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 be taught in regards to the early lifetime of future Panem president Coriolanus Snow and the girl he fell in love with. That girl’s title? Lucy Grey Baird.
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Coriolanus, performed by Tom Blyth on-screen, begins his story in “The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes” as a Capitol denizen whose beforehand high-status household has fallen in favor after the demise of his father — so he is determined to show himself through the tenth Starvation Video 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 Grey 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” (that means poor) district by primarily turning her right into a dancing monkey. Armed with a strong voice and a guitar, Lucy Grey 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 Grey’s skills finally ends up reviving flagging curiosity within the Video games, which weren’t bringing in a ton of viewers. When there’s an explosion on the area the day earlier than the Video games throughout a tour attended by Coriolanus and Lucy Grey, there’s even extra consideration drawn to the Video games. They start the following day — so what occurs?
Lucy Grey Baird finally ends up competing within the tenth Annual Starvation Video games
Earlier than she goes into the sector, Coriolanus, involved for Lucy Grey’s security and aware of what awaits her within the area, 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 area — Lucy Grey additionally has considerably of an affinity for snakes and is seemingly in a position to attraction them — however Coriolanus additionally slips Lucy a compact filled with rat poison to make use of in opposition to her fellow tributes. The 2 of them are additionally accurately ready to determine that the bombing of the sector opened up entry to tunnels inside the house that Lucy Grey can simply use to her benefit.
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Lucy Grey in the end 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 Grey 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 had been inclined to assault her, although. In truth, she appeared to be drawing them from across the area. The bunch underneath Teslee’s pole thinned, just a few dropped from the stands, and dozens slithered out of the tunnels to hitch in a normal migration to Lucy Grey. They surrounded her, flocking in from all sides, making it not possible for her to proceed retreating. The brilliant our bodies undulated over her naked ft, curling round her ankles as she lowered herself gently onto a piece of marble. With the guidelines of her fingers, she unfold her ruffles out within the mud, as if by the use of invitation. Because the snakes swarmed her, the light material vanished, leaving her with a superb skirt of weaving reptiles.”
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The snakes cannot and will not assault Lucy Grey … so finally, she merely outlasts her rivals and wins the Video games. Sadly, that is not the top of Lucy Grey’s story.
What occurs to Lucy Grey Baird after her Starvation Video games?
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 compelled to go away the Capitol and be part of the Peacekeepers (which is mainly the brute police pressure in Panem) underneath important duress. He does get assigned to District 12, although, which permits Coriolanus to reunite with Lucy Grey, and the 2 strike up a relationship in earnest now that she’s survived the Video games.
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One more downside arises when Coriolanus’ schoolmate and pal Sejanus Plinth (Josh Andrés Rivera) begins colluding with rebels in District 12, and regardless that Lucy Grey helps his enterprise, Coriolanus sees a possibility to get forward and finds a jabberjay — a mutated fowl that mainly works as a recording machine — 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 Grey’s ex-boyfriend, Billy Taupe (Dakota Shapiro), and his new girlfriend, the mayor’s daughter and Lucy Grey’s nemesis, Mayfair Lipp (Isobel Jesper Jones). Spruce hides the gun however is later killed for his crime.
Coriolanus and Lucy Grey escape District 12, desiring 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 received him killed, and then the 2 discover the homicide weapon. Coriolanus activates Lucy Grey, who flees, leaving toxic snakes behind as a entice … 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 course simply as a mockingjay picked up her track. 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 hearth 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 discipline of imaginative and prescient, and his arm started to throb. ‘Lucy Grey!’ he bellowed in frustration. Intelligent, devious, lethal woman. She knew they’d cowl for her. He lifted the rifle and machine-gunned the bushes, making an attempt to wipe out the birds. Many fluttered into the sky, however the track had unfold, and the woods had been alive with it. ‘Lucy Grey! Lucy Grey!’ Livid, he turned this fashion and that and at last blasted the woods in a full circle, going round and round till his bullets had been spent.”
Lucy Grey is rarely seen or heard from once more after that, and Coriolanus goes on to turn out to be the deeply evil President Coriolanus Snow, a person recognized for poisoning his enemies.
Is Lucy Grey Baird talked about in Dawn on the Reaping?
Within the 2025 “Starvation Video games” sequel “Dawn on the Reaping” — the standalone origin story of Haymitch Abernathy that is already being was a film set to launch in late 2026 — we do hear a bit bit a few woman who is sort of clearly Lucy Grey Baird, even supposing Haymitch does not truly know who she is. When he is chosen to signify District 12 within the second Quarter Quell — the fiftieth Video 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. Usually, previous winners function mentors, however as Haymitch places it, that complete factor is sophisticated:
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“In 50 years, we have solely had one victor, and that was a very long time in the past. A lady who nobody appears to know something about. Again then, barely anybody in 12 had a tv, so the Video games had been principally 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 in regards to the woman.”
After Haymitch wins his Video games — and his household and girlfriend Lenore Dove are all murdered for his insolence within the area — 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-recognized tune with unfamiliar phrases.” In that second, Haymitch realizes that she should be the victor. “Why else would a Covey woman be within the Capitol?” Haymitch wonders to himself.
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“May this woman be District 12’s one and solely victor? Immediately, I am positive she is. No marvel 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 woman’s gown? A approach to hold her reminiscence alive? What colour title did this rainbow woman carry to the Tenth Starvation Video games? What occurred to her after? Did she come house? Did she die within the nightmarish lab?”
Years after Lucy Grey 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.
