Lynn Thoughts And Rambles
Writing out my opinions on Lynn Denlon because I said I would before but got preoccupied with Drag.
Lynn Denlon is likely one of my most discussed characters within the Saw franchise, which is quite funny because she dies in the only movie she stars in. I personally view her as like late 30s/early 40s? From an outside lens she is quite an accomplished woman, Lynn is an outstanding brain surgeon who is also married and had children.
This goes to show that she is highly intelligent at least academically and within her profession, seeing as it takes according to google 14-16 years to become a neurosurgeon. Not to mention, somehow within this period of time she was able to find a partner and get married… Then also have two children with said partner.
When it comes to her marriage to Jeff and their children, Dylan and Corbett. We as an audience don’t really get to see much of how they interact with one another. I bring this up because I have no doubt that Lynn loves her family and cares for them! But, it’s unknown whether she became a wife and mother because it’s something she truly WANTED or because it was what’s naturally expected of most people, especially women? Get a job then get married and have children- BOOM.
Because also, I think a lot of the childcare and rearing would have to go to Jeff. Lynn’s job is very demanding when it comes to the length of hours she’s working and what is being required of her and as much as she loves her children, I just don’t think Lynn is as readily available as Jeff when it comes to things such as even taking them to school. This isn’t a bad thing mind you, a lot of the time parent dynamics are very much like this but it’s just the father in the role of the ‘’breadwinner’’ instead of the mother.
However, it is quite known that people with intense jobs like Lynn’s are more disposed to their relationships becoming more distant and fractured if not careful. This is something we actually do get to see in Saw 3! Lynn has thrown herself into her work and uses it as almost a shield? I think she keeps going to the hospital even though she’s grieving the loss of Dylan and her marriage is falling apart because it’s something she has CONTROL over.
AND LET ME TELL YOU SOMETHING IF NOTHING ELSE. Lynn Denlon to me is a fucking control freak. John in a sense even calls her out for this, basically telling her to stop speaking medical jargon and to come fully to terms with where she is… Because it isn’t a hospital. BACKHOUSE BRAIN SURGERY BABBBYYYYYYYYY.
I said it previously and now I’ll say it again, she’s an outstanding surgeon. Lynn was able to perform brain surgery in a meat packing plant converted into a Jigsaw lair… With a fucking power drill. I think we as Saw fans sometimes get so desensitised to what’s going on and at times the whacky nature of certain traps that we don’t hone in on that? It takes upwards of 14 years to study to do what she did and that’s with the correct medical equipment in a safe and sanitary environment. So many cards were stacked up against her in this situation and Lynn still performed to the very best of her ability with what she had.
Wrapping back around to the control freakness though, the way Lynn conducts herself throughout the entire movie is certainly interesting to me. She tends to stay quite composed and there are many moments she could let her emotions get the better of her, but they don’t.
This isn’t to say we never see an outburst of emotion from her, we do, multiple times. Yet there are still many cases where I watch her and I’m shocked that she’s so composed? Amanda is basically tormenting her the entire time that Lynn had that shotgun collar strapped to her neck and John is just snarky to her the entire time by trolling on her marriage like he didn’t also neglect his own ex-wife…. The pot calling the kettle black.
Anyway! Lynn assessed the scenario she was in and likely realised that panicking would get her about nowhere and that she needed to remain vigilant of both John’s health and Amanda’s outbursts. She was either getting her head blown up if she failed to keep John alive and or being shot by Amanda because she didn’t believe Lynn deserved to go free and of course Amanda was also getting blackmailed by Hoffman during this game too.
So many cards were stacked against Lynn as I said before, yet she managed to perform a successful surgery on John… With let me repeat this again… A POWER DRILL! And she also remained calm in the face of Amanda doing things like yanking her hair and shoving her face.
However, there are moments where I feel she still does truly forget where she is. An example of this is when after John’s surgery, Amanda comes over and begins to try and comfort herself and him… Only for Lynn to deadpan, “He can’t hear you. He doesn’t even know you’re there.” This then causes Amanda to turn and go to choke Lynn and even almost pulling her gun out fully there and then.
There wasn’t really any reason for Lynn to say this? Her bedside manners leave much to desire… Her clinical nature in this aspect did not help her, it put her in a dangerous position and you just sit there and think… Why would you say this to the clearly unstable woman who has kidnapped you… Personally? If I didn’t need to speak and I wasn’t begging for my life- SILENCE. I’d be letting Amanda perform a tap dancing number in front of John if it made her attention not be on ME. Especially because what Amanda was doing did not impact either Lynn or John in that moment, Amanda going to hold him even if he wasn’t aware she was doing so caused no harm and it actually benefited Lynn there because attention was off of her entirely. Yet she drew it back with a few pointed words.
And as previously mentioned John calls her out for this type of behaviour with the whole, “I remember you saying that to me once before in almost that exact same tone. Leave it to a doctor to find such a cold clinical way of saying I’m a dead man walking.” And then also, “I’m sorry but is all this crude medical equipment around me causing you to believe that you’re still inside a hospital?”
Even if she denies it, I do believe at points with how she interacts with both John and Amanda, she is pretending to be in a setting where she is more familiar and comfortable. You can’t blame her, seeing as it works in her favour to a degree as she needs to be in the headspace to be able to be well… A DOCTOR. But also this need for control and lack of outward sympathy is one of the reasons she is being tested in the first place.
She can’t let go of it, even if this grip is causing her and those around her harm. Because in an ideal situation? Lynn wouldn’t have gone back to work after Dylan’s death, she would’ve taken more time off and maybe I dunno… Got a therapist or something? Instead of relying on medication which in theory she could pull some strings just to prescribe herself. However, if she did go to somewhere like therapy, I think the unfamiliarity and I guess you could even say the lack of authority she has would not be comforting to her… Y'know what can be comforting, AN AFFAIR I GUESS? Because once again, it’s something she has you’d never guess… Control over.
And I could keep badgering about this over and over, it’s such a central part to her character in my eyes that honestly I could take away this theme from almost all of her screen time. Lynn Denlon has a stick up her ass that I am studying every other day of my life and I’m making it the problem of anybody who is still reading this! She is more to me than just being able to ship her with Amanda… That’s my depressed milf doctor… THAT’S MY DEPRESSED MILF DOCTOR.
Then we have the pure headcanons and speculation when it comes to Lynn after Jigsaw. In a world where Lynn didn’t die at the end of Saw 3… What would’ve happened? Now this also would impact other parts of the plot too, seeing as in this scenario it’s likely that Jeff would also survive if his wife got him to get his act a bit more together. But with a main focus on Lynn I have a few questions in regards to her future.
The most pressing one to me is whether or not her test would’ve “helped” her and I’m not talking like John here where I believe that this experience would have a wholly positive impact on Lynn and she’s walking kids in nature and donating to charity… However, I wonder what aspects of her behaviour and outlook would change and whether or not it would lead her to confront more things in her personal life such as her relationship with Jeff and Corbett- OR would she buckle down and rely on what she’s familiar with?
This is also dependent on whether or not Lynn leaves fully unscathed! Because let’s say you think in this scenario the shotgun collar doesn’t go off… Does Lynn still get shot? Like sure, it’s better than having your face blown up but that is still a serious injury she’s leaving that room with regardless. Then we have the concept of her having heavy facial scarring, likely blind at least in one eye and partially going deaf depending on ear damage if she narrowly escapes the collar.
If we went with the latter, then Lynn would not be able to return to her original position at work, nor go to work for a long period of time in general. She’d also likely have to have some sort of carer for the start of her recovery, be that Jeff or someone else. But if she only got shot and made a full recovery from such and could mentally prove herself sound of mind (debatable).... Would she attempt to just continue working at the hospital? Obviously she shouldn’t, doing so did not really help her mentally when it came to the loss of Dylan but she still did it anyway and that is one of the reasons she landed in a Jigsaw game.
BUT… Could such an added traumatic event to her life like her test make her hesitant to fall back on her old coping mechanisms? Would she attempt to work on her marriage or at least finally get a divorce? Would she put more of a focus on Corbett instead of her job? Or would things continue on the same, just now with the added PTSD of being kidnapped and almost dying.
Of course, we’ll never know! It’s just fun to contemplate things like this and attempt to apply what knowledge we do have on characters for scenarios such as these…
(If you’ve read this far props to you because I did not really structure this in any way. I’ll also state as I do in a lot of posts similar to this that this is all my opinion! How I view Lynn’s character isn’t the end all be all. - Mal )