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I find the differences between Xavier and Wally and how Maddie grew to be attracted to each interesting. With Xavier she told Simon that she thought he was hot and messed up. It actually makes a lot of sense for her character to find herself with someone like Xavier as she has spent half her childhood taking care of her mother. Maddie's nature has become that of a caregiver, someone who wants to take care of matters and fix the problem. It's no surprise she'd find herself attracted to someone with internal issues. He became that tragic, bad boy that she could fix, even if it was subconscious. That kind of relationship quickly breaks down and I don't think Maddie would have been happy with him even if he'd never cheated on her. However, he does break her heart because as Maddie pointed out, he had issues that only he could work out. I've seen some say she might eventually end up with Xavier in the end because he has changed, and while I do think he's much improved, I believe that her relationship with Wally will set her a new standard in which she will not be able to see Xavier the way she did before. Part of that attraction was his 'needing to be fixed' but after her experience with Wally I don't believe that would be attractive to her anymore.

The relationship experience with Wally is important because Wally is fairly well-adjusted for a dead guy. He and Maddie fall in love after time spent together, getting to know each other and supporting one another. They are there for each other but never try to fix the other. They love and accept each other as they are. Wally becomes an emotional anchor for Maddie, reminding her of her worth and remaining loyal to her.

The interesting thing is that Wally and Xavier actually mirror Maddie's parents and her relationship to them. Sandra has issues that have forced Maddie to become a caregiver, that hurt Maddie and which ultimately are not for Maddie to fix. Meanwhile, Dave is the parent which Maddie felt safest around, who selflessly takes his door to bring her home. His loyalty to his family, his love for them and steadiness in sending his daughter back even if he may never see her again mirrors Wally's own selflessness and loyalty.

I can't get over how much I love this show. It's been awhile since a show and its characters have pulled me in, so I'm not looking forward to when it comes to an end. Fortunately, the season 3 finale has set us up for a season 4 so hopefully the writers will be confirming that soon. Spoilers ahead for those who have not seen the season finale.

Spoilers ahead .. beware...

Can't stop thinking about the necklace scene where Maddie has Wally add a copy of her medallion to his, even if it disappears 'it doesn't mean it's not there'.

I did a search on Wally's medal and it appears to be a medallion for St. Christopher, the patron saint of travelers, protection, and safe journeys.

The story goes that St. Christopher wanted to serve the highest king and he went from serving a human king, to the devil, to seeking out Christ when he realized the devil feared the sign of the cross. A hermit tells him the best way to meet Christ is to stand at a treacherous river and carry travelers safely across. He does this until one day a child asks for his help in crossing. He carries the child but the waters grow more and more dangerous and the child heavier and heavier, so much so that he thought he might drown. However, he carried him across at great risk to himself. It wasn't until the end that the child revealed himself to be Christ and granted the saint the name Christopher which means "Christ bearer" and eternal life. Being the patron saint of safe travels is the most common recognition this saint gets recognized for but he is also known as a guide and protector for those journeying across realms, or the realm of the living vs the realm of the not living.

Now Maddie's necklace is a little more straightforward. Her's is a compass. This makes great sense for her character in season 1. She's lost, searching for answers and direction. But my question is what do these symbols mean for season 3 and beyond? I keep thinking of that water in the house that Wally gets dragged into.

Thanks to Suzanne Collins we finally have the backstory to our favorite Hunger Games mentor in the newly released prequel novel, Sunrise on the Reaping, not to mention additional trauma to add to our psyches. The brash, tortured and alcohol-dependent former survivor of The 50th Hunger Games, Haymitch Abernathy, faces insurmountable odds when he is “reaped” into the 2nd quarter quell. As per usual I warn there are spoilers ahead and if you have yet to read the novel I advise you to leave this post and don’t come back until you have. With that...let’s get started.

Haymitch Abernathy has long been one of my favorite characters from The Hunger Games series, partially due to the enigma of his personal tragedy. Previously, we only had a summarized version of his televised Games to go off of when, in preparation for their own, Katniss and Peeta watched the clips to gain knowledge on how a quarter quell proceeds. We also got a tidbit of information out of Haymitch when he mentions the Capital executing his family and girlfriend. Other than that all we know about Haymitch and his personal traumas, is he drinks a lot (like a lot), he sleeps with a knife, and he appears to have no one he loves or cares for until Peeta and Katniss come along.

In true Suzanne Collins fashion, we soon discovered Haymitch’s story was far more twisted and tragic than we first thought. Not only was Haymitch selected by a chance of poor luck in a botched reaping, but the televised Games, in which Katniss and Peeta observed Haymitch survive the 2nd quarter quell, was more or less a steaming, hot pot of bullshit. 

Sunrise on the Reaping also gives us some information on the Covey clan and what their status is at this point in the timeline as well as some background info on Katniss’ parents. We learn that Maude Ivory has passed away and that the Covey’s made a gravesite for their members deep in the woods. It’s unclear how Maude Ivory died and it is still unclear if Lucy Gray is actually confirmed dead (did the Covey find her body or did they just assume she passed over time?), though I like to think her fate is still a mystery in lieu of the poem. Personally, I like the idea of Lucy Gray being a ghostly presence haunting Snow and the Capital for their crimes and not knowing her fate gives her that mysterious, ethereal power.

Katniss’ parents are finally named, Burdock and Astrid, as well as confirmed to be Covey (at least Burdock is), although we still do not know through whom. My guess is still Maude Ivory, but I am not as positive as I once was. Regardless, it was great seeing a bit of Katniss’ history and where she comes from. Despite Burdock only ever being mentioned in the original series (and never by name), his absence in Katniss’ life, and the impact his death had on her and her family, allows him to feel very much like a character who once lived and breathed, so it was nice to see him living and breathing.

Lenore Dove is also introduced as a new member of the Covey clan, and Haymitch’s lost love, alongside his hardworking mother who reminds me of Hazel Hawthorne (Gale’s mother) and his younger brother Sid. Their tragic demise is what ultimately drives Haymitch deep into the bottom of a liquor bottle. This loss, coupled with the trauma of the Hunger Games and the subsequent isolation from the citizens of District 12, lead us to the Haymitch we know and love. And don’t forget, his pain multiplied each year as he mentored tribute after tribute for the next 23 years, only to have to return to his district each time in the company of children’s coffins.

Another character, while not necessarily new but expounded upon, is that of Maysilee Donner. She just may be the breakout star of the novel. This fan favorite showed us a different style of rebellion than we have seen before. With her lovely outfits, her many jewels, and her refusal to eat with her hands, Maysilee refuses to allow herself to act like the beast or animal the Capital treats her as. Throughout her stay in the Capital and her dwindling days in the arena she held onto her humanity with both hands and told anyone who tried to take it from her to kindly, f**k off. This is not to say that she wasn’t lethal or that she went into the Games utterly prepared to die. But rather she simply said that if she must die, she would do it with dignity. She had a kind of resilience and authenticity to her that could be biting at times yet a gentleness and selflessness in the way she handled the tokens of her fellow tributes that plainly showed how important holding onto your identity was to her. Like Peeta, she wasn’t going to play the game on anyone’s terms but her own, and she wanted to hold on to who she was.

Of the characters introduced and re-introduced in this novel, Plutarch Heavensbee continues to be the most mysterious character in my opinion. I would actually be highly interested in seeing another prequel novel centered around Plutarch. There is so much we don’t know about him. How and why did he become disillusioned with the Capital? How did he come to know of District 13’s survival? When did he become a Gamemaker? In what ways since Haymitch’s games (and perhaps before) has he attempted to aid the rebellion? How prominent are the anti-Capital citizens within the Capital walls? Seriously, there is so much we could learn from a novel centered around Plutarch that could amplify the theme of building up to the revolution in the original series. If Katniss was the fire that was catching, Haymitch the flint striker that helped ignite it, and Lucy Gray the song that inspired the flame, then Plutarch was the one who aired it across live television until the entire nation caught fire.

One thing the prequel novels have done best is show the audience how flammable the nation was long before Katniss’ birth. The districts have sparked before and even those in the Capital have attempted to fan the flames, but either the spark doesn’t quite catch or the fanning was too much for too little. Rebellions build over time, and oftentimes they need a combination of strategy and sheer luck. 

Therefore, it makes sense that when Katniss comes along not only does she have an unprecedented amount of good luck, but those who’ve been in the shadows trying to build the rebellion have perfected their strategies over time. Fate or not, Katniss could never have succeeded if not for the seeds that were planted from the inception of the Games. These stories eerily parallel the events of WWI and WWII. With a large part of the events leading to the beginning of the second world war having been planted at the end of the first. And the murder of innocent tributes in the Games parallels the genocide of innocent people due to a corrupt dictator with lofty and evil ideas about race and class and a civilization that grows silent or even buys into the propaganda.

This is why The Hunger Games series is not only so relevant to our society today but also blatantly terrifying as it is a reflection of our history. People often comment on how our society isn’t too far from being a civilization capable of creating such an atrocious event, but our history already proves we are more than capable of it. The Holocaust, slavery, the Roman gladiator sports. Our world has a terrible inclination to allow tyrants to rise while turning a blind eye to the oppression of the backbones they build their civilization on.

On the flip side, these books also show that our world can be saved by the greatest attributes humanity possesses. Compassion, love, courage, mercy, sacrifice. When people are subjected to horrifying injustices it is easy to want to cower or hide. It’s simpler to hate or choose vengeance or seek survival for yourself and the ones you love. Especially when you lose time and time again. Haymitch’s story is an example of this.

Initially, he is very much like Katniss and even Peeta. He shares Katniss’ spark, her protectiveness of the weak, and an independence striving to break free from the bondage of the Capital. He is not easily controlled and he wants to hold the Capital accountable for the deaths of his fellow tributes. In addition to these attributes, Haymitch is also shrewd and calculating like Peeta, with an ability to empathize with those who are different from him, and a talent for manipulating words or actions with ease to suit a specific purpose. It’s a beautiful way of showing that by saving Katniss and Peeta in a way Haymitch was saving himself, because he didn’t just lose his girlfriend and family, he lost who he was only to find it again in these two tributes. Haymitch’s story arc in this novel serves as a cautionary tale for Katniss, but his arc in the The Hunger Games trilogy is his redemption.