Allison Kerry

Detective Allison Kerry is a fictional character from the Saw franchise as well as a supporting protagonist in the first three movies. She was portrayed by Dina Meyer.

Biography

The Jigsaw Case

Allison Kerry was a homicide detective, who worked for the Metropolitan Police Department. She was one of the investigators who were involved in the Jigsaw Case from the beginning. Eager to solve the case and arrest the Jigsaw Killer, Kerry dedicated most of her time to her work. Her obsession with her work was one of the reasons why she had no contact with her family anymore. Unbeknownst to her colleagues, she was in contact with the FBI and provided the special agents Peter Strahm and Lindsey Perez with information about the progress of the investigation. At an early point in Jigsaw's murder series, she was leading the investigation of the murder of Seth Baxter, who had killed the sister of one of her colleagues, Detective Mark Hoffman, five years earlier. (Saw, Saw II, Saw IV, Saw V)

Due to her enthusiasm for her work, she was often among the first to arrive at each crime scene, such as the place of Paul Leahy's death. Paul had been trapped in a cage filled with razor wire and had to find a way out within two hours if he wanted to survive. When her colleagues, Detective David Tapp and Detective Steven Sing, arrived, she had already gathered information from the forensics and was able to tell them about Paul's demise. She informed them about his fatal injuries caused by the razor wire and presented them an audio tape, which had been used to give Paul the instructions for his game.

Shortly afterward, Kerry was also present at the crime scene of another game, which had caused the death of a man named Mark Wilson. Upon investigating the scene, she found a peephole in one of the walls, which had been used by Jigsaw to witness Mark's game. Kerry remarked that she had seen a similar peephole at the previous crime scene as well. Furthermore, she presented Tapp a penlight found at the place of Mark's death. Tapp ordered her to send it to the laboratory to see if they could find any fingerprints on it. The lab was actually successful and the fingerprints were eventually identified as those of Dr. Lawrence Gordon, a renowned oncologist. (Saw)

Michael Marks' Death

Several months later, Kerry had become the leading investigator in the case after Sing's death and Tapp's discharge and was called to the murder scene of another Jigsaw victim, Michael Marks, whose corpse had been found during an asbestos disposal. When she arrived, she found a message written at the ceiling which said "Look closer, Detective Matthews," referring to Detective Eric Matthews, her former partner whom she once had an affair with. Their relationship had ultimately resulted in Eric's alienation from his son, Daniel, and his wife, who subsequently filed for divorce. The first officer who arrived at the crime scene told her that Michael was one of Eric's informants. However, as he wasn't completely sure about this, Kerry decided to call Eric for help. Even though he wasn't happy to see Kerry because of their past, he agreed to take a look at the corpse and actually identified Michael as his informant due to a tattoo on his leg. However, when he saw the jigsaw piece cut from Michael's skin and read the message Jigsaw left for him, he refused to help Kerry as he didn't want to have anything to do with the case nor with her.

Back at the police station, this resulted in an argument between them. While Kerry was examining a video found at Michael's crime scene, Eric interrupted her and compared her to Jigsaw, claiming they had much in common as they both liked to play with other people. When Kerry apologized for her behavior at the crime scene and tried to convince Eric to help her, he reminded her that this was her case and they were no partners anymore. Angered by this, she asked Eric when he stopped to be a cop, before leaving the office. (Saw II)

Eric Matthews' Test

However, when Eric deduced the true meaning behind Jigsaw's message, he was able to locate the killer's hideout at the Wilson Steel Plant. The next day, Kerry, accompanied by Eric and a SWAT team led by Sergeant Daniel Rigg, went to the building and sent Rigg in with three of his men, including a SWAT officer named Pete Baker. Unfortunately, the team accidentally activated a booby trap, resulting in the death of two officers and Officer Baker's legs being broken. Called in for reinforcement by Rigg, Kerry entered the building with Eric and the remaining SWAT team and moments later finally found the Jigsaw Killer, a civil engineer named John Kramer. Sergeant Rigg ordered his men to arrest him, but they refused to do so when John told Eric it'd the best if John stayed where he was until Eric took care of his "problem" and told him to watch at the surveillance monitors in the next room. Kerry, Rigg and Eric entered the room. Upon looking at the monitors, they saw what appeared to be another one of Jigsaw's games. Eight people were trapped in a room, one of whom Eric recognized as his son, Daniel. When he saw the footage, Eric immediately attempted to attack John and angrily yelled at him, but was held back by Sergeant Rigg. John then explained the rules of his test to him. Eric's colleagues had to leave the room while Eric merely had to sit down and talk to John for a period of two hours until a timer went off. If he would do that, he'd eventually see his son again.

Kerry tried to calm Eric down. However, this attempt remained unsuccessful as Eric got more and more nervous, especially when the first victim, Gus Colyard, was killed by a booby trap only a few minutes after the game began. On Rigg's advice, Kerry called for a tech team to trace back the video broadcast. After a talk with John Kramer, Eric told his colleagues about his ultimatum: In order to save his son, he just had to sit down and talk to John until the end of the game. Kerry got in an argument with Rigg, who suggested to grill John about the victims' whereabouts by using violence. She told him this wouldn't work, stating that John fits a certain psychological profile. Eventually, she convinced Eric to agree to John's challenge and talk to him while she kept an eye on the progress of the game. However, when talking to him, Eric placed a walkie-talkie beneath his chair so his colleagues were able to listen to their conversation.

When the second victim in the house, Obi Tate, died in a trap, Rigg repeated his suggestion to make John tell them about the house by violation as they were just wasting time in his opinion. Kerry, however, still insisted on keeping the situation calm as long as possible. Meanwhile, Eric became more and more distressed as the game went on and the tech team was running late, which caused Kerry to formulate a new plan: As she thought John was proud of his work and that it meant everything to him, she told Eric to threaten John to destroy all of his construction plans and notes in the hideout. Eric did so, but was in turn only provoked by John. The killer was rarely impressed by Eric's outburst of rage, which came to an end when the tech team finally arrived and got received their instructions from Kerry. As Eric refused to play the game and talk to John any longer, the latter told him and his colleagues to look in the drawer of a desk located in the same room as the monitors. As Kerry did so, she found a bunch of old case files. Those were the files of the seven other prisoners in the house: Gus Colyard, Obi Tate, Jonas Singer, Laura Hunter, Xavier Chavez and Amanda Young, who was the first known victim who survived one of John's games. All those people were once unjustly incriminated by Eric for crimes they didn't commit after he had faked the evidences in several cases.

When the game in the house got out of control as one of the victims, Xavier, started to kill the other prisoners and pursued Daniel and Amanda, Eric brutally beat John up to make him reveal Daniel's whereabouts. Kerry tried to stop him, but was held back by Rigg. When Eric threatened John with his gun, the latter offered to take him to the house, but demanded to go there with Eric alone. Eric agreed and left the building with John in a hidden elevator. As they left the building, Kerry sent the SWAT team after them while she stayed with SWAT Officer Joe and the tech team, which traced the video feed back to an address at 237 North Hyde Crescent shortly afterward. However, when Rigg and his team arrived there, they realized that the game was already over and the video feed was merely a recording. Kerry told the team to come back. As the timer went off, a safe in John's hideout suddenly opened and revealed Daniel Matthews, who had been locked up in the safe all the time. (Saw II)

Compunction

When Eric didn't return, his colleagues eventually came the conclusion that he had become a victim of Jigsaw as well. Shortly after the game, Kerry found out, probably due to Daniel's testimony, that Amanda Young was, in fact, Jigsaw's accomplice and had merely pretended to be a victim in the game. Desperate to find Eric, Kerry began to feel guilty for his disappearance as she thought it likely wouldn't have happened if she didn't push him to help her. These feelings of guilt caused her to have nightmares in which she saw him, which worsened her emotional state even more.

Six months later, Kerry was called to an elementary school by Rigg, who had found the crime scene of another game, which the victim, Troy, didn't survive. When she arrived, she immediately asked if the victim was Eric, but Detective Mark Hoffman, who was investigating the crime scene, told her it wasn't him. He also told her that the victim had been held in place by eleven chains piercing his body and was eventually killed by a nail bomb. However, she got suspicious when she learned that the SWAT team had to cut the door open as it had been welded shut, giving Troy no chance to escape even if he would've passed his test. This led her to the conclusion that someone else was responsible for the game. Seconds later, a member of the forensic team told her that the video tape containing the instructions for Troy's game was still intact, despite the explosion. (Saw III)

Abduction

Eager to find Eric and finally put an end to Jigsaw's games, Kerry took the video from Troy's crime scene and a bunch of photos and files with her to continue her research at home. While she watched the video over and over again, she suddenly saw herself on the TV screen. She realized that she was filmed from inside her closet and shot right through its door. When she searched the closet, she found the camera and removed it, but was then subdued by an invader with a pig mask, who had sneaked up on her. Amanda Young and Detective Hoffman, who was an accomplice of Jigsaw as well, abducted her and placed her in one of Jigsaw's traps. (Saw III)

Death

When Kerry woke up again, she immediately realized what had happened to her and started to panic. Moments later, a TV turned on in front of her. A mechanical ventriloquist puppet appeared on-screen and told her that she was abducted because of her obsession with her work. It told her that she had to grab the key to the device from an acid-filled beaker in front of her. Otherwise, the trap would kill her after 60 seconds by tearing her rib cage apart. When the tape ended and the TV turned off, Kerry further panicked and tried to tip the acid out of the beaker. However, this wasn't possible as it was held in place by two chains. After some initial hesitation, she finally tried to get the key, but pulled her hand back due to the massive amount of pain. Nonetheless, she could bring herself to try it once again and eventually got the key from the glass, which she used to open the lock of her device. Unfortunately, the lock was without function, destroying her remaining hope to survive. Mere seconds before the timer expired, Amanda entered the room. Kerry recognized her and realized it was her who had manipulated Troy's trap as well as her own. Moments later, the timer went off, causing the trap to tear her rib cage apart. (Saw III)

Post-Mortem

Four days later, Detective Hoffman, accompanied by a SWAT team led by Rigg and Officer Lamanna, found her corpse. Despite Hoffman telling him to stand back, Rigg panicked and ran straight to her as he hoped she was still alive. However, his hopes were in vain. Shortly afterward, the crime scene was investigated by a forensic team joined by Detective Fisk, when the FBI agents Peter Strahm and Lindsey Perez arrived. They told Hoffman about a key and a message supposedly sent to them by Kerry and revealed that she had been their contact person. Upon examining the corpse, Fisk found a bullet shell clamped between the device and the body, which Hoffman ordered to be examined for fingerprints. When Agent Perez found the open lock of the trap, she quickly came to the conclusion that this wasn't a real Jigsaw trap. However, when Hoffman said it was probably a trap built by Amanda Young, Agent Strahm negated this as Kerry weighed approximately 130 pounds while Amanda Young weighed only 107 pounds according to her arrest report. Therefore, she couldn't have placed Kerry in the trap on her own, leading to the conclusion that a third, yet unknown, person assisted her and John Kramer. Kerry's body was then taken to the morgue, where it was examined by Dr. Adam Heffner. (Saw IV, Saw VI)

After John Kramer's and Amanda Young's deaths at the hands of Jeff Denlon, another one of their victims, Kerry and her deceased colleagues Daniel Rigg, Eric Matthews, David Tapp and Steven Sing were given a memorial. A picture of her stood next to those of her colleagues. On this occasion, Detective Hoffman and the Chief of Police each delivered a speech to honor them and their efforts. (Saw III, Saw V)

Non-Canon Appearances

Saw II: Flesh & Blood

Kerry was mentioned in some of Detective Tapp's police files in Saw II: Flesh & Blood. According to them, there were rumors that Kerry had slept with some of her more influential colleagues in order to gain her position as a detective. However, Tapp didn't believe those rumors, albeit he found her a little too flirty at times. It was also implied that he didn't trust her completely as she once tried to get a job at the FBI but was rejected, causing him to suspect her of being a security leak.

After his discharge, he got in an argument with Kerry, who refused to give him any information about the progress of the investigation. At this time, she had replaced him as the lead investigator of the case.

Personality

Kerry was a hard-working detective who dedicated most of her life to her work. Therefore, she neglected any interpersonal relationships and eventually lost contact to her family. As she spent so much time at crime scenes and in other situations related to death, she got to a point were she preferred the presence of a cold body instead of a living human being, causing her to become emotionally numb to a certain extent. She was also kind of egoistic as she had an affair with her former partner, Eric Matthews, even though she probably knew he was married.

She was eager to solve the Jigsaw case and was always anxious to be in control of the investigation. However, she was also capable of stronger feelings for other people. For six months, she blamed herself for Eric's abduction by Jigsaw as she was the one who pushed him to help her. These feelings of guilt got worse over time, causing her to have nightmares in which she saw Eric. While she originally had a rather dominant personality, this changed after Eric's disappearance, indicating some sort of depression.

Trivia

• In Jigsaw, a newspaper article about the raid on Wilson Steel can be seen in the hidden closet in Eleanor Bonneville's studio. It includes a picture of Kerry and the SWAT, moments before entering the building.

Appearances and References