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.
Biography[]
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 Pete 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.
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 of 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.
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.
Escape[]
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 Banks did to him after his father's murder. but Banks lets out an emotional scream as Schenk escapes.
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.
- William is the third character to use Jigsaw's M.O. to exact revenge. The first two are Logan Nelson and Mark Hoffman.
- William's last name may be a reference to Michael Emerson, the actor who played Zep Hindle.