The final scene is not the police arriving. It’s not a rescue. It’s Martin sitting alone in the dark, the camcorder’s red light blinking. He has sent the tape to an old P.O. Box address for Tom Six. The centipede behind him has stopped moving. Only the first one, his mother, is still breathing, making a wet, gurgling noise.

Martin looks into the lens. He smiles—a shy, awkward smile.

He didn't connect mouths to anuses. That was Dr. Heiter’s primitive method. Martin, in his twisted logic, connected mouths to colostomy wounds he carved directly into the stomachs, creating a shorter, more acidic route. He called it "The Centipede 2: Direct Bypass."