The Mockingjay Society Assassinations

Earlier today I wrote an Op Ed for DownWithTheCapitol in response to the reports that the first planned explosion in District 12 did not take place in a mineshaft, but in a house. I wanted to elaborate some more on that idea, as I've received a great deal of feed back on both the site and on twitter. Before I start though, I want everyone to keep two things in mind:

1. These ideas are purely speculation on my part-- I am only trying to connect the dots with the very limited information we have received so far.

and

2. The movie will undoubtedly be different from the books-- but this fact doesn't necessarily have to be a bad thing.

So brace yourself and hold my hand: we're wandering into unknown territory here...

Imagine Mrs. Everdeen and an eleven-year-old Katniss sitting in silence around their small kitchen table. Prim is asleep, curled up in front of a hearth that has long since gone cold. Mr. Everdeen's shift in the mines was over hours ago, and if anyone asks, he's gone out with a few of his co-workers to indulge in a little after-work drink down at the Hob; but the way Katniss's mother keeps glancing from the clock to the window and the paleness of her face indicates that this is no normal guys' night out.

Suddenly, the silence is shattered as an explosion rips through the night. Prim wakes up, screaming and crying, and Katniss looks to her mother to comfort her. Mrs. Everdeen is unmoving, her face ghost white and her eyes fixed on the door. Understanding that no help is coming from her mother, Katniss tends to her sister.

Hurried footsteps sound from outside, and the door crashes open. It is not Mr. Everdeen, but a man that Katniss has never seen before. He is dressed in the same miner's uniform her father wears, and as he stands in the open doorway, the smell of smoke fills the tiny kitchen. He is out of breath, as he looks at Mrs. Everdeen and says: "They've been compromised. There's nothing left." Mrs. Everdeen springs from her chair and runs from the door, leaving the man and her children behind. The man hesitates for a moment before leaving behind her.

Katniss struggles with herself for a moment before pulling Prim up from the floor and following the man and her mother out the door. She can see the flames licking the sky in the distance, but they are coming from a residential section of the Seam, not from the Hob. Confused, she takes Prim by the hand and starts to move as quickly as she can to the scene of the explosion.

Dozens of men, women, and children are gathered around the smoldering remains of a house. Katniss finds her mother easily, her blonde hair illuminated like a beacon among the sea of brown. She is standing motionless, staring as a few men enter the building; a search party.

"Were they all in there then?" a woman asks somewhere behind Katniss.

"All of them except for Abernathy-- he really was down at The Hob having a drink," answers a man.

Further back, a man mumbles something about there being "no natural gas pockets anywhere nearby, none big enough to cause a blast like this."

The searchers are coming out of the building now, the lead man walking directly over to where the Everdeens stand. He shakes his head briefly, and Katniss's mother lets out a single, anguished cry before collapsing onto the ground. Katniss is paralyzed as realization overtakes her, and isn't able to respond when the man offers the one item left unharmed in the explosion-- her father's Mockingjay pin. She simply stares at it as it lays in the man's open palm, not wanting to believe that it is the last remaining piece of her father.

It is Prim who finally reaches out and takes the pin.

* * *

Now, granted, I don't expect the movie to follow that exact sequence of events, but changing this particular flashback sets up a number of things for the film:

• It establishes that there is unrest in Panem. This is important because it makes the rebellion that happens later more believable.
• It shows the ruthlessness and untrustworthy nature of the Capitol, and allows the audience to understand the extremes to which the government goes to keep order.
• It shows Katniss becoming leader of her household as well as her mother's breakdown.
• It explains (and give significance to) the way people seem to revere her father after his death.
• It (in the event that Madge is cut from the script) explains the origin of the Mockingjay pin and how it came to be in Prim's possession.
• It hints that the Mockingjay is already a symbol of rebellion, and explains why, when Katniss wears it while she (unknowingly) defies the Capitol, people interpret as a sign to begin the revolution.

None of the above, I believe, takes away from the central themes of the Hunger Games or changes major plot points. Instead, it shows, not tells, the audience a great deal of background information in a short period of time.

Any anyway, it's all speculation (and a bit of fun) on my part!

Let me know what you think in the comments!

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