Who is Henry Kessler in ‘Saw X?’

WARNING: Spoilers for Saw X to follow.

American actor Michael Beach has played countless memorable characters across his three-decade career. His more recent roles came in 2018’s Aquaman and now 2023’s Saw X. He’s also well-known for his portrayal of T.O. Cross on FX’s Sons of Anarchy. In Saw X, Beach has a supporting role as a character called Henry Kessler – an associate of Cecilia Pederson who lures John Kramer into a surgical scam.

Kessler appears at the beginning of Saw X as a member of the same cancer support group as John, who claims to have Stage 4 pancreatic cancer. He encounters John again at a café to inform him about The Pederson Project, a supposed “miracle cure” for terminal cancer patients with no hope of survival from regular procedures. Henry assures John that Cecilia Pederson — the daughter of a famed Scandinavian surgeon — has saved several lives with her groundbreaking two-step program.

He shows John a large vertical scar over his abdomen from the “surgery” he underwent to remove the cancer. Henry is a willing accomplice to the fraudulent activities run by Pederson and it turns out he was never inflicted with cancer and merely acted as a scout to lure potential victims to Cecilia.

Henry is ultimately brought to justice by John and his apprentice, Mark Hoffman, in the post-credits scene. John enlists Hoffman’s help in tracking down Henry and after Henry is located, he is strapped to a device referred to as “The Belly Scratcher.” It seems to be capable of severing and disemboweling his torso, although we are not privy to the outcome of the trap and whether or not Henry survived.