Catacombs

## Layout and Structure

The catacombs were an underground area located at 1293 Sandburst Drive. The entrance was located inside a building a staircase led down to a big hall which served as Detective Mark Hoffman's surveillance room. In the next four rooms were several traps set up by him for one of his deadly games. One of these rooms had a structural feature, as there were four cylindrical tubes in the walls, which were secured by lattice grates. (*Saw V*)

## History

### False Trail

Meanwhile, Hoffman returned to the surveillance room. There he turned on the stolen phone frim Special Agent Peter Strahm and put it on a table, thereby enabling Special Agent Cowan to locate it. Additionally, he also placed a cup of hot steaming coffee on the desk. Anticipating that Strahm's supervisor, Special Agent Dan Erickson, would arrive at the catacombs shortly afterwards, the coffee should give him the impression that Strahm had been there not long before his arrival. Finally, he placed an FBI file on the desk which contained photos of Erickson. Hoffman then took a last look at the monitors and saw that Brit and Mallick had reached the chamber of their final test. After that, he left the catacombs again. (*Saw V*)

### Final Test

Upon entering the chamber, Brit and Mallick saw a cage table in the center of the room. On top of it stood a large metal box with five holes on both sides. When Mallick looked through one of them, he saw that there were circular saw blades inside. Meanwhile, Brit examined the cage underneath the box and spotted a beaker which was somehow connected to the next door, concluding that it would open once the beaker was filled. When Mallick asked her what they had to use to fill it, she realized that they had to insert their own hands in the holes with the saw blades in order to fill the beaker with blood. Mallick suggested to use the water from the bathtub. Brit however immediately denied this as there were locks resembling metal cuffs inside each hole. They had to put their arms in to keep them open but would get stuck thereby. Realizing they had no other choice but to fill the beaker with blood, Mallick nervously asked her if they should fight to the death and whoever won would use the other person's blood to get free. Brit refused to respond and went to the last door to close it. Mallick however stopped her and asked her if she still had the keys from the first room, which she affirmed. Therefore, he told her to try them on the next door. Even though she was convinced that they wouldn't fit, she tried it when Mallick encouraged her, pointing that the door had a keyhole unlike the ones before which all had mechanic deadlocks. As expected, the keys didn't fit the lock. While she tried all of them one by one, Mallick began to wonder why there were five holes in the blade machine, thinking that one should be enough. Seconds later, Brit was shocked when she realized that all five keys were exactly the same.

Therefore, they returned to the room with the bathtub, even though Mallick was worried about the bombs as the timer was still ticking. At this moment, Brit finally realized that they were all supposed to survive by working together. In the first room, one key would have been enough as every key fit every collar. In the second room, each safety chamber was big enough for more than one person. Finally, in the third room everyone of them would have had to hold one of the cords and thereby suffer only a small electric shock. Thereby, Mallick ultimately understood the true meaning of Jigsaw's message, who had told them not to follow their life-long instincts. However, as they had no other choice, Brit grabbed his arm and dragged him back to the last room. Moments after she closed the door behind her, the bombs in the bathtub room exploded. After that, another TV turned on in front of them. The puppet, which introduced them to their fourth and final test, confirmed their assumption that they had to fill the beaker with their own blood. It told them that they had to sacrifice exactly ten pints of blood, the approximate blood volume in the human body, stating that they could still survive with just half of their blood. They had 15 minutes to accomplish their task. Otherwise, the last door would be sealed and they would be killed by the bombs.

When the TV turned off, Mallick cringed when the blades in the machine were activated. Brit confronted him with the two options they had: one of them could sacrifice ten pints of blood and inevitably die in the process or they would take the risk of each one sacrificing five pints, giving them a slightly better chance to survive. Eventually, they decided for the last option and worked together. While they used the fabric of their clothes to constrict their arms, Mallick finally admitted that he had lied to Brit and the other prisoners and revealed that he knew Charles as he had wanted to write a story about him. When Brit asked him what he had done, Mallick told her that he was offered an ounce of heroin and therefore burned down the apartment building, resulting in the death of eight people who still lived there, unknown to him. He also told her that the FBI investigated the case and suspected him but gave up on the investigation when the drug dealer who hired him and was in fact the only witness suddenly disappered due to a deal Mallick's father had made. Therefore, Brit finally realized that the fire was the connection between all of them. Ashley had faked the fire report when she worked on the case and labelled the fire as merely a tragic accident. Luba had taken bribes and therefore granted a building permit for the property.

Charles had held back the truth about the fire. Mallick was the one who was used as the scapegoat. However, it was Brit who had set everything in motion and stole the property. Realizing that she was the one who had hired the dealer, Mallick angrily yelled at her, shocked that she had sacrificed the lives of eight people just for money, and called her a monster, to which she responded that he was one as well. Therefore, he stated that they both deserved to be in this game before they finally approached the table. They struggled to bring themselves to put their arms in the blades. When Mallick started to panic and told her he needed her help, Brit tried to calm him down and encouraged him. Mallick then started to count down from three and finally, both of them shoved their arms into the saws. While screaming in agony, they watched through the glass panes on top of the machine how the blades cut their arms. As time went on, they became weaker and weaker due to the blood loss until Mallick nearly collapsed. Brit grabbed his hand, encouraging to hang on just a little longer. Shortly afterwards, the blades came to a standstill and the door was opened. Seconds later, Mallick fell to the floor, entirely exhausted. When Brit told him that they had won their game, Mallick looked at his right arm, which had been cut in half, but was barely shocked as he was too dazed already. He ultimately lost consciousness, while Brit left the room with the last of her strength and entered a surveillance room from where their game had been observed. There, she armed herself with a hook. (*Saw V*)

### Aftermath

Meanwhile, Agent Cowan had told Erickson about the location of Strahm's phone. When Erickson arrived shortly afterwards and entered the surveillance room, he saw the monitors, the miniature model and several photos of the five victims hanging on a wall before him. As expected, the hot coffee cup warned him that whoever occupied this room had been here not long ago. Suddenly, he heard a tortured groaning which attracted his attention. When he went into the direction from where the noise came, he was scared witless when he saw Brit and aimed his gun at her, yelling at her to drop the hook, which she subsequently did. However, seconds later Erickson realized that Brit didn't want to attack him but was in fact another victim. When he asked her who did this to her, she was too dazed to respond and just muttered that they had one before she passed out. Erickson immediately called for an ambulance before he went to the next room where he saw Mallick on the floor. Shortly afterwards, the paramedics arrived and were able to stabilaze them to take them to the hospital. Afterwards, Erickson examined the surveillance room again and thereby found several files with more photos of the victims. Alerted by this, he tried to call Strahm and was shocked when he realized that Strahm's mobile phone lay on the desk right before him. Seconds later, he eventually discovered the file with the photos of himself. Believing that Strahm was actually the one behind the new Jigsaw game, Erickson called Agent Cowan and ordered her to put out an APB on him. (*Saw V*)