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Summary: Chapters 3 & 4

Chapter 3

Alone in a train car, Haymitch mourns the loss of Lenore Dove and his family. Plutarch eventually collects him and brings him to the carriage with the other tributes. Haymitch is wary of Plutarch, but decides to stay on his good side because he saved Lenore Dove’s life and let him hug his family goodbye. He goes to comfort Louella, with whom he has been close ever since she declared that she was his “sweetheart” when they were eight and five, and asks if they can be allies. He then considers the other tributes. He doesn’t know what to make of Wyatt other than he looks strong and capable, but he maintains that Maysilee has been “too good for the rest of [them] from day one.” Plutarch returns with sandwiches, and Maysilee bullies his attendant into bringing them plates and cutlery. 

The four tributes are then brought to watch the other reapings with Plutarch and Drusilla. Plutarch comments that they will have time to strategize with their mentor (a previous victor from their district) before the Games, and Haymitch reflects that Twelve is the only district without automatic mentors because they have no living victors. Haymitch recalls that Twelve has only had one victor, but that nobody talks about her because there are no clips of her Games. Haymitch has tried to talk about her to Lenore Dove a few times, but his girlfriend never wanted to discuss the elusive District 12 victor. 

Read a full book summary of the series’ previous prequel, The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes.

They then watch the feed of their own reaping, and Haymitch is amazed by the manufactured footage. Plutarch explains that he did some “card-stacking” to sell them to sponsors. Haymitch feels bitter; he knows he is just being used for the Capitol’s entertainment and that Plutarch is just indulging them to get good footage. As if to prove his point, an attendant suddenly emerges with a birthday cake. 

Chapter 4

Haymitch sees that there is a camera filming his reaction to the cake and he refuses to give one, remembering his father telling a tribute years ago to not “let them use [her]” and to not “let them paint their posters with [her] blood.” Haymitch’s mom told him to remember that advice before he was taken away after the reaping. He turns his back on the cake, and Plutarch apologizes for the “miscalculation.” Haymitch is surprised that someone from the Capitol would apologize for anything, but he figures Plutarch is just trying to win his approval so he can use him for his footage. Plutarch then announces that each district will get a stylist, and Maysilee belittles Drusilla’s clothes when she makes a snarky remark about the clothing in Twelve. Drusilla slaps Maysilee, but Maysilee slaps her right back and demands that she never touch her again. Drusilla starts to whip Maysilee with her riding crop and has to be dragged off of her.

Read more about Haymitch’s father’s advice and its significance throughout the text.

The four tributes go to a sleeper car. Louella and Wyatt fall asleep right away while Haymitch lies awake, holding his striker and thinking about Lenore Dove. Maysilee, who is also awake, asks to see it. Haymitch remembers that she once rejected a gold Covey-made mockingjay pin that she was gifted for thirteenth birthday—the very same pin that Madge, Maysilee’s niece, gives to Katniss at the start of The Hunger Games—because the bird was ugly. The incident upset Lenore Dove when they were younger, so Haymitch does not show Maysilee the striker out of loyalty to her.

Read more about the mockingjay pin Madge gifts to Katniss in The Hunger Games.

Later, Louella wakes him and says she doesn’t want Wyatt for an ally because he is the son of a Booker Boy—people who gamble and bet on the Hunger Games—to which Haymitch agrees. They arrive in the Capitol the next morning and watch four tributes exit the District 1 carriage. Wyatt stuns the other three by immediately reeling off information about each tribute, and he tells the group they may not want him as an ally, but “it’s a sure bet [they] need [him].”

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