Something a Little Different and Spooky

Hello, everyone! It's nearly my favorite time of year: the deep Fall, when Halloween is coming up and folks aren't averse to a little scary and macabre. I'm hoping to take advantage of the season and do something a little different. Inspired by Dan Sheehan's podcast Pie Break - on which I have guested a number of times covering Chips, Sodas, Pasta Sauces, and Game of Thrones - I'll be covering some characters in the Saw franchise and determining their color identity. I spoke to Dan, and he's good with me running this as a one-off for a topic that he likely won't be touching ever, so it's kismet!

Will it be every character? Great question, but no. I don't think we need to ask what the color identity is of one of the police officers at a crime scene who has no dialogue, or Troy, who gets exploded in Saw III. There will even be characters I'm sure folks will complain I didn't include. Oh, well! This is already going to be bloated! There are ten movies as of writing, and I will be discussing stuff, so...

A SPOILER ALERT IS IN EFFECT FOR ALL SAW MOVIES AND ALSO TRIGGER WARNING FOR A TON OF STUFF!

SAW (The first one)

Let's begin with Saw, the first movie! I won't go in order of appearance because then we'd need to chat about the reveal last and therefore our main villain for the franchise would be saved for last in this section.

John Kramer aka The Jigsaw Killer

John Kramer is a complex character, and he appears in all the movies in some way - yes, the picture in Spiral counts - and is therefore the "heart" of the franchise. Jigsaw dies at the end of Saw III, but we still have seven more movies and one on the way. That's some real power. 

So what do we know? John Kramer is an engineer and a perfectionist. He planned the birthdate of his child with wife Jill Tuck perfectly to match some constellation or whatever, the Gideon stuff is wild. He was diagnosed with terminal cancer and attempted to take himself out, but surviving made him realize that his will to live is stronger than his desire to die. This is the philosophy that guides Jigsaw in all of his endeavors. He places people he deems worthy of a test in traps that they need to navigate that puts that will to survive to the test.

These people range from cops who plant evidence to rapists to just a guy who's a little lazy. He's not really consistent, to be honest. The franchise is beloved because it starts strong and then unintentionally leans heavily into camp. They drop the puzzle piece skin removal, but then they give us some of the most over-the-top story and some of the funniest and worst acting you can find!

So John has a code: he "technically" doesn't kill anybody! He gives everybody a chance, but the chance is "Hey, there's a key surgically inserted behind your eye, and if you can get to it in less than three minutes, there's a chance you'll be able to take the Venus fly trap off before it clamps on your head and embeds your skull with nails! Good luck!" So, yeah, he's a murderer. He's also known for amassing a cult-like following among a group of people who believe in his cause and assist him with his murderous ways. His catchphrases are "I want to play a game" and "Game over!"

I believe Jigsaw to be an Esper legend. Blue for his cunning intellect and his engineering background put to use in creating his traps and orchestrating everything. White for his "code" and how his motivations seem to be in the name of atonement and self-betterment. Together white and blue are controlling and stax. Pair this with black and you've got yourself the ambition it takes to put it all together, the drive to get exactly what you want by any means. 

If Jigsaw were a legendary creature, he'd enter with a game putting counters on a creature each player controls and having them have triggered abilities based on each other. Or he'd create an artifact that can be attached to opponents' creatures. And I think he'd have some sort of recursion ability or an ability to activate from the graveyard considering his lasting presence long after he died in the movies. 

COLORS: WHITE - BLUE - BLACK (Esper) (Billy the Puppet is included in this)

Dr. Lawrence Gordon

When we meet Dr. Gordon, it is pitch black. He turns on the light switch he finds. He is chained to a pole in a disgusting bathroom, cuffed at his ankle tightly. Across this gross bathroom is Adam, also chained to a pole diagonally. In the middle of the room, there is a dead man with a massive pool of blood, a gun in one hand, a cassette tape player in the other. Over the course of the first movie, the doc and Adam talk about how they got there, who they suspect is doing this to them, and how they get out.

They work together to reach the tape recorder, which explains that they need to kill each other to leave. There's a whole puzzle and backstory about who they think did this and they correctly land on Jigsaw. How do they know about Jigsaw? Why, Dr. Gordon was suspected of being Jigsaw! He's been questioned and questionably been allowed to watch a witness testimony. 

So why is the doctor in the bathroom trap? Turns out, he's been cheating on his wife! Uh-oh, potential death penalty then, I guess! Lawrence is actually Jigsaw's doctor, turns out! And Larry's wife and daughter are kidnapped and we never hear from them again when they escape. The thing that people who only know a bit about Saw happens to Larry Gordo in Saw. Reminder that I am spoiling it all! Dr. Gordon is the one who saws off his own foot. And in the seventh out of ten movie, the aptly titled Saw 3D: The Final Chapter, it is revealed that Dr. Gordon has been a Jigsaw apprentice and accomplice this whole time! Following the events of the first movie, that is.

So what does this mean? He's a smart guy, a doctor... that's gotta be blue, right? Red for the cheating, because it's an Act of Treason (betrayal, rather) and it's emotionally charged, it's impulsive, it's no thoughts. 

COLORS: BLUE - RED (Izzet) but also BLUE - RED - BLACK (Grixis) upon reveal of the ties to Jigsaw

Adam Stanheight

Oh, Adam. Poor Adam. Adam isn't a bad person. He lives a bummer of a life, he's got some anger issues, but he's just essentially a tail for people who need a private detective of sorts. Adam is tasked with following Dr. Lawrence Gordon because former Detective Tapp strongly believed Dr. Gordon was Jigsaw. Adam pretends he doesn't know Lawrence, but he knows him. In fact, he's the one who's been following him, taking pictures of when he's gone cheating.

Adam is the one who connects Zep to the trap because of a picture he took of the Gordon residence. Ultimately, Adam is a victim of circumstance. He doesn't do anything that really deserves his inclusion in this trap. So his job is a little skeezy, but it's a legit gig! If he had a badge, it'd be fine? He's a photographer and I'm sure he's a victim of capitalism as much as Jigsaw.

That said, Adam is an angry guy: he has a whole little rant about his ex-girlfriend accusing him of being angrier than them. He does go along with an idea that'll keep him and Lawrence alive, and he ends up defending Lawrence from Zep and killing him. So there's a Selfless Savior element to him here. Maybe Boros in the sense that he's got a colored activated ability but is a "mono-colored" legend.

COLORS: RED with WHITE activated ability. 

Amanda Young

Amanda is a huge part of the Saw story. While Amanda isn't Jigsaw's first victim, she is definitely his most important. She's the first victim we "meet" in the sense that she gets more than the others we are treated to. She tells her own story because she is the first survivor of a Jigsaw trap or game. Her interview with police is the one Dr. Gordon gets to witness, for some reason. She says that she's grateful that she was in the trap, she has a renewed sense of appreciation for her life.

In Saw II, Amanda is back in a trap... uh oh. Looks like she did something else! She abused drugs, and that was enough for Jigsaw the first time, so a relapse is a good enough reason, too, I guess. BUT WAIT! What's this?! She's just a plant?! The end of Saw II is the first time a sequel's twist made me jump out of my seat and run around the room. I was a kid and watching it at my cousin's house and he had seen it in theatres. He knew what was coming and he was excited to see my brother and I go nuts. Only one twist has topped this one, in my opinion, and it's from the same movie (when it's revealed the house is the same with the bathroom from the first movie). Amanda is revealed to be Jigsaw's new apprentice and accomplice. Incredible work. 

She also begins to self-harm again. She loves John and threatens anybody who gets in the way of that. She also feels guilty for the loss of John and Jill's baby, Gideon, because she's the one who got Cecil riled up to go rob Jill's clinic for more smack. Cecil smashes a door into Jill as she lets him in and he causes her to miscarry. This is the information that another Jigsaw apprentice holds over her, causing Amanda to kill Lynn and die in the process. 

Amanda is compassionate in Saw X. She's manipulated over the course of the series. She is also manipulating many and she lives by John's code. She is greedy in her reaction to her position being threatened. All of this leads me to believe that Amanda is the most complex character in the franchise and therefore, four colors, baby.

COLORS: WHITE - BLUE - BLACK - RED (Yore)

Detective David Tapp and Detective Steven Sing

A discharged detective with an obsession for a case that killed his partner, Tapp was obsessed with Jigsaw and was hot on his trail. Instead of waiting for official channels and backup, Tapp and Sing went to a mannequin warehouse where they have a brush with Jigsaw. Tapp gets his throat cut, and Sing runs across a wire attached to several shotguns hung from the ceiling. Tapp survives, Sing does not. 

The relationship between the detectives is that Tapp leans in and Sing is cool and calm. They work well as a team when they shakedown Dr. Gordon. They work well as a team when Sing offers fresh eyes on a video Tapp is rewatching for the umpteenth time. Tapp's madness with Sing's groundedness. Partner legends. Partner with, probably. I think Tapp comes from a good place, but his obsession makes him driven by his ambition of taking down this killer. 

COLORS: Tapp - WHITE - BLACK (Orzhov) and Sing - GREEN

Zep Hindle

The namesake of the Saw theme song, Hello Zepp; yes, it's spelled differently, no I don't know, okay, thank you. 

Zep is an orderly at the hospital Dr. Gordon works at and where John Kramer was a patient. Zep is our classic red herring. He's the guy that Adam saw in Gordon's window. He's the guy who has kidnapped Alison and Diana Gordon. He's the one who creepily uses a stethoscope to hear their heartbeat while holding a gun at the other. He's seen as the one running the whole game. When Adam reveals the photo and Gordon recognizes him, the audience goes "oh damn, it's that guy, this whole time!" and we think we know, but we don't know at all. 

Zep comes into the bathroom trap to kill Lawrence Gordon and Adam Stanheight, and Gordon says, "But I did it, I got out the chain, I killed Adam," and Zep, insisting that he didn't do it in the time limit, says, "Those are the rules," as he raises his firearm to kill Dr. Gordon before Adam trips Zep and bashes his head in with the top of a toilet tank. It's gross and gruesome and you think, what an ending. What a movie. 10/10. 

Adam goes through Zep's pockets to find a cassette player of his own. The theme begins to play as a Jigsaw tape starts with "Hello Zep" and it dawns on us: Zep's had a game the whole time. A victim of the murderer slash not-murderer-technically Jigsaw!

He is dosed with a slow-acting poison and is promised an antidote if he carries out this game. He is so desperate to survive that when Tapp finds out Zep is in the house with the Gordons (sans Larry), he gives chase and Zep holds his own and actually kills the former detective. Zep is trying to live! He's being killed and is trying to stay alive. What a moral conundrum! But not really, right? Go right to the cops and see if a doctor can figure out the poison and administer an antidote maybe? Anyhoo, Zep gets his brains smashed in and Jigsaw rises from the dirty bathroom floor peeling the prosthetics off his head before dooming Adam to rot in the room they've spent so much time in. 

COLORS: WHITE but like stax white. Those are the rules.  

SAW II

Detective Eric Matthews 

Donnie Wahlberg is Eric Matthews, a divorced cop (some clichés just work) who shares custody of his teenage son who's on a rebellious streak. What a life! Eric Matthews is beloved by his team, Kerry and Rigg, but if he's so good, why would Jigsaw lure him into a trap!

That's right, Matthews gets called out at the scene of a Jigsaw crime and he puts it all together: I know where we can find Jigsaw! And there he is. The cops get to the scene and find Jigsaw and a room of monitors showing multiple feeds of criminals in a house with Eric Matthews' son Daniel. How do they know they're criminals? Why, they happen to be a bunch of people Matthews himself has put in jail. Oh, and Eric planted evidence on all of them. No biggie!

In the house, a slow-acting poison is released, and there are syringes filled with an antidote but with a bunch of tests for each of them. Obi dies in a fire. Amanda gets tossed in a pit of empty syringes to find a key. As people are dying and Xavier decides he needs to murder everybody so he can be the one to have the antidote, Amanda and Daniel find a trap door and run to this newfound basement. They run to escape Xavier and find, at the end of the hall, behind a giant sliding door, a dark room. Flick on the lights. Hey, I know those harsh lights. BOOM! REVEAL! IT'S THE BATHROOM FROM THE FIRST MOVIE! YOU COULD NOT TELL ME TO SIT DOWN!

John Kramer is great at anticipating the human mind. Detective Matthews is told his game is to have a conversation for 90 minutes or whatever and Jigsaw will tell him where his Daniel is. John knew Eric wouldn't be able to handle watching the digital clock tick down while his son is among the now murderous criminals. He beats the snot outta Jigsaw. John says "game over", which is never a good sign.

John drives with Eric to the house where his son and murderers are. As Eric and John are arriving at the house, the rest of the cop team found an address on the feed to the screens and were getting to that location. Uh oh, turns out, the video feed? All in the past! They were recordings! And the cops are at the wrong house! Eric enters the real house after all the mayhem of the movie and finds himself in the bathroom.

He's sedated by someone in a Jigsaw pig mask. GASP! AMANDA WAS AN ACCOMPLICE! SHE'S JIGSAW'S APPRENTICE! Amanda shackles him to the same pole that Adam was chained to, gives him a saw, and closes the door behind him. 

All in all, Matthews is a wild character. He is angry, impulsive, and free to do anything, basically. His team doesn't step in when he's doing wrong. He's emotional. He's also an "at any cost" kind of guy. I think he's white because authority and prison just feel white.

COLORS: WHITE - BLACK - RED (Mardu)

Xavier Chavez

Xavier is the secondary big bad of Saw II. The hotheaded drug dealer who's used to using force to get his way, Xavier is selfish and does whatever it takes to survive. From threatening Obi with a knife to throwing Amanda in the needle pit which was meant to be his own trap, Xavier makes no friends over the course of the movie. Xavier cuts the skin off his neck so he can see the number written on it before hilariously putting the bloody floppy skin flap into his grey sweatpants pocket. Ambition, narrow-mindedness, impulsiveness, all points to a legend I would probably build a deck around. I'd probably give Xavier the reskin treatment and slam him on Greven, Predator Captain.

COLORS: BLACK - RED (Rakdos)

Obi Tate

Obi (Aw-bee) is one of the more terrifying of the players in Saw II. When met with a knife to the neck from Xavier, Obi pushes the knife and cuts himself: "If you're going to threaten me with a knife, you might as well cut me a little." Xavier is taken aback and the whole group knows: don't mess with Obi. 

It's revealed that Obi helped Jigsaw kidnap the other players. They force him into the furnace to retrieve two syringes of the antidote. He gets locked in and burns alive. Not much to say about Obi except what a dick! His lack of fear in the face of a death threat tells me he's met the other side and made peace. So Golgari!

COLORS: BLACK - GREEN (Golgari)

Daniel Matthews

Daniel is Detective Matthews' son, and he's kidnapped by Jigsaw and put through the game. He's shepherded by Amanda to keep him safe, because throughout the movie, he's just literally in a safe next to where the cops have been this whole time!

Side note: I hate puns, and I think that one of the worst things about Jigsaw is how much he loves them. That's right! Puns! Not the murder and the wavering criteria for who to murder, but the puns. I said what I said!

Anyway, Daniel is a kid acting out in the throes of his parents' divorce. Tale as old as time. He wants to help the others and is generally useless until he kills Xavier by pretending to sleep. Anyway, he means well and is reacting to his life being uprooted. Feels green to me!

It's also wild to me that we never see him again. 

COLORS: GREEN

Detective Allison Kerry

Det. Kerry is the lead on Jigsaw in *mumble mumble* City (Saw never says where the franchise takes place, so it's just generic city. Fun fact!). She's been working the case and knows him best. Kerry brings Matthews to the scene of a Jigsaw trap where he is being directly called out and lured in by Jigsaw/Amanda. Kerry and soon-to-be-promoted Lieutenant Rigg are effectively Matthews' angel and devil, consulting him throughout. Kerry recommends going by the book and to rattle Jigsaw intellectually. Rigg wants Matthews to just start beating face. Kerry is probably the closest to mono-blue a character in this movie gets. But she's also a cop, so white is definitely in there.

COLORS: BLUE - WHITE (Azorius)

SAW III

This is one of my least favorite Saw movies. My ranking? Okay, sure! Saw, Saw II, Saw VI, Saw X, Saw IV, Saw 3D The Final Chapter, Saw V, Spiral: From the Book of Saw, Saw III, and Jigsaw.

Anyway, the important things to know here are that Eric Matthews has been missing and Rigg and Kerry are looking for him. Detective Mark Hoffman is introduced as a new detective lead. He becomes important later. The team is brought in to investigate a new trap where a man is exploded by nail bombs in an elementary school classroom. But all the exits were sealed. If they were sealed and he was able to get out of the traps, how would he escape? Uh oh! Amanda's making unwinnable games! 

Kerry is abducted and wins her game before her insides become outside, proving again, these traps aren't meant to be escaped. Jigsaw's lessons aren't being learned. 

Dr. Lynn Denlon

Dr. Denlon is a depressed doctor who takes her pills and is generally morose and not responsive at work, which is a problem. Instead of having her take time off to recover and get better, Jigsaw seizes an opportunity, and she's kidnapped and brought to a warehouse of a bunch of nasty-looking implements of torture. She's wheeled around in a wheelchair by Amanda and they get to a room where GASP! Jigsaw is on oxygen and is looking pretty friggin' sick. They can't go to the hospital, so they bring the hospital to John. 

Lynn is adept, and the movie goes to great lengths to show brain surgery that looks like it could be real! It's gross, ew! She does a great job with John but ends up being shot by Amanda, and when Jeff kills Jigsaw, the shotgun collar she's fitted with goes off, leaving us with honestly one of the cooler ending shots of a Saw movie. 

While Kerry is the closest mono-blue the franchise got in Saw II, Saw III finally offers up a true blue mono-blue legend. 

COLORS: BLUE

Jeff

Let's get this out of the way: Jeff sucks. 

Jeff's whole deal is that his son was killed in a hit and run by a driver and the legal system failed to hold the driver accountable. The guy spends his days in a poorly lit home, pulling his gun on his reflection, practicing what he'd tell his son's killer when he saw him again. He neglects his daughter, admonishing her for sleeping with her brother's stuffed animals. She's grieving too, jerk!

He blames the judge, the witness who did not come forward, and the driver. Each of these people are in traps throughout a warehouse, and Jeff is tasked with helping with their traps to save them. The witness is naked in a freezer room getting sprayed with water. Jeff waits until the last second to grab a key and tries to free her after she is comically frozen solid. The judge is locked to the bottom of a giant vat where a machine shreds rotted pig carcasses to drown him. Jeff must burn his son's stuffed animals to get the key to help the judge. He takes so long to finally do it and he saves the judge.

They move onto the next room and there's Timothy Young, his son's killer. Fun fact, the actor who plays Timothy Young (Mpho Koaho) lived in Toronto when I lived there, and my friend was his bartender one night, so I woke up to a voicemail of Mpho calling me his biggest fan. Isn't that sweet! A little wild, but very sweet. I mean, I love the Saw franchise, but I'd be hard-pressed to find someone who loves Timothy Young, you know? 

Anyway, Timothy's trap is Jigsaw's favorite, called The Rack. It twists all the victim's limbs 360 degrees and ends with the neck going all the way around. Jeff tries to help right as the machine starts to turn Tim's head. Jeff sucks so much. He gets to the final room as Amanda is going off about Lynn. Jigsaw told her to remove Lynn's collar as she successfully operated on him. Amanda admits that she no longer believes in his work and has been making the games unwinnable and just killing people. As Jeff enters, Amanda shoots Lynn. Jigsaw says "you just killed three people". Lynn falls in to Jeff's arms and - what's this? The twist is that they're married. Lynn has been depressed because her son died. They've been dealing with grief differently! And Jigsaw's all "Oh yeah, yummy yummy, time to torture!"

Jeff shoots Amanda. As Lynn is bleeding out, Jigsaw offers Jeff the chance to forgive him or kill him. Lynn protests, but Jeff can't resist the Saw and kills John. Jigsaw pulls out a tape recorder to play a message for Jeff telling him he failed his test and that Jigsaw actually kidnapped his daughter, too, and he'll have to play another game to get her back. As Jigsaw dies, Lynn's shotgun collar goes off. 

Jeff sucks, and I don't want him to have a card, but if he were on a card, I'd want him to be absolutely stupid. Just dumb. Like the Dan of Street Fighter. Useless. Make him a nine-mana 2/2 with keywords that don't work together in a strategy that the colors wouldn't care for. 

COLORS: RED but BOOOOOOOOO!

SAW IV

The other characters either don't matter enough or matter too much (Hoffman and Rigg), it's time to move onto Saw IV!

This one is right in the middle for me, but it's underrated. People dislike this one, but I don't get why. Great traps, some messed-up victims, the introduction of two great characters, and the twisting of two others. There's a transition in this movie that makes me absolutely howl laughing. We have to begin with...

Lieutenant Daniel Rigg

We were introduced to Rigg in Saw II as an officer with Kerry and Matthews. He was an advocate of the beatdown and ultimately his advice pushed Matthews to smack Jigsaw around and lose his game. 

In Saw III and IV, Rigg is certain Eric Matthews is still alive, but in Saw IV, it doesn't take long for Rigg to find out Kerry is dead (from Saw III). Arriving on the scene after Detective Hoffman, Rigg sees through an RC camera car that Kerry is dead in a trap. He storms through the door and books it to Kerry. Hoffman tells him, "You know never to go through an unsecured door!" It'd be a shame if that was the reason for Jigsaw's test of him!

Rigg is drugged after his wife leaves him and is greeted by a video feed showing Eric Matthews is alive, balancing on a comically large block of ice with a noose around his neck. Next to him is Hoffman, who will die if Matthews dies. There's a timer counting down. A man named Art is running this game. We'll get to him. 

Rigg is then encouraged to "see as [Jigsaw sees]" and "heal as [Jigsaw heals]" over the course of the movie, following clues to multiple traps around town, including a pimptress in his living room who tries to stab him, a rapist who Rigg puts into a quartering trap, and a married couple where the husband has been abusive. In the end, Rigg gets to the door where Matthews is with the countdown drawing near.

Matthews is given a gun and shoots Rigg through the door. Rigg bursts through the door and two other giant blocks of ice descend and crush Matthews' head. Rigg says, "I still had time," and Art says, "No, you idiot, he was testing you!" before taking out a tape and playing it. Rigg was being tested on his patience and ability to follow the order of not going through unsecured doors. Isn't that so freaking stupid? It's great, though, I love it.

Oh, but what about Hoffman? He gets up from his trap and is fine because HE'S ANOTHER JIGSAW ACCOMPLICE! GASP! Anyway, Rigg dies. Strahm (coming up, I promise) arrives on the scene at the same time that JEFF is getting to kill Jigsaw! That's right! This movie and the third one happen at the same time, that's another twist on a twist. Strahm kills Jeff, so Jeff, Amanda, Lynn, and Jigsaw are all dead. Hoffman locks Strahm in this room. I understand you think Hoffman is going to go next, but that's Saw V. 

So Rigg is a cop who wants to do the right thing but is impulsive and is brawny. I think this all lands in Gruul personally. 

COLORS: RED - GREEN (Gruul)

Special Agent Peter Strahm

One of our two FBI agents, Strahm and his partner Perez have been keeping an eye on the Jigsaw case and with the events of Saw II, it's time to get a closer look. They arrive on the scene of Kerry's trap and they suspect Jigsaw would need accomplices to accomplish this. A cancer patient lifting dead weight off Kerry didn't fit. Hoffman suggests Amanda Young could do it, but Strahm doubts she'd be able to lift her as well, so he vocalizes his suspicion of at least a third member of this murderous group. 

After this, Strahm and Perez go to the police station and find Rigg watching an interrogation video of Jill Tuck, Jigsaw's wife. Strahm wonders why he was watching that. Once the police are alerted to gun shots and noise at Rigg's home, they make their way over. He's gone when they get there, but there are pictures all over the trap area. Jill Tuck is on every wall. Strahm and Perez piece together clues, showing the audience that they are in fact the real deal. Strahm and Perez investigate every one of the traps that Rigg has to set up in his 90-minute test. They find bodies in his wake. When investigating, Perez gets shrapnel blasted into her face and dies. Strahm goes back to Jill Tuck to yell at her for more information. He figures out about the meat packing plant that is now a torture warehouse and finds his way in time to see Jeff kill Jigsaw, and Strahm gets trapped in. 

In Saw V, Strahm is on to Hoffman. He bolsters his case throughout and finally corners Hoffman before being killed in a trash compactor trap. Hoffman frames Strahm by leaving his phone and a hot coffee at the scene of the big game in that movie. 

I believe Strahm is a character you're rooting for, and not just because he was in Gilmore Girls. He's finally someone good who you can see is piecing things together in a franchise that wants its villains to get away with it. He thinks outside the box and is a bit hot headed, but I don't know if this is enough for him to gain red. If anything, partner with commanders with Perez' complimentary colors.

COLORS: BLUE - RED partner with PEREZ

Special Agent Lindsey Perez

Perez is very similar to Strahm, but she's more level-headed. She keeps her cool, and they collaborate very well together. I never feel like one of the partners is more important than the other until Perez dies. 

And I say dies, but in Saw VI, it turns out she's not dead, but the top brass at the Bureau (Erickson) wanted to fake her death as to scare up potential accomplices. Since Erickson suspected Strahm as the accomplice, he reveals Perez's situation to Hoffman, who immediately makes her uncomfortable. Hey, buddy, go with your gut!

Anyway, Perez grounds Strahm and goes out with one of the most badass moments in the franchise. 

I'm giving her Selesnya, the greater good. 

COLORS: GREEN - WHITE partner with Strahm

Art Blank

Art Blank is the guy running Rigg's game. He's a lawyer and a friend of Jigsaw's. He's the lawyer who wanted to press charges of police brutality on Rigg when they went to a school and found out a principal had been abusing students. Rigg punched the principal, and when Art mentioned he'd be pressing charges, Hoffman lied and said he was there for the whole thing and the principal attacked Rigg first. 

Anyway, Art is a lawyer so we know what this one gets.

COLOR: WHITE - BLACK (Orzhov)

Cecil Adams

Cecil is a drug abuser who's a frequent guest at Jill Tuck's clinic where she helps drug users with their habit by weening them off and giving them a safe space. Cecil is very into giving into his impulses. He is sexually riled up by Amanda, who asks him to go steal drugs from Jill's clinic as Jill is locking up. This is important because she gets blackmailed for it. Cecil pretends to have forgotten something and Jill lets him in. He rushes through, slamming the door on Jill's pregnant belly causing her to miscarry. John finds her and takes her to the hospital. 

Why does this matter? Some guy made Jigsaw and his wife lose their baby. 

He's John's first victim. Jigsaw finds a pig mask at a Chinese new year parade and chloroforms Cecil with it. Cecil wakes up in a chair with knives digging into his wrists. Jigsaw puts a helmet on Cecil with more knives. Cecil has to push his face into the knives to push a button with his nose or tongue to get out of the trap. Cecil delivers a fantastic "You're f@$kin' nuts" before  successfully getting out of the trap, slipping on his blood as he tries to get up. He dives at John, landing in a bunch of barbed wire. John always said "Nothing is left to chance if you're good at anticipating the human mind". 

COLOR: RED, maybe a black activation cost, but likely mono-red. 

BREAK FOR PART TWO

What? Did you think I'd do all the movies in one article? Oh, jeez, that'd be a Saw trap in its own right.

What do you think of this so far? Hit me with your thoughts in the comments or on Twitter @amithebolcast.

All still movie images used in this article are the property of Lionsgate Films, but are also used under I guess review or commentary laws, I'm not sure, I'm not a lawyer.