Mark Hoffman. The face of love's rage.
My analysis.
(Sorry for any mistakes. English is not my first language)
Of course, we'll have to start with his backstory.
He was a cop for a long time, and it was relatively normal before he lost his only family. Angelina Acomb. His younger sister, who was the only person dear to him.
We see that his colleagues treat him with respect because of his control and authority. Do we see any genuine friends? Rigg is the closest we get, and it's still professional enough to not be called friendship. When Angie died, his colleagues bowed their heads and said their condolences. Was anyone there to him when he drank himself until he couldn't walk straight? No. And I think it was always like that. Angelina was the only one who saw a person in him, and they both had no other relatives.
After she dies, how often do you think Mark blames himself for not protecting her? How often remembers her smilies at him, and how often thinks that he could've done something to prevent it all? I think, guilt is the feeling that lives with him every day, like a little beeping noise in his head.
One of his main traits is wanting to control everything. As example, we need to remeber how, when he killed Seth and made it look like Jigsaw did it, Hoffman asked to give him any information on that case. To control the evidence and the direction. To ensure they won't even suggest it was not Jigsaw. When he first got a note that someone knows, he was on high alert on his way home. He needed to control that too. When he got that note a second time, remeber what he did? "From now on, I control all aspects of the game". Everything he did was a desperate attempt to twist everything so much it would fit in his hands. When he realized John and Amanda became too much of a trouble (and that he could never be the one who carries the legacy), he controlled that too. One time he didn't controlled enough, it became a reason for his dearest person death. So I think, he was controlling even before it, but he spiraled more into it after.
Just as his desire to control, we see that Mark Hoffman has his own moral compass. He always had. I think, he choose his job to try and bring justice in the way he sees fit, because the common justice system never felt right to him. He uses brutality, he protects his colleagues, HE decides who is deserving of life and death. I think that, in a way, is his inner monster feasting as much as he could (before he unleashed the beast fully, of course). "If he's a criminal - he deserves to die. He is an animal". And in his view of world, it's a right thing. Just how much of a bad guys you have to kill before you would be considered a killer yourself?
That system of morals and desire to bring justice becomes even more strong after Angie. She was one of the people, who he saw as good, and what is more important, she was his precious sister. So, Seth Baxter is to blame. The world's justice system released him after five years in prison. Due technicality. Hoffman thought that he never learned anything and decides to teach him. He makes a trap. A cruel one. And even when Seth does what he had to do, Mark still kills him. Because that, in his world, is eye to eye. Because Seth, even after tearing his fingers off, did not deserved to live (that was one of the main difference Mark had with John. John wanted to see if a person had will to live after they toyed with their life. Mark wanted to judge that person is undeserving to live if they toyed with their life)
Is Mark suicidal? I would say, a bit. I don't think he would ever commit suicide. Even more, I do think that in his mind, direct suicide is weakness. But. We see some small detail. When John held him captive to blackmail him, he said "You sit in bars until closing. You drink so you can sleep. You stagger to your car and then you start it all over again the next day». He would drink too much. He would drive while drunk. Mark Hoffman is not stupid to be so sure of his driving abilities. So, he knew what he was doing. And that, is a risky behaviour that could lead to death. Indirect suicide because he didn't saw point of living after Angie. He continued just because if he died, he would've proved himself he is not that strong.
Mark was never detached emotionally. Not before John, not during John, and not even after John. Firstly, ill talk about before John. He smiled when Angelina hugged him. He screamed when he saw her body. His voice would tremble, and he would be on the verge of tears, when John finally "caught" him and was reminding him of everything that happened. The things he tried to drown for so long. During John. His first mission with Kramer was Razor wire maze. After they knocked the man, who was self-harming, out, Mark cried under his mask. Mark said that he didn't expect to feel any remorse. Why do you think he felt that remorse? Because in his mind, they were similar with that man. In the shadows, away from prying eyes, they couldn't bear the pain and tried to shut it off with something that felt simple and painful enough. For Mark it was burning liquid. For this man - a razor blade. I don't think that in Mark's mind that man was deserving.
Mark's inability to look sometimes is puzzling. But I should talk about his brutality first.
Many people think that Saw 3D just ruined Mark Hoffman. I am not one of them. In my opinion, it was depiction of how person can lose their mind for revenge and be in such a profound state of anger, it feels permanent. He became a madman because he lost control once again. He became a hunter, letting something that was always there, come out. I briefly touched that theme already. His traps were always brutal. Punishing, dare I say. "Do you like how brutality feels, Mark?"
"Let's be honest. You want him to suffer just as much as I do". That was the most raw and honest dialogue. Yes, Mark likes how brutality feels. Because it is righteous. Because it is suitable. Because it gives the thrill. Life was treating him with cruelty. So he would treat it with cruelty right back.
So, we see something confusing. He would look away when he perform his most gruesome acts. For a second, he couldn't look at the mess he made. Was it just a physical reaction? Or was it the way Angelina's eyes lit up for him? Or was it how she never turned her back on him? Or was it the ghost of her voice, asking how did he became this. This thing.
Do you think he ever looks in the mirror, and for a second, sees the face of Seth Baxter. Do you think it scratches in the corner of his mind? "You are just like him".
Because that's what he became. I don't think this feeling can be called guilt, but I can't find the word.
Also, his relationship with John. It's a hot take, but I think, he was affected by him. Maybe, not as much as Amanda, but close to it. He joined him because of the blackmail and manipulation John used. I think it was not just that. Mark Hoffman just survived a 50/50 chance to throw his life into the old police routine that closes its eyes on bad people? No. And John gave him that chance to do something he wants. They never agreed on the philosophy, even if Mark pretended to do so (John noticed, of course he did. That's why Mark would've never continued the legacy in the way John wants. He would bend the rules). John made Mark watch how a person, ungrateful for his life, was fighting for it. John taught him about anticipating human mind. And I think, in Mark's mind, there was a small need for his approval. "Amanda will fail you", "Because I didn't take my life for granted", "You want him to suffer just as much as I do", "Then why do you need Amanda here?". Sounds a bit too much like "Don't you need me here too?". Though, Mark would've never admit. And when he saw that John's preference was always Amanda, do you think he felt used? Amanda won her test and Kramer took her because he wanted to rebuild her. Mark just..happened to be useful. That's why Mark Hoffman never would've became the one who carries the legacy. So, he decided to end with it all in a way he could. To destroy the puzzle that he never fit in.
Mark Hoffman is also the second smartest. I do think he failed because his frantic irritation from loss of control and upper hand clouds his mind. But. He fooled Strahm, analyzing the depth of his obsession and stubborness. He fooled Rigg. He made up a plan with coffee, when his voice were close to be deciphered on Seth Baxter's tape, in seconds. When he woke up in a bathroom, it was just a moment before he reached for saw. He survived rigged trap. He survived russian roulette. He connected to base of police department, watching them. He killed John and Amanda. His mind is brilliant but his cold emotions is often in a way (the one he thinks of as cold. In reality, they are burning)..
Amanda and him are two sides of the same coin, both emotional. One hides it behind the mask of detachment, but goes on a killing spree for revenge. "The heart cannot be involved. Emotionally, there can be nothing there. It can never be personal". As much as we see Mark try and put up a facade that emotionally there is nothing there, it is not true. Amanda just wears her heart on her sleeve. And Mark locked it away from people's eyes and ignores the noise of a captive it creates.
Are monsters born or made? In Mark's case, the finality of him was made. But the darkness in him was there ever since he was born. It could've just stayed at breaching protocols and judging the system he works within. But the world took everything away from him, and that made him break. He is only a human, who wanted justice for his sister, and humans are prone to losing their mind.
Another moment that I want to discuss is how sacred Angelina is. She is everything. So, when he gets promotion after "catching" Jigsaw, and he gets an award, walking into his office with it..he just throws it on his table. Because he would've never changed a frame with Angie for some stupid award. His hand touches the shelf with the frame. Never.
Not every time his traits is used in a bad way. He is overprotective. He often stands up for his colleagues if they are in danger. (Just as he did with Rigg and Gibson)..His control makes him a fierce cop. When he saved that little girl, Corbett..yes, he did it to be the hero in the narrative, but I also think he would've never let innocent child be harmed. It was always about her father and mother, not her.
Is there hypocrisy? Maybe. You can decide for yourself after I analyze some scene. When he grabs Amanda's hand to point out her scars. "Because I didn't take my life for granted". Because he sees Amanda's problems as performative and thinks she was ungrateful for her life. His own problems were grief, hidden in the dim light of the bar. He never was taking his life for granted, he was just processing the loss. But isn't his behaviour just as reckless? He felt sympathy when he watched Paul (razor wire maze guy) and maybe even projected. He couldn't feel sympathy towards Amanda.
He is broken beyond repair. But the mechanism was different from the start. Functioning just acceptable, but different. And now, when it became this lonely, agonizing self, it rebuilds to be the one with power.
But the rebuilding is so frantic, it causes to lose. The mechanisms was too sure that it's all set now that it forgot to be cautious enough.
He is cold enough to freeze the entire universe and hot enough to burn it, leaving nothing but ashes. He is a paradox in the form of a man. Mark lost the only light, so he became absorbed in the darkness.