Water Cube

## Design and Function

This trap was located in a secret room inside the abandoned Gideon Meatpacking Plant. It was a cube-shaped glass box which was suspended from the ceiling by two metal bars. On the bottom of the cube was a hole for the victim's head. While the test subject could easily be trapped in the cube, the person couldn't free themself without help due to the brim of the hole being lined with rubber that laid tightly around the victim's neck. Suspended from the ceiling as well were two bottle-shaped water tanks with two tubes that were put through the top of the cube. Once the game began, the cube would quickly fill in with water, thereby inevitably drowning the victim. This trap wasn't meant as a test itself but rather as an execution device to punish the victim that failed their task in a previous test. (*Saw V*)

## History

### Peter Strahm's Test

The victim of this trap was Peter Strahm, a special agent investigating the serial killer case of John Kramer, better known as the Jigsaw Killer. Therefore, he was targeted by the killer himself and had to face a test on his own. By following the clues left for him, Strahm had ultimately managed to find John Kramer's hideout at the abandoned Gideon Meatpacking Plant. Thereby, he found the corpses of John and his apprentice, Amanda Young, after their deaths at the hands of Jeff Denlon, one of their victims. Upon entering the room with the corpses, Strahm was threatened by Jeff with a gun and therefore shot him in self-defense, killing him. When he went further into the room, he found the humiliated corpse of another victim, Dr. Lynn Denlon, Jeff's wife. As he was too distracted, Strahm didn't notice how Detective Mark Hoffman, John's other apprentice and future successor, approached him from behind and locked him up inside the room along with the corpses. Seconds later, the lights in the room were turned off. Strahm attempted to open the door. However, this attempt remained a failure. Therefore, he tried to call the police, but this attempt failed as well as he had no signal. While looking for another way out, he eventually noticed the outlines of a hidden door as they glowed green due to a special fluorescent color. Upon opening it, he discovered a hallway and a tape recorder hanging from the ceiling. The tape, recorded by John Kramer, told him to stay where he was until the police arrived. However, Strahm refused to do so, and entered the secret hallway behind the door, leaving the dead bodies behind him. Eventually, he reached a room at the end of the hallway. However, only moments after he went in, he was attacked by a disguised Hoffman, who had been waiting for him and injected him with an anesthetic. Moments later, Strahm passed out. Afterwards, Hoffman put him in the Water Cube in the same room.

When Strahm woke up again, he immediately panicked when he realized that his head was trapped in a glass cube. Frightened by the situation, he screamed for help and tried to free himself. While looking around, he noticed two tubes inserted through the top of the cube, which were connected to two water tanks. Moments later, after searching his pockets for anything useful, he saw all of his possessions on a barrel before him. Therefore, he tried to escape the cube by brute force, when suddenly, the cube began to fill with water. Realizing the dangerousness of the situation, Strahm further panicked as the water level increased quickly. After a matter of seconds, the cube was filled entirely. However, at this moment, Strahm finally found his pen in his pocket. In a last desperate attempt to survive, he rammed the pen in his throat, removed the ball pen refill and thereby successfully performed a tracheotomy on himself which enabled him to breath.

### Aftermath

Later, the meatpacking plant was found and raided by the Metropolitan Police Department. As the police secured and searched the entire building, they discovered the many corpses of Jigsaw's victims, Strahm was found by the police and a team of paramedics, who saved him from the trap and took him to the Saint Eustace Hospital. All of the bodies were sent to the morgue for their obduction by Dr. Adam Heffner and the Water Cube was sent to the evidence room. (*Saw V*, *VI*, *3D*).