All rhymes aside, it’s when Vincent died –
Hold up. Sounded like rhyming just then, didn’t it?
That’s on me. Totally my fault. Not to worry. I’ve started to see someone about it. A real professional. Down at the Frisky Kitty. This whole rhyming thing lately has embarrassed me greatly –
Ah crap. I did it just then, didn’t I?. Obviously I need more sessions with Suzie down at the Kitty. Should probably get down there as soon as possible. That means we’ll be skipping the intro and getting right down to it.
THE BEEF
As entertainingly unexpected it was to see basically the main star of the movie – Travolta’s Vincent Vega is the only actor in all three of the stories that make up PULP FICTION – get gunned down with very little fanfare midway through the movie, the scene itself is a collision of what-the-fuck’s at the intersection of Huh? and Wait..What?. Not that it diminishes the scene’s killer karmic moment of Butch giving Vincent lead poisoning for his previous “palooka-punchy” smack talk and being in the wrong crapper at the wrong time…but it kinda does.
I’m willing to overlook the notion Butch wouldn’t notice something as glaringly out of place as a MAC-10 machine gun on his kitchen counter way before he’d have been popping pastries in the toaster. Chalk it all up to the timing aesthetic of the scene. It’s really the least of the wtf’s.
What I’m not buying are the multiple acts of counterintuitive to not just Vincent’s job, but more importantly, his own sense of self-preservation. The level of carelessness is suicidal. Everything about Vincent’s actions seems done just to have him get smoked this way.
There’s a fan theory that attempts to explain things. Starting with the Mac-10. This theory suggests it’s not Vincent’s. It’s Marsellus Wallace’s piece. That the big man was also waiting with Vincent for Butch. The reason he’s not there when Butch arrives is because Marsellus is out getting the coffee and donuts we see him carrying two cups of coffee with the box of donuts before Butch tries turning him into a Honda hood ornament.
This is supposed to answer the question as to why Vincent casually exits the bathroom. Whatever noise Butch makes upon entering the apartment, Vincent apparently just assumes it’s his boss, not the boxer. His response – or lack of one – upon seeing Butch is credited to his heroin use.
What crime boss places himself at the scene where some wet works are going to go down? Not a smart one, that’s for sure. Even if he had, why wouldn’t Vincent either wait until his boss got back or if he couldn’t wait, why not bring the Mac-10 with him? The idea Vincent would think it’s Marsellus entering the apartment doesn’t fly on the fact that Marsellus would’ve made some comment upon walking in. There’d be no reason for him to not say a word. And it’s not as if Butch didn’t say, “Looking good, Butch” while standing maybe two feet away from the bathroom door. As silent as the apartment is, there’s no way Vincent wouldn’t have heard him.
To suggest it can all be attributed to Vincent’s carelessness which is part of him being a seemingly functioning junkie doesn’t hold water at all. When we meet Vincent and Jules, they’re not strangers to one another. All evidence indicates they’re pros. It seems highly (pun very intended) unlikely Vincent would have lived very long as a hitman if he was as careless as he is shown to be in order for the scene to happen.
As cool as Vincent’s death scene is… I’m not buying it.
TINSELTOWN TAKEDOWN 