Hoffman is shown to be listening in on Officer Daniel Rigg's conversation with Detective Allison Kerry about Jigsaw's ability to continue his work.
Unnoticed by the others, Hoffman pockets a chain fragment from the trap's aftermath and Kerry comments as to why the door had to be cut open by the police to secure the crime scene.
Hoffman, knowing the test portrayed in Saw III was actually meant for Amanda, proceeds to sabotage the test by switching John's letter for Amanda with one of his own: a letter informing her that if she does not kill Lynn Denlon, he will tell John she was the person that sent Cecil to steal drugs, which ultimately resulted in Jill Tuck's miscarriage when Cecil slammed a door on her.
[1] In the opening scene of Saw IV, Hoffman is called to the police morgue to hear a cassette tape that is found in Jigsaw's stomach during his autopsy.
Despite previous warnings to not go through unsecured doors, Rigg enters the room of their trap before the timer expires, causing Eric's death and apparently killing Hoffman as well.
[3] In Saw VI, Hoffman traps a health insurer, William Easton, who denied a man's claim for medical help, leading to his death.
It is later revealed that William had rejected John Kramer's insurance claim in relation to his cancer treatment, and that this is part of a wider game in which Jigsaw wants Hoffman to collaborate with Jill.
He then sets the audio lab on fire to destroy the evidence and finish off the three victims, planting Strahm's fingerprints around the room to keep suspicion from himself.
The contents of Amanda's letter (as seen in Saw III and Saw IV) are shown in a flashback, which explains that Hoffman had discovered that when Cecil robbed Jill's clinic for drugs, he was not acting alone.
Amanda, visibly going through withdrawals and desperate for another high, pressured Cecil into doing so, she inadvertently caused Jill to miscarry her and John's unborn child, Gideon.
In the letter, Hoffman blackmailed Amanda into killing Lynn, telling her that if she failed to do so, he would reveal her involvement in Jill's miscarriage to John.
Jill stuns him, straps him into a chair, and puts him in an updated version of the reverse bear trap but does not leave a key for him to free himself.
In Saw 3D, after escaping the updated reverse bear trap, Hoffman leaves, taking medical supplies, and returns to his hideout where he stitches his cheek and bandages his hand.
One of the men is revealed to be Dr. Lawrence Gordon, who survived the amputation of his own foot by cauterizing his stump using a hot steam pipe; he was later nursed back to health by John, who subsequently recruited him as an apprentice.
Prior to the release of Saw VI, actor Costas Mandylor stated of his character, "Hoffman is sort of torn of becoming a mad man or becoming a guy that's more composed, coming from a pure place like Jigsaw.