The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes

Coriolanus assumes Lucy Gray poisoned Jessup, but his foam indicates that he instead contracted rabies. During the war, vaccinations for pets were foregone, instigating widespread instances of rabid animals—and humans—in the Capitol.

Coriolanus recalls that victims of rabies develop an extreme fear of water—as they can no longer swallow—so he has water bottles sent to Jessup to drive him into a crazed fury. In his agitation, Jessup trips over the high wall of the arena and breaks his back in the fall. Lucy Gray approaches with caution and empathy, placing her hand on his head as he dies.

Coriolanus and Lucy Gray are voted “most popular” by viewers, but he knows that this doesn’t necessarily improve the latter’s chances (264). Nevertheless, he feels heartened; Lucy Gray only has nine tributes left to defeat. His optimism dissipates when Tigris informs him that they are at risk of losing their apartment.

With the Snows’ storied history at risk, Coriolanus is determined to win the Plinth family’s prize more so than ever before.

Back at the Games, Dean Highbottom is interviewed about the new changes—just as some of the tributes band together to force a confrontation. A tribute managed to stay safe by tying herself to a high beam. Three allied tributes knock her off balance and she dies in the fall; and then, two of the three tributes turn on the third, stabbing him in the back with a trident. The mentor of the now dead tribute notes that one has to “[b]e careful who you trust” (278).

Coriolanus meets with Dr. Gaul, who reminds him of his essay and reports that yet another student succumbed to injuries from the bombing. He sees Dr. Gaul’s rainbow-colored snakes wheeled into an elevator for the Games’ next phase. He links the snakes to Lucy Gray’s signature dress and recalls how to keep her safe (i.e., by familiarizing them with her scent). Coriolanus drops a handkerchief that he gave Lucy Gray to wipe her tears before the Games into the snake tank.

Coriolanus is taken aback by his own audacity, and he vacillates between thinking the gesture was to save Lucy Gray’s life and believing that it was to help him win the prize. He decides to visit the Plinths’ home, subconsciously thinking that there might be hope of a cash reward in casting his sympathies with Sejanus. Ma plies him with pie, speaking wistfully of her home back in District 2, while Strabo Plinth interrogates Coriolanus about his motives for helping Sejanus back in the arena. Strabo implies that Coriolanus is little like his father, for it was “[i]mpossible to imagine Crassus Snow risking his life for me” (289). Coriolanus says that he did so out of friendship—despite being given no choice in the matter.

Disappointed by Strabo’s lack of monetary support, Coriolanus returns home to work on his essay. He concludes that “[w]ithout the control to enforce the [social] contract, chaos reigned. The power that controlled needed to be greater than the people—otherwise, they would challenge it. The only entity capable of this was the Capitol” (292).

The next day, the audience witnesses the death of another tribute holding an apple; Coriolanus suspects that this was the work of Lucy Gray’s poison. Dr. Gaul announces the most recent student death and promises something special for the remaining tributes (297). Her snakes are dropped into the arena and attack everyone nearby, killing several tributes. Coriolanus fears for Lucy Gray’s life—until he hears singing. Lucy Gray appears out of a tunnel, followed by several snakes, “as if mesmerized by the melody” (300).

Coriolanus, too, is mesmerized—and terrified—by Lucy Gray’s appearance: “Had she sung to the snakes at home? […] Perhaps she’d befriended several snakes back in District 12. Perhaps she thought if she stopped singing, they would indeed kill her now. Perhaps this was her swan song” (302). The snakes remain docile to the end, leaving the audience stunned. Dr. Gaul attempts to redirect their attention to the deceased student, clearly unhappy with the performance.

As morning comes, the remaining mentors find Dr. Gaul’s snakes dead, drowned by rain or weak against the overnight cold. Three of the four remaining tributes meet their end—the last a victim of one of Lucy Gray’s snakes, kept warm and alive by her—and she emerges as the unlikely victor of the Tenth Annual Hunger Games. Coriolanus celebrates, and for a moment, “he felt invincible” (319).

But by the end of his celebration, Coriolanus finds Dean Highbottom waiting in Dr. Gaul’s lab with an array of incriminating items: “an Academy napkin stained with grape punch, his mother’s silver compact, and a dingy white handkerchief” (320). Instead of winning the coveted prize to University, Coriolanus is forced to become “Panem’s newest, if not shiniest, Peacekeeper” (320).