If youre scratching your chin after watching Jigsaw, heres our spoiler-filled attempt to explain it…
This article contains spoilers forJigsaw.
Various fan theories were available, but in the end, only one of them could be true.
Regardless, the easiest way to explainJigsaws twists and turns is to spell them all out in chronological order.
The first trap these people had to face was the bucket-head challenge.
Johns tape told them to made a blood offering, however small, to survive.
However, after the doors slammed shut, John rushed into the first room and rescued Logan.
Everyone else from the original farmhouse games wound up dead, and their bodies werent found for ten years.
Mitch died a particularly grisly death in a complicated trap that incorporated numerous motorcycle pieces.
This time, instead of leaving them in a bathtub, he secreted the keys in a bullet shell.
She also blew her own face off.
After being stitched up, Logan helped John build the iconic Reverse Bear-Trap machine.
(AsSaw IIIs flashbacks showed us, Amanda was recruited after her Reverse Bear-Trap test.
Upon joining Team Jigsaw, she helped set up the bathroom game from Saw.
So, in a way,Jigsawis both a sequel and a prequel toSaw.)
John, while building the Reverse Bear-Trap, taught Logan that Jigsaw tests cannot be used for vengeance.
Over the course of those films, John recruited various other apprentices.
The aforementioned Amanda assisted John in setting up various traps, as did Costas Mandylors Detective Hoffman.
Did Logan know any of Johns other apprentices?
Did he work on anything else besides the Reverse Bear-Trap?
Was he lurking in the background during all the previous Saw films?
At the moment, its impossible to answer any of those questions with certainty.
ButJigsawdoes offer some clues.
The film makes it clear that, at some point, Logan served in the American military.
He was involved in the conflict with the Taliban, and his case file mentions brutal interrogations.
Maybe Logans service is the reason for his absence in the previous films.
Perhaps his grief pushed him back towards John Kramers teachings.
But then, Logan hatched a plan… Halloran was taking bribes, letting criminals go free, and getting innocent people locked up in prison.
Logan realised, at some point, that Halloran is exactly the sort of person that Jigsaw would target.
It started with Josiah Blacks Edgar Munsen, a police informant that Halloran was very familiar with.
Edgars options were to press the trigger and start another game, or die.
Edgar opted to press the trigger.
The police shot at him.
And so did Logan, from a nearby rooftop.
Logan shot Edgar near the heart, which resulted in Edgar going into a coma.
Edgars pressing of the trigger kick-started a new version of the farmhouse game.
Whenever one of the lookalikes died, Logan sent their corpse into Hallorans path.
This was a big misdirect, intended to throw audiences off the scent of the incoming plot twist.
Theres no indication, to start with, that these are different people.
Meanwhile, in both the flashbacks and the modern day, people keep dying in the farmhouse traps.
Halloran begins to suspect that Eleanor is the new Jigsaw, because he tracks her online activity to JigsawRules.com.
As if on cue, Eleanor who has no idea about Logans secret invites Logan to visit her studio.
Its a grim workshop filled with Jigsaw memorabilia and replicas.
Of course, he got these scars when he was in the bucket-head trap ten years ago.
But, on first viewing, we dont know that yet.
Long-timeSawfans may have suspected something, though, given thatSaw IIandSaw IValso played with timelines to engineer their twists.
Logan starts trying to convince everyone that Halloran is the Jigsaw copycat.
Logan convinces Eleanor that Halloran cant be trusted.
Logan and Eleanor head to the farmhouse.
Logan makes sure that Eleanor sees plenty of fresh blood there.
At this point, Logan captures Halloran.
Logan puts himself in a two-man game with Halloran, involving laser necklace thingies.
The idea of this trap is simple: if you confess your crimes, you go free.
He says a bunch of stuff, and then fakes his own death.
The lasers move (although his ones are clearly ineffective), and fake blood splatters everywhere.
Halloran buys it, believing that Logan is dead.
Then Hallorans game begins.
He explains that he was the original bucket-head, and that Jigsaw saved his life.
Logan shows off the decomposed bodies on the floor to illustrate his point.
The pieces suddenly slot, somewhat bizarrely, into place.
Logan has those scars because he was the bucket-head whose back was torn to shreds.
Halloran enquires about the nature of this game.
Shouldnt he get a chance to save himself?
Logan explains that no such opportunity is going to be occurring.
Logan quotes Jigsaws comment about his traps giving dead people a voice.
Halloran has let people die, and its not the Jigsaw way for Logan to let that slide.
Hallorans head is torn to shreds by lasers, and Logan makes a dramatic exit.
Logan closes a big sliding door, as isSawtradition, and the credits roll.
But, although that door is quite literally closed, a more metaphorical one is being propped open.
Writers Peter Goldfinger and Josh Stolberg seem to be leaving their options open for a sequel, dont they?
John Kramer is dead, because of course he is.
But do fans actually want to see that?
AJigsawfilm about a different Jigsaw?
Well have to wait and see.
If the baton can successfully be handed to Logan, the games may not be over…
