Mockingjay Chapter 8 Summary

How It All Goes Down

  • Boggs and Gale accompany Katniss back to their hovercraft. Everyone at the hospital has died. Katniss collapses from the pain and sorrow, and Boggs has to lift her in his arms.
  • Katniss sleeps and awakens back at 13, in the medical area with her mother.
  • She apologizes to her mom for not saying that she'd be leaving and going into danger.
  • Katniss feels pretty much OK, but she still goes to the scheduled Command meeting in a wheelchair.
  • The first people Katniss sees are the media crew. They tell her she did great, and she starts to think of them as being on her side.
  • Katniss realizes that one of the camera guys, Pollux, was made a mute as a Capitol punishment: an Avox.
  • Haymitch, Plutarch, Gale, Coin, Fulvia, and some others come in.
  • Katniss observes Coin and Gale in conversation.
  • Coin reveals that since the previous day (the battle), they've aired the new propo almost twenty times. Katniss is stunned that one could be made that quickly.
  • They all watch it.
  • First, the screen is full of flames. They show a mockingjay pin and then Katniss herself. They play what Katniss said in her angry response to President Snow and the bombing of the hospital. Her speech is intercut with footage of the hospital being destroyed and the bombing itself, as well as other images. The propo reinforces Katniss's last line of the speech, the new slogan, and ends in flames once more.
  • Everyone is thrilled with it and they watch it again. People all over Panem, except in the Capitol, will have seen it by now.
  • Even Coin is OK with the idea that Katniss was put into such danger, given all that they got out of it.
  • Plutarch and Fulvia have ideas for other propos that they'll televise along with this main one of Katniss. In some ways, it's still like being in the arena, to Katniss.
  • Gale takes Katniss back to the hospital and she sleeps, before awakening to find herself alone with Haymitch. Haymitch threatens her with dire consequences unless she keeps her earpiece in while out on missions. She promises that she will.
  • He leaves, and Katniss can't stop thinking about all the carnage she has seen.
  • That evening, Finnick has a meal with Katniss. They watch television and see one of the new propos, though Katniss can hardly bear to watch it.
  • Then, Peeta and Caesar come back on. Katniss is horrified to see how much Peeta has changed. He looks badly abused now. He seems forced to speak directly to Katniss, to ask her whether she should trust the rebels, and what being in this war might mean for the people of their world.
  • Finnick and Katniss strategize. They can't show that she has seen this interview with Peeta or the other revolutionaries will realize that Katniss has motivation to distrust them.