 |
This Article Contains Spoilers -
WARNING: This article contains major spoilers. If you do not wish to know vital information on plot / character elements in a story, you may not wish to read beyond this warning: We hold no responsibility for any negative effects these facts may have on your enjoyment of said media should you continue. That is all. |
  |
This article's content is marked as Mature The page contains mature content that may include coarse language, sexual references, and/or graphic violent images which may be disturbing to some. Mature pages are recommended for those who are 18 years of age and older. If you are 18 years or older or are comfortable with graphic material, you are free to view this page. Otherwise, you should close this page and view another page. |
| “ | Your whole life happens then... John Kramer. | „ |
| ~ Cecilia Pederson lying to John Kramer about her supposed experimental treatment. |
| “ | So, tell me, John. You’ve been doing this for a very long time, haven’t you? How did I stop you? Am I just that good? […] For a guy as smart as you, you kind of overplayed your hand there, didn’t you? | „ |
| ~ Cecila to John Kramer after forcing him into one of his traps. |
| “ | Friends? Not friends. They were loose ends, sweetheart. Nothing but loose ends. Do you wanna know what I thought when I watched them each die? One less person to split the money with. So, thank you, you did me a favor! | „ |
| ~ Cecilia to Amanda Young about the deaths of her associates |
Dr. Cecilia Pederson is the main antagonist of the 2023 horror film Saw X, the tenth installment of the Sawfranchise.
She is a con artist who takes advantage of dying individuals by giving them false hope that they would be cured through the "treatments" of The Pederson Project. In reality, Cecilia scams them off of their money and leaves them with nothing in the end after they lose their savings, but her frauds get in trouble when she tries to trick none other than John Kramer.
She was portrayed by Synnøve Macody Lund in her first villainous role.
Personality[]
As the director of The Pederson Project, Cecilia Pederson presents herself as a decent, hardworking woman willing to use any methods necessary to cure any illness. In reality, she is a cunning and heartless con artist who seizes every opportunity to make as much money as possible. She cares none for the victims she scammed by giving them false hope that they can be cured or how she uses her father's reputation to spread her fabrications, which greatly upsets John Kramer once he finds out the truth about her and her associates.
When she wakes up and finds herself in a room with her associates, she displays a fearful personality in front of John and Amanda Young, only dropping that facade when they are not looking. When some of her associates spill their guts about her in order to save their skin, Cecilia is visibly annoyed. Even when John calls her and her associates out, she lies that they worked to heal people and attempts to justify her actions by claiming his case was "different", a lie that John doesn't buy whatsoever as he shows her background records provided by Amanda Young and asks who these thirty-four people were to her, people who may have children who are now orphans.
Although she encourages her associates to complete their tasks in order to survive their traps, she doesn't genuinely care for them or their safety and only does it to be in good standing between them, despite clearly making enemies with them. After one of her associates is decapitated, when Gabriela blames her for bringing her into this, Cecilia merely tells her to keep it together, refusing to take any responsibility for the indirect death of her associate. Even before dropping her facade, she displays a desperate yet somewhat twisted side when she disembowels the corpse of one of her associates and pulls out her entrails to use it as a rope to pull over a cart that has her phone to call for help. She feigns remorse for what she has done when John Kramer comes back and lies to him again that she was calling her father to save him from his illness, claiming he's the "real deal" and begs to talk to him to let him know where they are, when she was actually calling her other accomplice. Once again, John sees right through her deception, knowing that she's not actually concerned about saving his life.
It isn’t until almost all of her associates die that she drops her supposed concerned facade and reveals her true cold-hearted and traitorous nature by murdering one of them, upsetting both John and even Amanda. She also proves that she has no sense of honor that John possesses as she killed one of her associates even after she passed her test and was injured and defenseless at that moment and didn't respect his request to have her be taken to the hospital. It is very likely she murdered her to prevent her from exposing her crimes or so she wouldn't have to share the money with her. When Amanda asks her if she doesn’t care that her supposed friends are now dead because of her, Cecilia merely brushes it off and calls them nothing but “loose ends”, proving she never cared for any of them in the first place. She is selfish as she admits that during Jigsaw's game that forced her to see the deaths of her associates, she only viewed it as a benefit for her in how much money she could keep from her fraudulent ways.
She has a false sense of self-worth and is quite vengeful, relishing the concept of outwitting people. She is ungrateful as she slaps Amanda in the face even after she lets her go; albeit reluctantly. She is overconfident in her abilities as she knew who John Kramer was and what he was capable of prior to accepting him as a candidate for her phony treatment program but decided to scam him anyway, which later led to her downfall. She questions John about how she was able to stop him even when he has been the Jigsaw Killer for years. She taunts him by foolishly telling him he could've walked away and admit that he got beat after he realized he was scammed, except it's her who should've known better that she should've gave up and accepted that her actions going to far and someone would eventually catch up to her like John.
She is also willing to endanger even children; in this case: Carlos, whom she takes as a hostage, to get what she wants and to make John suffer as she knew he befriended him. She is hypocritical when she responds to John that she doesn’t expect moral decency from him (which is the same thing he said to her, but it is more understandable) after he begs her not to do this to Carlos and that it isn’t right, even calling his moral code “silly”. She chains the boy up along with John with the intent of forcing the latter to break his principles to save himself. When Amanda tearfully yells at her that she’s killing him, Cecilia callously replies that all he has to do is sacrifice the kid, showing her complete disregard to their well-beings. She is petty as well as she is fully aware that Carlos is innocent but chooses to make him suffer just as she "suffered".
In the end, her greed becomes her undoing, as she and her boyfriend/accomplice Parker Sears are trapped in a room that triggers another game as part of a contingency plan when she attempts to steal back the money.It triggers a recording of John maturely taunting how they both ruined lives, revealing that John already know Parker was coming and had planned out her foolish sense of security towards a genius like John. She is a complete coward as when they learn that they have to work against each other as only one can survive, she kills him without a second thought in order to save herself, proving that her supposed love for him was never genuine and that her loyalty is to no one but herself. In her defeat, she is distraught when she sees John Kramer, Amanda Young, and Carlos walk away with the money she stole while she is left alone.
Overall, she lacks redeeming or sympathetic qualities that several characters had before her. She scammed thirty-four people within the span of eight years with no remorse or shame for the number of lives she ruined/destroyed since they ended up with nothing for themselves and their families, all to satisfy her greed by taking advantage of the only thing her victims possessed: hope. The only true thing she said about herself was that she was no angel. And in the end its people like her who should've known better that scamming and people too far would have consequences will occur when she didn't quit while she had the chance to.
Biography[]
Born to Scandinavian doctor Finn Pederson, Cecilia Pederson utilized her insight from her father's career to launch The Pederson Project, a large-scale scam operation targeting the desperate and terminally ill by claiming to provide experimental, highly effective Norwegian cancer treatment like her father does, given how doctors have pressured governments to not authorize his experiments, making him a recluse.
Cecilia before being captured.
Cecilia successfully continued the illegal activities for eight years before being contacted by John Kramer, a brain cancer patient referred by accomplice Henry Kessler. Despite realizing that John is the Jigsaw serial killer, she proceeds with arranging a meeting. The following week, Cecilia meets with John at her facility in Mexico City. Following an apparently successful surgery on John's brain tumor, John departs with a new but short-lived lease on life.
While at her mansion, Cecilia is attacked and drugged by John and his apprentice Amanda Young. Cecilia awakens in the facility along with co-conspirators Mateo, Valentina and Gabriela. John provides an overview of the "game" before he and Amanda exit to the next room. Cecilia's repeated attempts throughout at bargaining and appealing to John's humanity have no affect.
Cecilia provides verbal support for Valentina during her game before witnessing her decapitation upon failure. While she believes her kidnappers aren't looking, she drops her concerning façade of distraught and methodically retrieves her phone by disemboweling Valentina's corpse to use her entrails as a rope. Cecilia alerts Parker Sears, lover and accomplice, of the situation before a hidden Amanda activates her shock collar, confiscating her phone.
Cecilia resumes feigning concern as she supports Mateo in his game until his demise. Cecilia then watches Gabriela survive her game albeit severely injured. Parker forces John and Amanda into the game room at gunpoint to free Cecilia. Upon release, she slaps Amanda in the face and tells her that she wanted to do that since the moment she met her. They have Amanda shackled and John placed in her collar. Cecilia lets the mask fall off, crushing a defenseless Gabriela's neck under her shoe and killing her, gleefully putting her cold, calculating nature on display.
Realizing that Carlos, a local boy that John had befriended, is playing outside, Cecilia manipulates Carlos into the game room and forces him to endure her intended trap that she describes as "blood-boarding". Tiring of watching the torture, the partners in crime enter the next room to retrieve their scam money but activate a tripwire that disables John and Carlos' trap and locks Cecilia and Parker within as gas surrounds them. With a small hole in a wall as a sole evasion of inhalation, Cecilia murders Parker and shoves her head through the hole, forlorn as John, Amanda and Carlos leave with the money, without telling her how to escape. Much like Mark Hoffman's similar fate almost a year later, Cecilia is left trapped in the room with no obvious means of escape.
Trivia[]
- Upon the release of the official trailer of Saw X, it was speculated that Cecilia Pederson was the Norwegian doctor in charge of the experimental cancer therapy mentioned by John Kramer and William Easton in the flashback storyline of Saw VI. However, it was pointed out that John referred to the doctor as a male, not a female. It would be later clarified that Cecilia is the daughter of Dr. Finn Pederson, the doctor John was mentioning to William in Saw VI.
- Cecilia Pederson is Synnøve Macody Lund's first actual villainous role as her previous antagonistic character, Ran Jutul from Ragnarok, was simply a neutral character reimagined as a ruthless Jötunn/giantess and Ragnarök veteran in Magne Seier's fantasy.
- During her scams within the span of eight years, Cecilia has made more than eight million dollars.
- Cecilia Pederson is the second Saw villain whose fate is left unknown in a way that it's ambiguous whether they survived their traps or not, after Scott Tibbs and preceding Henry Kessler.
- According to Saw producer Oren Koules, the upcoming Saw XI which will likely be a direct sequel to Saw X, has stated that Pederson's fate was intentionally left ambiguous to expand on her character in a future instalment. It is highly anticipated that Pederson will be featured in Saw XI.
External Links[]
- Cecilia Pederson on the Saw Wiki
[]
 Villains
| ||
|
Main villain Saw Saw II Saw III Saw IV Saw V Saw VI Saw 3D: The Final Chapter Jigsaw (2017) Spiral: From the Book of Saw Saw X The Scott Tibbs Documentary Saw: The Video Game Saw II: Flesh & Blood | ||