Eric Matthews

## Biography

### Corruption

Eric Matthews was a homicide detective who worked for the Metropolitan Police Department. Due to his aggressive and occasionally violent behavior towards suspects, he once broke a suspect's jaw with a flashlight and also gunned down an unarmed suspect. Eric came into conflict with the Internal Affairs Division several times. Despite these disputes, Eric was still respected by his colleagues, who considered him a fearless officer. However, unbeknownst to them, Eric faked the evidence in many of his cases and thereby wrongfully arrested several innocent people.

### Family Problems

At one point in his life, Eric married a woman with whom he had a son, Daniel Matthews. However, Eric eventually engaged in an affair with Detective Allison Kerry, his partner at that time. When Eric's wife found out about his infidelity, she filed for divorce and took Daniel with her. His betrayal didn't only destroy his marriage but also resulted in Eric's alienation from his son. On several occasions, Daniel committed petty crimes, probably to provoke his father. However, he was never sent to a detention center for his offenses. Out of anger and frustration, Eric eventually ended his affair and professional partnership with Kerry.

One day, Daniel visited him as Eric wanted to regain his confidence. However, shortly after his arrival, he was caught stealing from Superior Electronics, a consumer electronics store, by a security officer. As Daniel was still a teenager, the officer called his father. When the latter arrived shortly afterward, the guard let him sign a few documents and took him to his son. After Eric had signed the papers, he and Daniel were allowed to leave. On their way home, they engaged in an argument. Daniel, who was still angry at him for cheating on his mother, told him that he might be a good cop but not a good father and suggested going back to his mother earlier. In a fit of rage, Eric angrily yelled at him to go away, which Daniel subsequently did.

### Daniel Rigg's Test

After six months of confinement, Eric was taken to the abandoned Gideon Meatpacking Plant, where he had to participate in another game focusing on Daniel Rigg. Rigg had become obsessed with saving everyone around him after Eric's disappearance. Eric had to stand on a large ice block placed at one end of a big seesaw-like scale and was held in place by a chain noose hanging from the ceiling. When he woke up, several radiant heaters around him turned on and started melting the ice. Moments later, Eric became aware of Mark Hoffman's presence. The latter had strapped himself to a nonfunctional electric chair at the other end of the scale, thereby pretending to be a victim himself. If Eric stepped or fell from the ice block, the runoff water would flow to Hoffman's side and seemingly cause him to be fatally electrocuted.

Meanwhile, Daniel Rigg was attacked and subdued in his apartment at 23 Park Place. When he woke up, he was introduced to his test, which was supposed to cure his obsession with finding and saving Eric. At specific points throughout his game, Rigg was provided with live footage broadcasted from the room Eric and Hoffman were trapped in. Shortly after Rigg's game began, a lawyer named Art Blank arrived at the plant. Upon entering the trap room, he pulled a lever next to the door and thereby activated a mechanism above Eric's head. Hoffman angrily yelled at Art and demanded that he let them go. However, Art ignored them and instead sat down in front of a set of surveillance monitors to observe Jigsaw's games.

As time went by, Eric told Art to go fuck himself and tried to hang himself with the chain noose by jumping off the ice block. However, Art prevented him from committing suicide and forced him back on the ice. When he warned him, that Hoffman would be electrocuted if Eric left the block, Hoffman begged Eric to listen to him. Eric insulted the man but eventually stayed on the ice when the latter went back to the monitors.

While the game progressed, Eric cried and begged Art to shoot him as he didn't want to play any longer. Therefore, Hoffman angrily yelled at him and told him to be quiet. Later on, Eric pretended to be unconscious. When Hoffman asked Art to check on him, Art became worried and tried to wake Eric up. Eric then attacked him and once again fell off the ice block in the process. While struggling with him, Art forced him back on the block and told him that he wasn't the one that Eric should worry about. Furthermore, he informed them that all of them would be set free if Rigg passed his test, thereby revealing that he was merely another victim on his own. Following Jigsaw's instructions, Art gave Eric a gun and a bullet and told him that he had to choose whether he wanted to live or die.

However, Art started to become nervous when he noticed the mechanism above Eric's head. It was connected to two mechanical arms suspended from the ceiling, each holding a large ice block. When he saw a chain that linked the mechanism to the room's door, Art realized that the ice blocks would swing down and crush Eric's head if the door were opened before a 90-minute-timer went off. Therefore, they had to prevent Rigg, who was on his way to the plant, from entering the room before the clock expired. As the timer was ticking down, Art, Hoffman, and Eric started to panic. Eric yelled at Art and demanded him to tell them who was coming. However, Art ignored him and kept his eye on the surveillance monitors. Eventually, he took off his jacket and revealed a mechanical device attached to his back, which would cut his spine if he disobeyed Jigsaw's orders. Furthermore, he took out a button from a bag and told the detectives that it would free them once the timer went off.

### Death

Only minutes later, Rigg finally arrived at the Gideon Meatpacking Plant and reached the room where his friends were trapped. Eric yelled at him not to open the door. However, Rigg ignored his warning and burst through the door with only one second left on the clock. Upon doing so, he was shot in the chest by Eric in a final attempt to keep him from entering. When he opened the door, Art approached him and was, in return, shot in the chest by Rigg, causing him to collapse. Moments later, Eric's head was smashed by the massive ice blocks. Rigg subsequently fell to the floor, screaming in grief and agony upon watching his friend's demise.

He angrily yelled at Art as he believed him to be Jigsaw's accomplice. Art tried to explain that he was tested by Jigsaw and reached for his bag, causing Rigg to shoot him in the head. However, it turned out that Art was merely grabbing a tape recorder. Upon listening to the recording, Rigg realized that his test wasn't to save Eric but to let Eric save himself. Moments later, Hoffman freed himself from the chair and calmly approached Rigg. When he saw him, Rigg finally realized that Hoffman was another Jigsaw accomplice. However, due to his gunshot wound, he collapsed as Hoffman left the room. The latter turned around one last time and ended Rigg's game with the words "Game Over" before disappearing and leaving Rigg to die. Shortly afterward, Rigg succumbed to his injury.

## Personality

Eric Matthews had a temperamental and focused personality. These traits regularly caused him to lose his temper when things didn't go his way. He often acted aggressively and sometimes even turned violent in such situations, which repeatedly brought him into conflict with the Internal Affairs Department. Additionally, Eric tended to see himself as the victim and had problems admitting his own mistakes. He also didn't care about other people's feelings and had been loyal to no one other than himself and, to a lesser extent, his son and a select few colleagues.

His egoism became apparent when Eric faked evidence in numerous cases and thereby unjustly arrested innocent people who were subsequently convicted. In doing so, he pushed his career at the expense of others. Another example of his dishonesty and lacking loyalty was his affair with Allison Kerry, which ultimately resulted in a messy divorce from his wife and his alienation from Daniel. Despite their strained relationship, Eric deeply loved his son and was willing to go to great lengths to save him when Jigsaw abducted him. However, he didn't ask for his son throughout Daniel Rigg's game, indicating that Eric had given up his hope that he would ever see Daniel again.

Furthermore, his mental condition was negatively affected by his months-long confinement. Due to the trauma caused by Jigsaw's game and Eric's subsequent imprisonment, the latter had lost his will to live, which was evidenced by his attempted suicide and his demands on Art Blank to kill him. However, he asked him to free them shortly before Rigg's game ended, suggesting that Eric briefly regained his desire to survive.