How It All Goes Down
- Alone and bathing, Katniss thinks about how everyone she's encountered has attempted to use her as a tool for power: the Gamemakers, President Snow, the revolutionaries, and their president.
- Oh, and the revolutionaries are changing Katniss's appearance to make her more television-friendly. They're going to make her look natural again and then add beautiful battle-scars. Fulvia and the prep team are helping with this, just as they helped during the preparation for the arena.
- As the prep team helps her, Katniss considers how altered they are outside of the Capitol.
- The prep team can solve everything except the wound on Katniss's arm, where she used to have a tracker. Plutarch and Fulvia have to come consult about it – it's pretty unsightly.
- The decision is postponed until after the midday meal. Katniss takes the prep team to eat with the others, and they end up sitting with Gale and his family. Being with them helps make the prep team feel better.
- Katniss reveals that the night before, she and Gale fought about her decision to request protection for the other former tributes.
- When the meal is finished, she and Gale make up a little – but they still disagree. They head to a meeting with Beetee.
- Beetee is in the Special Defense area of the underground compound. They find him in a beautiful, man-made version of a natural field. Beetee is observing the real hummingbirds that populate it.
- Gale tries to think about what could catch a hummingbird, and suggests a very thin net made of small metal links.
- Their conversation makes Katniss flash back to the brutality of competing in the Games.
- Beetee asks Katniss about Finnick and then says he's been working on specialized weapons for both of them.
- He takes Katniss and Gale over to the Weaponry section to show her his creation.
- Gale gets to pick out a bow as his own weapon. He and Katniss talk about whether it's all right to use such weapons on other human beings.
- Then, Beetee brings Katniss a fantastic weapon: a bow that will react to her when she speaks. It's designed specifically for her, and will be a huge advantage in battle.
- After that, Katniss goes to join Plutarch and the prep team. They make her up and dress her in preparation for the making of the first propo, with her fake scars and all that.
- Everyone thinks she looks great, and they want her to try to speak, too: she's supposed to say, "People of Panem, we fight, we dare, we end our hunger for justice!" (5.71)
- She does it on camera, and no one says anything.
- Haymitch, who's in another room, finally speaks up and says it was absolutely terrible.