Amazingly, black SWAT team commander Lt. Rigg (Lyriq Bent) appeared in two straight Saw films without so much as a scratch, and as such, he was rewarded by a co-starring role in Saw IV — because really, everyone else is dead.
Even though Jigsaw (Tobin Bell) died in Saw III, someone is picking up where he left off, trapping people in deadly “games” designed to teach them to appreciate life. (Granted, life with an eye gouged out from a steel trap might not be that great a prospect.) Rigg’s game involves him running around town to locations where other people have been stuck in Jigsaw’s traps. Each step, Jigsaw promises, draws him closer to saving his colleagues Matthews (Donnie Wahlberg) and Hoffman (Costas Mandylor), who are themselves caught in a trap.
Rigg’s big “sin”, it seems, is being obsessed with finding the killer and helping his colleagues — in other words, doing his job. The further the series goes, the less it seems you have to do to get on Jigsaw’s shit list. What’s next, people who look at too much Internet porn? (Note to self: clear browser history.)
Although you need a PhD to follow the plot, and the jumpy direction and rapid-fire dialogue make it feel like an episode of Law & Order on Red Bull, Saw IV has a nice twist ending — actually three twists in one — and might be the best of the sequels. Rigg’s role is juicy: he’s the focal point of the climax, and he doesn’t die…on screen (although it turns out he’s mortally wounded).
