Chapter 26

Katniss leaves Snow’s quarters, with the white rose in her hand. She retreats back to her room and contemplates about what Snow told her. She feels that is unlikely for District 13 to kill so many innocent lives. But then again, they have the technology to do so. Her mind wanders back to her sister and feels sad again. She needed a friend to talk to and Gale is the only one that pops into her head. She realizes that asking him would only open up the topic about how his weapon was responsible for Prim’s death. She decides to check with Haymitch instead but he’s a drunken mess. He ends up insulting her.

She hides inside a closet and takes a morphling. She descends into a hysterical fit. People discover her whereabouts and bring her back. She has to clean up and get made up by her prep team for Snow’s execution. Effie Trinket emerges, not being actually dead at all. Katniss gets transformed into the Mockingjay once more. Gale drops by and tells Katniss that he has no idea about the weapon, but he was sure that it was responsible for destroying their relationship. He leaves her.

Katniss finds the rose and goes back to her prep team. She ends up in a room with other Games victors, with President Coin telling her that these people are alive because of the protection that Katniss asked for them. Coin explains that people of Panem are still seeking revenge outside of Snow’s death for the destruction cause by him. The victors were gathered so they can vote on one final Games: this time, involving children from the Capitol’s most influential families. Peeta, Annie, and Beetee all vote “no”. While Katniss, Johanna, Enobaria, and Haymitch vote for “yes”. As Coin is leaving, Katniss hands her the white rose and tells her to give it to Snow.

They all go outside for Snow’s execution. She’s given a bow and arrow to use. She faces Snow and it seems as if he’s telling her something with his eyes. Katniss shoots, however—who she killed wasn’t President Snow. It was President Coin.

Notes:
Katniss gives one last act of rebellion as a statement that she may be down, but she’s not yet out. Coin’s tactics are no match for Katniss’ anger.

Chapter 27

As President Coin dies, Snow begins laughing and dies, too. The police are closing in on Katniss, who think that the only way out is to ingest the nightlock pill. Peeta intervenes, getting bitten on the hand by Katniss instead of the pill. She asks Gale to shoot her, but he refused to do it. She is restrained and taken as prisoner back at the Training Center. As the days go by, she gets even more depressed. One day, Haymitch visits her and tells her that she’s been on trial, but it’s now all over. Plutarch defended her, as well as her shrink. She gets released and was told that she has to return to her home in District 12 now that she’s exiled. Both Coin and Snow died, with Paylor becoming president of Panem. Haymitch drops Katniss off at their old house, with Katniss’ mother refusing to go back, as District 12 holds so many memories.

The following day, Katniss’ old friend Greasy Sae drops by to cook for her. Greasy Sae does this twice daily to keep Katniss in check. She informs Katniss that all her prized possessions are now being sent from District 13. She retreats into her dad’s old coat and wakes up finding Peeta in front of her house. He brought primroses to plant in Katniss’ garden in memory of Prim. Katniss finally gathers enough courage to go up to her room and finds the rose that Snow has given her. She immediately burned this. She finally cleans herself up and Greasy Sae tells her that Gale has moved away.

She’s ready to go hunting once again and sees the people of District 12 burying their dead. One of the casualties was Madge, Katniss’ old friend and the daughter of their mayor. The great field where she used to hunt is now used as a burial ground. She misses Gale and her old life. Katniss stumbles upon Buttercup and yells at him. She starts crying about Prim’s death and started warming up to the cat. After that, she snaps back to reality and reconnected with all the people she’s ignored. Katniss and Peeta made a memory book full of pictures and words about the people who died during the Games and the war. They record every single detail that they could. They find out that Annie is having a baby, so a part of Finnick is still with them. Katniss and Peeta are still struggling with the trauma from the war, but they’re helping each other cope. They find love in each other again and are looking forward to a future together.

Notes:
After all the carnage, Katniss still finds it better to be at home than anywhere else. It took her a while to accept everything, but it gave her motivation to reconnect with the people around her.

Epilogue

Katniss watches her two children, a boy and girl, run around a field. She mentions that they will never know about the bodies buried beneath the ground that their feet are touching. Peeta had to convince Katniss to have kids for a long time—with Katniss not being sure if she could do it or not. Her children are now starting to learn about the Games at school. She’s unsure about the things that she’ll tell them. Peeta tells her that it will tell the kids about the people that they’ve loved and how courageous they were. Katniss gets through it by thinking about the good things instead, but still being reminded about what went down because of the Games.