List of Saw Characters - Saw - Zep Hindle

Zep Hindle

• Portrayed by Michael Emerson (film) and Jeff Shuter (animated comic).
• Appears in: Saw: Rebirth, Saw

Zep is an orderly who worked in the hospital where John Kramer, the Jigsaw Killer, is treated for his cancer. He forms a bond with John while he is being treated, but is considered to have "issues of his own" by him. John seems to see a lot of his own actions in Zep's goals, reminding him of himself before he is diagnosed with cancer. Zep is later forced to watch Adam Stanheight and Dr. Gordon play out their game that takes place in a bathroom. If Lawrence fails to kill Adam by 6:00, then Zep will be forced to kill Lawrence's wife and child, whom he has been holding hostage, in order to save himself from the slow-acting nerve agent in his bloodstream. He will then have to kill Lawrence himself and retrieve an antidote from Jigsaw. Lawrence fails, but his wife and daughter manage to escape from Zep's grip before he can kill them, as Zep is attacked by David Tapp, a former detective who is watching the Gordons' home from across the street. Zep is forced to flee down to the sewers that leads to the bathroom to kill Lawrence, but Tapp follows him; the two fought, and Zep shot Tapp in the chest and leaves him to die. In the bathroom, where Lawrence has already shot Adam, Zep prepares to kill Lawrence. Before he could do so, though, Adam knocks him down and beats him to death with a toilet tank lid.

Throughout the film, Zep is presented as a red herring, with the audience being encouraged to believe that he is Jigsaw, rather than a victim of one of Jigsaw's games. The truth is revealed only after Adam searches the body, looking for a key to free himself, and finds a microcassette recorder that contains Jigsaw's instructions to Zep. On the commentary for Saw, Leigh Whannell and James Wan stated that Zep enjoyed the sense of power he is given over others which he did not have before. Zep's decomposed corpse is later shown in Saw II, Saw III and Saw 3D.