Yes, the wife got the tip out to her doctor. If that were on its own, it might have been enough. But instead, it was the only one out of over half a dozen ideas she tried that got anywhere close to succeeding. And, ultimately, she literally dies because she got too emotional.

Like, the moment you include a rant like that in the narrative, the story shifts away from being purely character driven. It is necessarily a story about that idea, and whether or not it’s true. Suddenly, it’s a lot less understandable for the wife, who is now a stand-in for any woman, to be so completely unprepared for a crisis.

And, maybe it’s because of my male privilege or modern sensibilities, but she actually doesn’t come across to me as very brave; because most of the ideas that fail, do so not because the gunman was smarter than her, but because she just didn’t follow through. I’m sure getting violently slapped in the face by a big tough guy hurts plenty… But she instantly gives up after one slap, every single time.

You want me to believe she’s brave, or determined, or desperate? Have him have to choke her the second or third time, not the tenth. Have her bite him, scratch him, kick him, take her shoes off and stab him with the heels. Have her do something that does more than irritate the guy. Even with the letter opener, she only goes in for one hit! Just because he’s stronger doesn’t mean that over the course of literal hours, she couldn’t do any meaningful damage.

And that brings up the opportunities she completely missed. Twice, she had him in reach while holding a liquid you do not want in your face: the iodine from the cabinet, and the boiling hot coffee. Throw it at him! But instead, she fails, every time, and ultimately literally dies because she got too emotional. And the police come, not because the gunman did something stupid and emotional, not because he underestimated her, but because he couldn’t have possibly figured out on his own who the delivery boy was.

Maybe I’m just spoiled by seeing well-written modern female protagonists, who aren’t assumed to be helpless and frail. But I do like seeing a woman giving a chauvinist a black eye and a fat lip.