Warning: This article contains full spoilers for Saw X… Well, obviously.
The Saw franchise is back! OK, so maybe that’s a little redundant as the torture porn horror series never really went anywhere. Seven films in, they did rest the brand for — suitably — seven years there before the underwhelming Jigsaw, aka Saw 8, released in 2017, and since then we’ve had the experimental Spiral in 2021. What makes Saw X feel like a real comeback, though, is because it restores the franchise to its factory settings, returning to the timeline of the first few films and centering on Tobin Bell’s John Kramer.
Taking place in between the original Saw and Saw II, Saw X (how do you personally pronounce that? Saw Ecks or Saw Ten? Never mind, not important) somehow makes the Jigsaw killer more sympathetic than ever. You might find yourself feeling so bad for him when he discovers that he’s been scammed by those exploiting his desire to cure his terminal cancer that you cheer him on in putting his enemies through his grisly traps. Especially by the end of the movie, when it seems Kramer may end up losing for the first time in Saw history.
And yet things are never as they appear in a Saw film, so you’re bound to leave your viewing of Saw X with some questions. Maybe this will help…
Here’s what happens in Saw X‘s twist ending
Initially, Saw X seems to have turned the tables on Jigsaw for once when it appears that he’s been bested and is forced to participate in one of his own traps. Dr. Cecilia Pederson (Synnøve Macody Lund) proves herself to be perhaps the most evil character in the whole franchise — yes, even more so than Kramer himself — when she turns on her ally Gabriella (Renata Vaca) and makes her partner Parker (Steven Brand) entrap Kramer and his acolyte Amanda (Shawnee Smith), not to mention blameless young boy Carlos.
Leaving Kramer and Carlos to be waterboarded by a torrent of blood (bloodboarded?), Cecilia and Parker take off in search of the money Kramer stole from them — which they stole from him originally, of course. When Cecilia lifts the bag of money, however, she turns off the blood-flow, allowing Amanda to free Kramer and Carlos. The real final trap begins as the room fills with poisonous gas. But there is one hole big enough for either Cecilia or Parker to stick their head through, so that they can survive for 10 minutes before the gas dissipates.
As predicted, Cecilia brutally betrays Parker by stabbing him in the chest and saving herself. According to the usual rules of Kramer’s games, this therefore earns Cecilia her freedom. And yet it seems his hatred of her is so strong that he decides to break his code just this once as Cecilia finds she cannot escape the room. We’re now left to ponder whether she died a long and agonizing death of starvation and hunger in that trap or if she could return in Saw 11, which is unsurprisingly already being touted — and further teased by Saw X‘s post-credits scene, which you should definitely stick around for.