The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes

When Coriolanus finds him, Sejanus makes a feeble excuse that he left to relieve himself—but Coriolanus knows this is a lie. Irritated and worried, he nevertheless goes ahead with their plans with Lucy Gray, for he needs a traveling companion. During their journey, “Coriolanus felt increasingly wary the farther away they got from what passed for civilization out here” (430); everyone else has a good time.

Lucy Gray discusses her ballad with Coriolanus and the others, but nobody agrees on its true meaning: “It’s a mystery,” Lucy Gray says to Maude Ivory. “Just like me” (432). She and Coriolanus discuss freedom. Coriolanus defends the Capitol’s repression of the districts, saying “we’re just trying to keep things under control” (434); Lucy Gray believes that “freedom’s worth the risk” (435). They eventually move on, enjoying some well-deserved relaxation. Coriolanus contemplates a life of forgoing ambition for love—and what it must look like.

Lucy Gray later reveals that Billy Taupe tried to talk her into running away with him, and Coriolanus becomes suspicious. Coriolanus’s wariness of Sejanus also grows when the latter leaves to shop in the Hob. He suspects the other man is involved in dangerous, potentially rebel-friendly, business. When the men return to their work with the modified birds, he presses Sejanus for details. He plays on Sejanus’s trust; when Sejanus begins to confess, Coriolanus records him with one of the captured jabberjays.

Sejanus relays his plan to drug the Peacekeepers guarding the rebel prisoner, Lil, in order to free her and flee beyond the Capitol’s reach. Sejanus feels that he can no longer be loyal to the Capitol if it means firing upon citizens—much less remain complicit in horrors such as the Hunger Games. Coriolanus decides to deliver the jabberjay, with Sejanus’s recorded message, to Dr. Gaul. While he struggles with some feelings of guilt, he concludes that the issue is “most importantly, someone else’s problem” (453). Coriolanus is more concerned about his own problems—Lucy Gray’s forgiveness should she learn of his betrayal and the potential loss of his family home—than what might happen to Sejanus.

The men return to the Hob to watch the Covey perform, with Coriolanus keeping a close eye on Sejanus. He follows Sejanus to a dressing room-shed out back. Lucy Gray follows Coriolanus and the couple are held at gunpoint by the rebel Spruce and Billy Taupe. Mayfair also shows up, looking for her boyfriend. She tries to leave, threatening to report the group for their suspicious activities, so Coriolanus “fired toward Mayfair’s voice” because “[w]ith her would go his entire future. No, more than that, his very life” (460). When Billy Taupe threatens Lucy Gray, Spruce shoots him as well. Coriolanus urges Lucy Gray to return onstage to secure an alibi while he and Sejanus clear the scene before the bodies are found. Spruce takes off with the murder weapons.

Spruce is killed by Peacekeepers while Sejanus is arrested and sentenced to hang for treason. He looks at Coriolanus on his way out: “Whether it was a plea for help or an accusation of his betrayal [Coriolanus] couldn’t tell” (470). His last word, echoed by the jabberjays, is “Ma!” (470).

Coriolanus is wracked with conflicted guilt over Sejanus’s death: “He had killed Sejanus as surely as if he’d bludgeoned him to death like Bobbin or gunned him down like Mayfair. […] But even as the vileness of the act threatened to drown him, a tiny voice kept asking, What choice did you have?” (472). To Coriolanus’s surprise, he is summoned by the Peacekeepers’ commander and thanked for his loyalty; his jabberjay made it to Dr. Gaul.

Coriolanus is granted reprieve, but knows it’s only a matter of time before he is implicated in Mayfair’s murder. He sees Lucy Gray perform one last time, hoping to give her a gift and tell her he loves her. Lucy Gray sings a song “written […] for him” that ends with the refrain “pure as the driven snow” (479). She plans to run away, fearful of the mayor’s retribution; Coriolanus decides to run away with her. The next day, Coriolanus learns that he was accepted to officers’ school.

Coriolanus is stunned, the school a second chance at regaining prestige—but knows that any future of his is doomed the moment Mayfair’s murder is traced back to him. Coriolanus meets with Lucy Gray, telling her that “[y]ou’re all that matters to me now” (491). As they travel, Lucy Gray confesses that she never wants to kill again; Coriolanus agrees: “[T]hree seems enough for one lifetime” (493). When Lucy Gray presses him about the third person—already knowing of Bobbin and Mayfair—he dissembles. He does not wish to speak of Sejanus.

They reach the Covey’s lake house and Coriolanus finds a bag with the murder weapons: “Once [his] gun was gone, there’d be nothing to connect him to the murders” (498). But then, he realizes that “there would be one thing. Lucy Gray” (498). Lucy Gray left to gather katniss roots, but likely pieced together her own position as a loose end. Coriolanus takes a gun and sets out to find her. At first, he convinces himself that he’s merely looking for her: “It looked bad coming after her armed. As if he was hunting her. But he wasn’t really going to kill her” (500). However, he stumbles across her scarf and picks it up—only for a snake to strike him. Coriolanus assumes Lucy Gray tried to kill him—considering her relationship with snakes—and justifies shooting her. He fires in her direction and hears the sound of a body dropping, but “[h]e could not even confirm he’d hit her” (505).

Coriolanus disposes of the guns and makes his way back to base, his arm numb and vision blurry. His doctor points out that the snake wasn’t venomous; rather, Coriolanus’s panic caused a physical reaction. He returns to the Capitol, his honorable discharge arranged by Dr. Gaul who plans to oversee his studies at University: “You don’t think I’ve invested all this time in you to hand you off to those imbeciles in the districts, do you?” (510).

Now an aspiring Gamemaker, Coriolanus and his fellow strategists discuss next year’s Games: “They’d come up with the idea that everyone in the district would receive a parcel of food if their tribute took the crown” (511). They hope that this incites some children to volunteer for the Games. Coriolanus was also “adopted” by the Plinths—who know nothing of his betrayal—sometime after his return. This ensures that his family keeps their apartment, and that Coriolanus himself attends classes in style.

Coriolanus meets with Dean Highbottom, who reveals why he never liked him: Coriolanus’s father “created” the Hunger Games despite it originating as his own drunken hypothetical, one never meant to see the light of day. Coriolanus leaves and recalls Lucy Gray; he decides that he doesn’t care for the loss of control that comes with love. He also thinks about his rat poison placed in Dean Highbottom’s morphling bottle—the ending putting it best, “Snow lands on top” (517).