The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes

Justice for the Capitol’s own is swift: The offending tribute is immediately shot by Peacekeepers. Coriolanus, mindful of the cameras, attempts to assist Arachne at Lucy Gray’s behest; he is hailed as a hero. Sejanus performs a rite for the tribute, sprinkling her with ashes or crumbs of some sort, while Arachne is given a grand funeral to be broadcasted across Panem.

Coriolanus completes Dr. Gaul’s assignment—a formal proposal for future Hunger Games—on his own. He decides to focus on food, proposing that Capitol residents be allowed to buy supplies for tributes and bet on their odds of winning. Dr. Gaul seems to approve, but asks if he worked on the assignment alone. He did, but his partner in name, Clemensia, is also present. Coriolanus does not outright lie, but Clemensia claims that she, too, worked on the proposal. Dr. Gaul prompts the two to pick up her genetically modified snakes as a test. If the snakes are familiar with a person’s scent, they won’t react: Clemensia is bitten multiple times.

Dr. Gaul acts indifferent towards the injured Clemensia and warns Coriolanus never to lie to her again. Coriolanus gleans from this experience, coupled with previous trauma he developed during the war, that nobody is to be trusted.

Coriolanus returns to the zoo, hoping to confide in Lucy Gray as she has no one else with whom to share his secrets. Her situation is dire: The rats suspected of biting Jessup, her fellow District 12 tribute, prove too clever for the Peacekeepers’ poison traps; and the Gamemakers are essentially starving the tributes to death. Coriolanus urges Lucy Gray to sing at their televised interview before the Games, hoping to find a way to feed her in the meantime.

An exhausted Coriolanus returns home and learns that he must sing the national anthem at Arachne’s funeral. Satyria, one of his favorite teachers, explains that this honor is the result of his earlier “heroism.” Coriolanus takes the opportunity to ask for help in feeding the tributes—as there’s no point to the Hunger Games should they die early.

Coriolanus is repulsed by Arachne’s funeral, finding her “honors” disproportionate to those who died during the war. Coriolanus quickly learns that the true purpose of this “show” is to instill fear and obedience, as the tributes are paraded through the streets: “High in the air, the bullet-ridden body of the District 10 girl, Brandy, dangled from [a crane’s] hook. Shackled to the truck bed, looking utterly filthy and defeated, were the remaining twenty-three tributes” (129). He deliberately refrains from empathizing with them.

Later, the mentors and mentees tour the arena. Coriolanus reflects on how the place used to host a circus as the group enters a different entrance than that of his memories: “This entrance was for the poor people [...] Or perhaps not poor. The word plebian came to mind;” families like the Snows always entered through a “velvet rope” (135). Coriolanus reconnects with Lucy Gray who reports that the tributes are being fed—perhaps, at his request—and compliments his singing at the funeral. He feels drawn to her, but the tender moment dissipates as a bomb goes off.

Coriolanus finds himself trapped beneath a burning beam, his trauma resurfacing. He cries out to Lucy Gray in mid-escape, who hesitates before returning to help. He is quickly recovered by Peacekeepers and transported to the hospital, as Lucy Gray is shoved to the ground with a gun to her back.

As it turns out, the bombs were planted, not dropped from the sky as per the war—but those responsible have yet to be found. The funeral for the mentor-students is even grander this time; the display of dead tributes, more gruesome. Eight tributes were killed, though Sejanus’s tribute, Marcus, managed to escape.

Meanwhile, Coriolanus is visited by Clemensia in the hospital, recoiling at the sight of her “ravaged face,” the “twitching that affected her entire body” (147). In contrast, he takes a moment to admire himself as the previous funeral is re-broadcasted.

Upon recovering, Coriolanus sees Lucy Gray again. With uncharacteristic sincerity, he voices his wish to repay her. In that moment, “a shift in their dynamic” occurs, because “[s]he had the right to demand things” (153); that being his confidence and genuine support in her ability to win.