If you were as excited as me to see the newest installment of the Hunger Games series this fall, then you probably studied up on your Panem history before heading to the movie theatre. In preparation, I binge-watched all four of the original movies while finishing up some end-of-year assignments and I’d highly recommend it. For two days before I went to the screening, my mind was consumed with extravagant costuming, Katniss and Peeta ship names, and of course adolescent fights to the death. Let’s just say I was in the right headspace to see young President Snow manipulate his way through the 10th Hunger Games. My only credibility to write this article besides the pre-screening binge-watching, is the one-third of the new novel I read last summer!
Here are some Easter eggs and connections to the old movies you might have missed!
- Lucy Gray’s Reaping Dress
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After reading the first chapter of the book, I was super excited to see how the costume department went about creating Lucy Gray’s dress that she wore at the reaping. It was described as “a dress made of a rainbow of ruffles, now raggedy but once fancy” and “the rows of raspberry pink, royal blue, and daffodil yellow.” They definitely nailed the ruffles and tattered rainbow effect of the skirt. But if you look closely at the bodice, the corset is laced with primrose blossoms and katniss flowers!
- Family Lineage
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This might have been more of an obvious hint to the original movies, but a couple of the new characters had the same last names as the old characters from the first three books! Here’s a cheat sheet of all the connections I could find (not confirmed):
- Lucretius Flickerman = Caesar Flickerman’s potential father
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- Arachne Crane (classmate) = Seneca Crane (Game maker of the 74th Hunger Games)
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- Hilarius Heavensbee (classmate) = Plutarch Heavensbee (Game maker of the 75th Hunger Games)
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- Livia Cardew (classmate) = Fulvia Cardew (Assistant to Plutarch)
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- Tigris Snow (pre-cosmetic alterations/tattoos) = Tigris in Mockingjay Part 2
- Morphling
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Throughout the film, the current dean of the academy, Casca Highbottom, played by the talented Peter Dinklage, is seen drinking a strange liquid out of a small bottle or flask. So Alastor Moody of him!
It turns out he was drinking morphling, a drug that treats intense pain and injury, but can create an addictive dependence for its users. It is basically Panem’s version of oxycontin or Percocet’s. In Catching Fire, as Haymitch is giving them a rundown of the new tributes, he references the District 6 tributes as “morphlings” because they became heavily addicted after winning their games. They give it to Peeta when he is rescued from the Capital in Mockingjay Part 2, and even Katniss becomes slightly dependent on it in the book after she assassinates Alma Coin.
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At the end of The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes, Coriolanus uses poison to kill Dean Highbottom by giving him a couple of vials of laced morphling that he just couldn’t resist.
- Snow’s history with poison
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In the first three books, President Snow kills off his enemies and people that stand in his way like Seneca Crane, some of his council members, and now we know, Dean Highbottom. Maybe it was just because I read the books so long ago, but I completely forgot that using poison was his most sinister tactic and identifying trait.
In the books, it is referenced that throughout his 50+ year tirade in Panem, he used poison to get ahead of other politicians and potential competition. Sometimes he even had to drink the poison himself to cover his tracks, but didn’t manage to come out unscathed. Finnick revealed in Mockingjay Part 1 that Coriolanus wears the perfume white roses to cover the stench of sores in his mouth.
We get to see his first poisonings in The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes. First, he gives Lucy Gray the rat poison in the arena during her games, which ends up killing Dill after she drinks the poisoned water. Then he gives Dean Highbottom, the person who hated him most, the morphling. This parallel between the two storylines is my favorite. We get to see President Snow’s “humble” beginnings as a psychopathic, power-hungry school boy.
- all roads lead to Katniss
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On social media, viewers of the film have been quick to point out the similarities between Lucy Gray Baird and Katniss Everdeen. And although they were both forced into the same situation, their personalities could not be more different. Katniss goes into the arena shy and terrified of her fate, unsure of how to play the game. Lucy Gray dives head first into performing for the Capitol’s people and giving them a show they couldn’t look away from. That was what made her and Snow a good team, they both had that ambition to win. But, if Lucy Gray and Katniss have one trait in common, its that they both want to see the oppressive Capitol fall.
Despite their differences, the creators of this new movie included a lot of parallels between the two characters and their relationship to Coriolanus Snow. Katniss sings “The Hanging Tree” in a promo video for District 13 and we find out that Lucy Gray wrote the song. They both came from the District 12 slums, branded as weak before their games even begun. In one scene, Lucy Gray and Coriolanus lay underneath a tree in District 12 as their new love for each other blossoms. She points out to him the Katniss plants that surround them and the mockingjay birds flying up ahead. No doubt he kept that memory with him his entire life and resented that connection with Katniss.
I hope you enjoyed these little Easter eggs I found in The Ballad of the Songbirds and Snakes. Let’s pray for Suzanne Collins to put out another novel!