| “ | John Kramer was right, the spiral. A symbol of change, evolution, progress. But why limit to an individual when you can apply it to a whole system? You got shot for doing the right thing. But let's face it, these cops? They're not going to clean up on their own. But we take a tongue here, a few bones there, they'll come around. We're going to fix a broken department. Okay? You and me. | ” |
— William Emmerson[src]
| ||
William Emmerson, also known as William Schenk, is a character from the Saw franchise. He serves as the main antagonist of Spiral.
He was portrayed by Max Minghella.
Quick Answers
What is the significance of William Emmerson's alias, William Schenk, in the Saw franchise?
Who portrayed the character of William Emmerson in the Saw franchise?
What is the role of William Emmerson in the movie 'Spiral'?
How does William Emmerson's backstory contribute to his actions in 'Spiral'?
Biography[]
Father's Murder[]
William was born and raised as William Emmerson, the son of Charlie Emmerson. The Metropolitan Police Department were under a list of policies called Article 8, which gave them the legal means to do whatever was needed to stop crime. This allowed for corruption, which Charlie witnessed. He saw a corrupt officer murder someone by pushing them off a roof. He was willing to testify against the officer, which put him in the cross-hairs of the other Metropolitan Police Department officers. When William was twelve years old, his father was visited by officers Peter Dunleavy and Ezekiel Banks of the Metropolitan Police. They questioned him on what he saw of the murder. Dunleavy went against orders and shot Charlie, which killed him. A horrified William witnessed from a cabinet where he had hidden. Officer Banks spotted the boy and raised a finger to his lip to shush him, as he worried Dunleavy would kill him. (Spiral)
Becoming a Jigsaw Copycat[]
Fifteen years later, William assumed the alias of William Schenk and decided to take the mantle of the Jigsaw Killer in order to murder corrupt cops and avenge his father. William decided that Bozwick would be his first victim and hired a small-time criminal named Benny Wrights to lure Bozwick into the sewers. Benny disguised himself as Uncle Sam and went in search of Bozwick.
During the night of 4th July, Marv was off duty, Boz was walking through the Carnival when suddenly, Benny collided with him. Benny then stole the purse of a woman in the carnival. Making sure that Boz kept following him, Benny entered the sewers via the ladders of an underground tunnel and kept running away. Bozwick decided to keep chasing Benny and went through the ladders of the underground tunnel until reaching the sewers. Bozwick went through another pathway and saw a mannequin dressed as Uncle Sam sitting on a chair in the distance. Believing it was Benny, he screamed at the mannequin to put his hands in the air. As he got no response, Bozwick kept slowly approaching to the mannequin and kicked it off the chair.
William abducts Boz
This made him realize it was just a mannequin and left him confused for a few seconds. Suddenly, William appeared behind Bozwick with a pig mask covering his face and wrapped a cloth, presumably laced with chloroform, around Marv's head until he went unconscious. After this, William took off Bozwick's shoes, coat and hat, and took his unconscious body to a subway station. He then stranded Bozwick on a wooden stepstool, tied his both hands to his back with barbed wire and attached his tongue to a metal contraption hanging from the ceiling by chains by piercing it with a screw. (Spiral)
Becoming a Police Officer[]
In an elaborate effort to exact revenge for the murder of his father, and punish its other corrupt officers, William assumed the alias of William Schenk and enrolled in the police academy. He knew that under his birth name, William Emmerson, he would never become a police officer, nor would he ever be partnered with Ezekiel Banks.
William meets Zeke
How he managed to falsify his background checks is unknown, though he kept his nose clean as a rookie and caught the attention of captain Angie Garza. When Detective Marv Bozwick is brutally murdered in the subway, Garza called in homicide detective Ezekiel Banks to investigate. She assigned him the idealistic Officer Schenk as his partner. (Spiral)
Partnership with Ezekiel Banks[]
Ezekiel hated the idea of a partner as he found it hard to trust anyone after he outed Peter Dunleavy as a corrupt cop, as it had given him a target on his back. Captain Garza forced Schenk on Banks, who didn't care much for the small talk that Schenk brought. Schenk claimed that his entire reason for joining the police force was because of Banks's father, Marcus, though Banks warned that he wasn't his father. Banks also warned Schenk that his marriage wouldn't work as officers sign up for dying alone due to their hectic schedules. Schenk, however, is optimistic that not all marriages have to end in an ugly divorce like Banks's.
The USB that was sent to Zeke from the killer
Zeke receives a box from the killer with a USB drive in it, which Zeke plugs into William's trial, saying he didn't to corrupt his own computer. They find the first video tape from the killer, who identifies the murdered man as a police officer. The killer plans to reform the Metro PD and remind them of the oath they took to the city. Schenk, Banks, and Detective Fitch piece together that the Jigsaw Killer has a new copycat. Once Zeke saw the video that Schenk anonymously sent to him in the form of an USB, he recognized the courthouse that appeared in the video. He then went there along with William and found the red spiral. Two other detectives that also watched the video, Fitch and Kraus, went to the courthouse.
Zeke and William arrived at the crime scene, with Fitch and Kraus arriving later. William asked what they were doing there, with Fitch replying that they thought they would need some backup. Ezekiel insulted Fitch, telling him this wasn't his case. William told Zeke about the box that was in the metal bars of the windows of the building. After opening it, they found it contained Bozwick's tongue along with his plaque. All of them reacted with disgust, although William was once again faking it. Zeke then grabbed the police plaque and read the numbers. William asked Zeke who was the officer 4-5-3. Zeke got shocked after recognizing the numbers from the plaque and it was confirmed to him and the rest of the Metropolitan Police Department that Marv Bozwick was the one who was killed in the trap.
William abducts Fitch
Later, the police found a truck with a spiral painted on it, located under a bridge. After Zeke opened the door, he found a dead pig and a box containing Fitch's fingers and badge. Zeke, Will, and Kraus then found Fitch's corpse at a bread factory, the location of the crime scene. After hearing the confirmation of Fitch's corpse, Kraus is heartbroken but is questioned by Zeke. Drury suspects that Banks is involved since both Boz and Fitch had connections to Banks. Schenk, however, agrees with Banks that someone else is pulling the strings and puppet mastering the events around them. Their investigation makes them cross paths with Peter Dunleavy, the man that Banks turned in for killing an innocent man. Banks warns Schenk that there is a code that he has to learn to follow, or he'll spend his days watching his back. Schenk later goes missing. (Spiral)
Faking His Death[]
William taunts Marcus
Marcus Banks received a text from his son's phone that said to meet up with him on an old soap factory on 11th; in reality, this text was sent by William. Once Marcus arrived at the factory, he started to look around the place with both his gun and a flashlight. Soon, he found a wall that had the words "Do you want to play a game Chief Banks?". As Marcus went deeper into the factory, he eventually found a room with a typewriter and a puppet. Just as he started to send a text about his findings, he was abducted by William.
One night, William kidnapped Benny and hanged him by the hands to the ceiling of a room from the Constantine store, a butcher shop that used to be a hobby shop where Zeke went with his father when he was a kid. He then took off his clothes and after that, scored Benny's body in order to remove the larger strips of his skin first, including his arms and neck. William then started to skin Benny's entire body with a knife. After that, William tattooed the name Charlie along with a lemniscate symbol on a piece of Benny's skin, just like the tattoo William had on his arm in order to make everyone believe he had a son named Charlie.
Zeke carefully opens the box
A wooden box was delivered to the police station with the contents being the piece of tattooed skin. Banks mistakenly believed it to be Schenk's skin. William added a note to the box, taunting Banks for his inability to catch him and threatening to take the police department's head. A vial inside the box lead Banks and the police to the butcher shop. Inside, they found Benny's skinned corpse, which they believed was William's.
After getting to Constantine, Ezekiel and O'Brien entered the room where Benny's body was being examined by other cops and reacted with horror and disgust after seeing it. Ezekiel waited outside of the room for a few minutes and when he went back into it, he asked a forensic about evidence. The forensic told him that they have been analyzing the tape recording and they were able to find out how the body was scored in order to remove the pieces in larger strips first; the defensive wounds meant he tried to fight back, explaining the deeper gashes. After hearing all of this, Ezekiel was close to crying, due to not believing the fate allegedly his new partner and friend met. This upset Banks more than he anticipated, though he begins to piece together clues from the investigation that he doesn't share with the other detectives.
With the world thinking he's dead, Schenk is able to use his knowledge of the police department to kidnap Angie Garza and place her in the basement of the station. He attaches her to a machine that will pour hot wax on her face if she doesn't sever her spinal cord. His pre-recorded message to her warns that she never stuck her neck out for the innocent, so the cover-up will now be on her. Garza is able to sever her spine but can't escape the hot wax and is murdered. (Spiral)
Reveal and Offer to Banks[]
Banks is kidnapped and forced to decide whether to let himself stay handcuffed to a pipe, or saw off his arm. Banks uncovers a third option when he picks the lock with a bobby pin. He finds Peter Dunleavy chained in front of a machine that hurls shards of glass at his body. Jigsaw's voice narrates that Banks can either save the man who murdered someone in cold blood, or let him die. Banks attempts to save Dunleavy but fails as the man already suffered fatal wounds. He moves to the next room where he finds William Schenk, alive and well, applauding his investigative efforts and ability to navigate his tests.
Zeke finds William
Banks is initially confused as to how Schenk is alive, though he lays out the gory details. He lured Zeke's father, Marcus, to the abandoned location when he borrowed Zeke's phone for seemingly normal reasons. He then faked his death by copying his tattoo onto a corpse, then used a cover story of his wife and son to make Banks less likely to suspect him. He reveals that he doesn't have either and lied about them. He explains that he was emphatic for the previous Jigsaw's signature symbol: the spiral. He viewed it as a symbol of change, evolution, and progress. He sought to fix the broken system that allowed for his father to be murdered. He reveals that his father was Charles Emmerson, the man that Dunleavy murdered, and the reason Banks turned Dunleavy in.
Schenk didn't want to kill Banks, but rather, recruit him. He sought to scare the cops into going straight by killing the ones who commit corruption. He shows Banks his kidnapped father, Marcus, who is hanging in the air while blood drains from his body. Schenk gives Banks a gun with a single bullet - he can either kill Schenk or hit a target that will release Marcus and save his life. The only catch, is that if Banks saves his father then Schenk will escape. Marcus Bank was responsible for the police forces that enabled the corruption to occur, which resulted in Schenk's father dying. (Spiral)
Escape[]
William escapes
Unable to lose his father, Banks shoots the target to free Marcus. He removes the IV that is draining Marcus's blood but refuses to let Schenk escape and attacks him, causing them to fight. A SWAT team arrives but mistakes the situation due to Banks' past with the other victims. They believe Schenk is the one being held captive and aim their weapons at Banks. Marcus is suddenly pulled upwards by wires, as the SWAT team triggered a mechanism when they opened the door. Since a gun is affixed to his hand, the team mistakes Marcus for a threat and shoots him. Banks screams in anguish as his father is murdered in front of him. He looks over to see Schenk escaping through an elevator. Schenk raises one finger to his lips to tauntingly shush Banks, as Zeke did to him after his father's murder. (Spiral)
Personality[]
Initially, Schenk is shown to be charming, optimistic, and loyal. However, he is later revealed to be cold, calculating, manipulative and two-faced. He is also very intelligent, using Jigsaw's former methods and applying them to his own goal, whilst seemingly being capable of constructing traps similar to John's, despite them being more gritty and not as polished as his idol. Like John, Schenk constructed his traps to specifications that would allow his victims the chance to survive, in order to complete the ruse.
William had positive motives for assuming the Jigsaw persona, as he wanted to clean up corruption within the police force and get justice for the innocent people that had been harmed, including his father, who Schenk saw murdered by Dunleavy as a boy. However, Schenk chose to indulge in the darkest parts of himself to do so, through kidnapping, torturing, and killing police officers - including those who were never directly involved in his agenda. He became vengeful and twisted, as he viewed his victims as a means to an end - nothing in the larger scheme of things.
William can be described as a sociopath, as he has the ability to blend into society despite his mental instability. He concocted an entire back story to help him grow closer to Zeke and get the man to trust him, in an unsuccessful bid to attempt to recruit Ezekiel to his cause.
Trivia[]
- William is the first main antagonist who adopted John Kramer's modus operandi without having any ties to him.
- William is the second character in the Saw franchise to have a secondary actor as a younger version of him, the first being Ryan.
- He is the second police officer to take up Jigsaw's legacy, the first being Mark Hoffman.
- However, unlike Hoffman, William tested people for justice, whereas Hoffman used Jigsaw's legacy for his own personal gain.
- Before his identity was revealed, William, like Logan, tested people to exact personal justice and revenge against the corruption that resulted in the murder of a family member. For William it was his father, and for Logan, it was his wife. Both of them also succeeded in exacting their own revenge.
- William is the third character to use Jigsaw's M.O. to exact revenge. The first two are Logan Nelson and Mark Hoffman.
- William is also the third character that created unwinnable traps. The other two are Amanda Young and Mark Hoffman.
- William's last name may be a reference to Michael Emerson, the actor who played Zep Hindle.
Appearances and References[]
| Films | |||||||||
| Saw | Saw II | Saw III | Saw IV | Saw V | Saw VI | Saw 3D | Jigsaw | Spiral | Saw X |
| Absent | Absent | Absent | Absent | Absent | Absent | Absent | Absent | Appears | Absent |
| Other Media | |||||
| "Saw" (2003 Short) |
Saw: Rebirth (2005 Comic) |
Full Disclosure Report | The Scott Tibbs Documentary | Saw: The Video Game | Saw II: Flesh & Blood |
| Absent | Absent | Absent | Absent | Absent | Absent |