Seems like I am not done talking about Haymitch.
Do you ever think about how he probably got a visit from Snow after he pulls his stunt with the forcefield?
I mean, this IS an act of defiance, a very big one at that. Finnick, Cashmere, Gloss and Johanna haven't had their Games yet. Snow maybe starts using people as prostitutes after he sees how badly losing his family breaks Haymitch, how it kills his spirit.
Imagine Haymitch coming home from the Games, stitched up, gasping for air, still feeling the ax digging into his stomach. And he's angry. Angry for Maysilee Donner, angry for his other two district members.
But he survived the hardest Games in history, despite being from the worst district. And the forcefield? He chuckles at the thought. Well, that was just the cherry on top. We, the audience, now know how smart he is. But he knew all along. He's made a fool out of the Capitol... and he is proud of it. Now there is only a lifetime of peace with his family and his girlfriend. And maybe, just maybe, also revenge.
He walks through his front door after two weeks of Victory Tour, traumatized but alive, and strong, and ready to embrace his little brother... And there sits Snow. Smiling.
Haymitch looks around. He doesn't smell his moms cooking, his brothers laughter isn't echoing in the halls. He can't find his family.
"Where are they?" Haymitch demands. He feels fear travel up his spine.
Snow gives him nothing but a cold, cold glare. "I hope you will think twice about fooling us in the future, mr. Abernathy. Enjoy your retirement"
He walks out. Haymitch doesn't know what to do. Then he runs upstairs.
Their bodies are already cold.
With no one around to help him, Snow counts on Haymitch's grief taking him out.
And it works. For over 2 decades, one of the smartest, most cunning people to have played the Games is nothing more than a bumbeling idiot, trying to drink himself to death. Snow makes sure the force field is a dome, that he has measures to take out tributes who play the game too cleverly.
Who could become a problem, like Haymitch.
He starts threatening beautiful victors to kill their families if they don't play whore for him, knowing that it'll be much better to have them close, where he can watch them, then back at their districts.
He threatens other winners too, but more subtely. If they can't be prostituted, they might somehow get addicted to morphling or alcohol. A child, brother or parent might go missing. He starts showing up at their houses, making sure that every Victor understand that Snow is all powerful. That there is nothing his hands cannot touch. Just so they are not alone and unthreatened.
Where they can plan, where they can brood. Haymitch might be drinking, but he's not dead yet. He hasn't killed himself like other Victors have. Somewhere deep inside him, the spark for revenge is still burning. So he bides his time, keeps himself alive, even if just barely.
Snow knows a lot about grudges, and he knows about the type of people who hold them. He cannot kill Haymitch, and he cannot blackmail him anymore either. He learns from that. So he keeps their families over the victor's heads.
Because otherwise he might get a Haymitch who isn't drinking himself to death. Otherwise he might be in serious trouble. Men like Haymitch, killers with a sharp mind, they might become a problem. Johanna almost becomes one, before he teaches her a lesson and robs her of her strenght. And Finnick Odair knows more secrets than his best spies.
Then the 74th Games happen. And Snow sees, much to his dismay, glimpses of the old Abernathy, of the brilliant mind, of the charming personality. He sees him walking around the Capitol. Making connections.
So of course, he tries to take the girl that looks so much like him out. Fireballs, secret gifts, rule changes; if he cannot kill Katniss, he will kill the image of her.
But then Katniss gives Rue her funeral. Haymitch sees Rue die in Katniss' arms and is transported back, for a moment, to 24 years ago, holding Maysilee. After he sees the berries and he knows she is much more like him than is good for her. He knows she is in danger now.
Snow thinks about how to kill two birds with one stone. He wants Katniss back in the arena. But maybe there is a way to finally kill Haymitch, too. If things work out.
Haymitch is angry beyond belief when he hears the announcement of the Third Quarter Quell. But he's not suprised. He knows Snow.
Almost all the men and women he knows are going back into the arena. He might go back. The chance that Katniss or Peeta comes back is extremely small.
When Peeta volunteers for him, he knows he can't do anything to stop it. The boy is far too noble for his own good. Haymitch admires that about him.
And that is the moment he starts planning. He knows how he needs to protect her, the girl that looks so much like him. And he's heard the rumours about 13. He might be an alcoholic, but he's still clever as the devil himself. He knows - fuck, he doesn't want to, but he's clocked it - that there are other victors that are angry like him. He starts building his alliance, just like all those years ago, in the Games. Only this time he isn't playing a simple game of kill or be killed. This time around it's much more dangerous.
This time, it isn't just his life he's playing with.
But he succeeds. Even though it costs him almost all his allies, he gets Katniss out. And for the rest of the war, he is right there beside her, advising, keeping her alive.
He knows he cannot keep her safe, so he lets her go into the Capitol, lead a team. Clipping a bird's wings is just as bad as killing her, and she is the revolution, even if she doesn't see it herself.
With Peeta's hijacking, she needs a goal, otherwise it might eat her alive like it's eating Haymitch, who curses himself for not being on time. He could have saved Chaff and Peeta if he got there earlier. If only, if only.
He promises himself two things: that if they make it, somehow, he'll take care of her for the rest of his life, and if she doesn't, he will finally do what he wanted to do ever since he found the bodies 25 years ago.
When she comes back they hug for a long time. Katniss tells her about Prim, about the bomb. She tells him about her talk with Snow, although she doesn't tell him what it was about. But he's figured it out already. How could he not? He's spent months studying Coin; he connects the dots almost as fast as Katniss herself. Coin used the bomb to break the resistance. And Gale designed the trap. So he tells her "to remember who the real enemy is" He trusts that Katniss gets it. She is so much like him, anyways.
And because he knows her so well, because the same dark thoughts Katniss has have been racing through his head ever since he looked into broken eyes of his brother's dead body, he replaces the nightshade in her uniform with simple black berries. And he posts Peeta right next to him, near Katniss. Just in case.
But he needs to do one more thing. The day before Snow's execution, Haymitch visits him. He sits down in front of the dictator of Panem and does not move. Snow doesn't notice him, at first. But after years of substance abuse Haymutch cannot get his hands to stop shaking. Snow notices the twitch from the corner of his eye and starts looking at his hands. He wonders if Haymitch can still feel the blood on them.
Then he looks up. Katniss doesn't terrify him, he knows her through and through. She's an arrow, fast and straight. He knows exactly what to expect.
But when he looks in the eyes of the victor of the Second Quarter Quell he shivers, despite the temperature. For the first time in a long while he feels fear.
Because if Katniss is an arrow, Haymitch is a knife. Concealed, sharp, o so deadly. And slow. Very, very, very slow.
An arrow needs to be fired, but knives can twist all by themselves.
Snow doesn't know how to describe the look in Haymitch's eyes, but it looks nothing like the boy he left broken on the steps of his home, 25 years ago. In his eyes is hurt that sits so deep it's become part of him. And rage. Haymitch, drunk Haymitch, cunning Haymitch, in control Haymitch, has to clench his fists and grit his teeth to not strangle Snow with his bare hands.
Snow is at a loss for words. Haymitch only leans forward and moves his finger slowly across his neck in a gesture that leaves nothing to the imagination. He doesn't say a word. There is no need. Snow knows exactly where he is: in that house in the Seam, 25 years ago.
For the first time in ages, he doesn't feel like drinking.
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