The Hunger Games Prequel: What Happened To Lucy Gray Baird? – SlashFilm

In Suzanne Collins’ prequel novel “The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes,” which was tailored right into a profitable 2023 movie of the identical title, we study concerning the early lifetime of future Panem president Coriolanus Snow and the lady he fell in love with. That lady’s title? Lucy Gray Baird.

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Coriolanus, performed by Tom Blyth on-display screen, begins his story in “The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes” as a Capitol denizen whose beforehand excessive-standing household has fallen in favor after the dying of his father — so he is determined to show himself through the tenth Hunger Games, throughout which he serves as a mentor alongside different college students from the Academy. When he is given the project to mentor a scrappy tribute from District 12, he meets Lucy Gray Baird (Rachel Zegler within the movie), he is instantly struck by her highly effective strengths as a performer and figures out a manner to attract consideration to his tribute from a “lesser” (which means poor) district by primarily turning her right into a dancing monkey. Armed with a robust voice and a guitar, Lucy Gray finally ends up getting a handful of sponsors earlier than she enters the sector with the opposite tributes, however maybe extra importantly, she and Coriolanus type an intense bond.

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Coriolanus’ manipulation of Lucy Gray’s skills finally ends up reviving flagging curiosity within the Games, which weren’t bringing in a ton of viewers. When there’s an explosion on the enviornment the day earlier than the Games throughout a tour attended by Coriolanus and Lucy Gray, there’s even extra consideration drawn to the Games. They start the following day — so what occurs?

Earlier than she goes into the sector, Coriolanus, involved for Lucy Gray’s security and conscious about what awaits her within the enviornment, cheats. Not solely does he get toxic snake mutations used to her scent (utilizing a handkerchief) in order that they do not assault her within the enviornment — Lucy Gray additionally has considerably of an affinity for snakes and is seemingly capable of allure them — however Coriolanus additionally slips Lucy a compact stuffed with rat poison to make use of towards her fellow tributes. The two of them are additionally accurately in a position to determine that the bombing of the sector opened up entry to tunnels inside the area that Lucy Gray can simply use to her benefit.

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Lucy Gray finally poisons two tributes with the compact — one from District 8 and one from District 11 — and when the Gamemakers launch these toxic snakes into the sector, Lucy Gray makes use of them to her benefit simply as Coriolanus hoped. This is the way it goes down within the ebook, from his perspective:

“Not one of the snakes have been inclined to assault her, although. In truth, she appeared to be drawing them from across the enviornment. The bunch underneath Teslee’s pole thinned, a couple of dropped from the stands, and dozens slithered out of the tunnels to hitch in a common migration to Lucy Gray. They surrounded her, flocking in from all sides, making it inconceivable for her to proceed retreating. The shiny our bodies undulated over her naked ft, curling round her ankles as she lowered herself gently onto a piece of marble. With the information of her fingers, she unfold her ruffles out within the mud, as if by means of invitation. Because the snakes swarmed her, the light cloth vanished, leaving her with an excellent skirt of weaving reptiles.”

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The snakes cannot and will not assault Lucy Gray … so finally, she merely outlasts her rivals and wins the Games. Sadly, that is not the tip of Lucy Gray’s story.

Within the aftermath of Coriolanus’ scheme, Academy dean Casca Highbottom, performed within the film by Peter Dinklage, shrewdly figures out what the younger mentor did for his tribute, and Coriolanus is pressured to depart the Capitol and be part of the Peacekeepers (which is principally the brute police drive in Panem) underneath vital duress. He does get assigned to District 12, although, which permits Coriolanus to reunite with Lucy Gray, and the 2 strike up a relationship in earnest now that she’s survived the Games.

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Yet one more downside arises when Coriolanus’ schoolmate and buddy Sejanus Plinth (Josh Andrés Rivera) begins colluding with rebels in District 12, and although Lucy Gray helps his enterprise, Coriolanus sees a chance to get forward and finds a jabberjay — a mutated fowl that principally works as a recording gadget — to get Sejanus’ plan on the file for Capitol forces. This all escalates to some extent the place a insurgent named Spruce (George Somner) and Coriolanus kill Lucy Gray’s ex-boyfriend, Billy Taupe (Dakota Shapiro), and his new girlfriend, the mayor’s daughter and Lucy Gray’s nemesis, Mayfair Lipp (Isobel Jesper Jones). Spruce hides the gun however is later killed for his crime.

Coriolanus and Lucy Gray escape District 12, aspiring to make a run for it … however when he slips up and says he murdered three folks as an alternative of two, Lucy realizes that Coriolanus reported on Sejanus’ treason and acquired him killed, and then the 2 discover the homicide weapon. Coriolanus activates Lucy Gray, who flees, leaving toxic snakes behind as a lure … and singing “The Hanging Tree” to attract his consideration. This is the way it goes within the ebook:

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“He took a step in her route simply as a mockingjay picked up her music. Then a second. Then a 3rd. The woods got here alive with their melody as dozens joined in. He dove via the bushes after which opened fireplace on the spot the voice had come from. Had he hit her? He could not inform, as a result of the birdsong crammed his ears, disorienting him. Little black specks swam in his subject of imaginative and prescient, and his arm started to throb. ‘Lucy Gray!’ he bellowed in frustration. Intelligent, devious, lethal lady. She knew they’d cowl for her. He lifted the rifle and machine-gunned the bushes, attempting to wipe out the birds. Many fluttered into the sky, however the music had unfold, and the woods have been alive with it. ‘Lucy Gray! Lucy Gray!’ Livid, he turned this fashion and that and at last blasted the woods in a full circle, going round and round till his bullets have been spent.”

Lucy Gray isn’t seen or heard from once more after that, and Coriolanus goes on to change into the deeply evil President Coriolanus Snow, a person recognized for poisoning his enemies.

Within the 2025 “Hunger Games” sequel “Dawn on the Reaping” — the standalone origin story of Haymitch Abernathy that is already being changed into a film set to launch in late 2026 — we do hear slightly bit a few lady who is sort of clearly Lucy Gray Baird, even supposing Haymitch does not really know who she is. When he is chosen to symbolize District 12 within the second Quarter Quell — the fiftieth Games, which “have fun” the event by doubling the variety of tributes from 24 to 48 — Haymitch notes, in his head, that he is undecided who will mentor him and his fellow tributes. Sometimes, previous winners function mentors, however as Haymitch places it, that entire factor is difficult:

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“In 50 years, we have solely had one victor, and that was a very long time in the past. A woman who nobody appears to know something about. Again then, barely anybody in 12 had a tv, so the Games have been largely rumour. I’ve by no means seen her within the clips of the previous reveals, however then these early efforts are hardly ever featured, as they’re stated to be badly filmed and missing in spectacle. My mother and father weren’t born but, and even Mamaw could not inform me a lot concerning the lady.”

After Haymitch wins his Games — and his household and girlfriend Lenore Dove are all murdered for his insolence within the enviornment — he is caught in his mansion in District 12’s in any other case empty Victor’s Village when he awakens to noise coming from a tv to see “a woman in a rainbow of ruffles [singing] a well-known tune with unfamiliar phrases.” In that second, Haymitch realizes that she should be the victor. “Why else would a Covey lady be within the Capitol?” Haymitch wonders to himself. 

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“Might this lady be District 12’s one and solely victor? All of the sudden, I am certain she is. No surprise Lenore Dove by no means needs to speak about her. She is aware of the story, but it surely’s too secret, or maybe too painful, to share even with me. I take into consideration the bits of colour Lenore Dove provides to her wardrobe, the brilliant blue, yellow, and pink. Are they scraps from this lady’s gown? A method to maintain her reminiscence alive? What colour title did this rainbow lady carry to the Tenth Hunger Games? What occurred to her after? Did she come residence? Did she die within the nightmarish lab?”

Years after Lucy Gray Baird’s disappearance, Haymitch does not know what occurred to her with any certainty … so it looks as if we’ll by no means get a whole affirmation of her destiny both. “The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes” is accessible to stream on Starz.