I’m not sure how the Undersees’ marriage started. It could’ve been a love match, a status match, or even just an arrangement that was set up because Mr. Undersee had the best resources in the entire district to tend to Merrilee’s condition.
Either way, by the time of the main series, I don’t think there’s any love left in it. Merrilee’s husband tries so hard to take care of her: her gets her the morphling for her headaches, tries buying her nice things to keep her happy, keeps the house quiet when her migraines are at their worst… but as a result of all of that, any love that may or may not have once been there has vanished. He wants to help her so bad, but he can’t. What she needs is a therapist, but he even he can’t get her that. She, for her part, feels guilty because she knows he wants to help her, but that can’t stop the pain she feels. There’s more than one reason they only have one child.
It also makes me wonder what sort of relationship Mayor Undersee has with Haymitch. THG says that Mayor Undersee is embarrassed by his behavior at the reaping—and reasonably so—but maybe there’s a more personal connection, for better, worse, or a combination of both. He tries to put up with Haymitch, because his wife cares about him deeply. Maybe there’s some jealousy there: a jealousy that Haymitch is able to get through to her when he isn’t, that he understands Merrilee on an extremely personal level, and maybe deep down he knows if it were safe… she’d be better off with him.
I have always imagined Haymitch and Mrs. Undersee in a very intimate relationship that’s ambiguous in nature (a situationship, I guess one would say). And because fanfic doesn’t have to abide by canon (and because SotR’s epilogue sucks ass) I will continue to do so.
Maybe in fanfic-land Haymitch and the Undersees are in a messy throuple. Who knows? Would anyone like to read them in a very messy throuple? This is a very anti-sotr epilogue blog.
