The Furnace

## Design and Function

The furnace was located in the basement of the Nerve Gas House. While its original purpose was probably to supply the rest of the house with heat, it was later turned into a trap by John Kramer, better known as the Jigsaw Killer. It was a large, metallic oven located in the middle of the room. On the front side was a small door, originally used to insert fuel into the furnace. On the other side was a small glass window. On the inside of the furnace, just above the door, was a small, red valve. This could be used to turn the furnace's gas supply on and off. Next to it was a drawing of a red devil pointing at the valve. Additionally, the oven contained two syringes with the antidote for a deadly nerve agent that the prisoners in the house were breathing in. Both of them were attached to chains. While one of the syringes could be easily removed, the chain with the second antidote was connected to the door. If someone pulled the chain, this would activate a mechanism which would close the door. Seconds later, the fire inside the oven would turn on. In this case, the only way to survive was to turn the valve in order to turn off the gas which fueled the flames, that continuously came closer to the victim as the burners of the oven turned on one by one. (*Saw II*)

## History

### Preparation

At one point during his series of murders, John Kramer targeted the corrupt detective Eric Matthews, who had innocently framed and arrested numerous people throughout his career, including one of John's apprentices, Amanda Young. Therefore, they set up a big game which was going to be directly connected to Eric's test. This game focused on seven people. The first one was Daniel Matthews, Eric's son who had become estranged from him after he had cheated on Daniel's mother with his former partner, Detective Allison Kerry. The other persons tested throughout the game were Jonas Singer, his manager Gus Colyard, the prostitute Addison Corday, the drug dealer Xavier Chavez, Laura Hunter and Obi Tate. Additionally, Amanda participated in the game as well and played as another victim primarily in order to be able to observe the other prisoners' progress. These people, except for Daniel, had all been framed and arrested by Eric for crimes the didn't commit. To accelerate their proceedings, John hired Obi Tate to help him with the abduction of Daniel Matthews and the other five people while he prepared the traps for each one of them and placed numerous items such as weapons all around the house. When all of them were abducted and brought to the Nerve Gas House, John's other apprentice, Detective Mark Hoffman, abducted Obi as well and took him to the same location, making him the last test subject of the game. Upon waking up, an audio tape left by Jigsaw informed them about a deadly nerve agent they were all breathing in. While the doors would open after three hours, the gas would already kill them after two hours. In order to survive the prisoners had to find syringes with the antidote which were hidden in the house. (*Saw II*)

### Obi Tate's Test

Upon this revelation, Laura recognized him as her abductor. Therefore, the group and Obi engaged in an argument during which Obi claimed that he had only done what he had to do. Xavier threatened to kill him, but was held back by Addison, as Obi could get two antidotes for them. However, Xavier continued to threaten him with a knife and demanded to tell them how to get out. When Obi said he didn't know how to get out, Xavier slowly cut his throat to fear him, but was interrupted when Daniel accidently knocked down a large metal tub. Barely frightened by Xavier, Obi eventually agreed to crawl into the furnace, but demanded that one of the syringes was for him.

Obi then entered the oven and managed to get the first syringe without any problems. However, when he grabbed the second antidote, which was attached to a chain, the oven's door suddenly closed. Moments later the oven was activated. Obi tried to kick the door open and yelled at the others to help him, but when the flames came closer to him, he was forced to crawl back to the other site of the furnace. At this point he spotted a valve next to the door. Next to it was the painting of a red devil who pointed at the valve, telling Obi to twist it in order to turn off the fire. Therefore, Obi realized the clue given to him by Jigsaw on the tape, which had told him that "once he was in hell, only the devil could help him out."

However, he was too frightened to crawl through the flames and instead knocked at the small window on the furnace's backside, screaming for help. It was Daniel, who eventually noticed the window and told the others about his. Xavier used his baseball bat to smash it, enabling Obi to crawl out. Obi tried to do so but got stuck and ultimately died a painful death as the flames burned him alive. When they realized that the syringes were burned as well, the remaining prisoners left the basement, while Amanda remarked that it was his own choice that had eventually killed Obi. (*Saw II*)