As the train carries the tributes away from District 12, Katniss stares back at home and accepts that she does not expect to return. Because Katniss has made saving Peeta her final purpose, Katniss deliberately tries to detach herself from Prim, Gale, Madge, and her mother so grief will not weaken her. At dinner, the atmosphere is bleak: Effie chatters nervously, Haymitch is miserable and resisting alcohol, and Katniss notices that Effie does not understand the mockingjay pin has become a rebel symbol outside the Capitol.

After dinner, the group watches the recap of the Quarter Quell reapings. Peeta marks the chosen tributes in his notebook while Katniss studies the field and notes several dangerous returning victors, including Brutus, Finnick, Johanna, Cecelia, and Chaff. The recap also forces Katniss to relive Peeta volunteering for Haymitch, underscoring how trapped the two of them are in the Capitol's story.

That night, Katniss has a nightmare about the elderly District 4 volunteer and wakes terrified. Unable to stay alone, Katniss goes looking for comfort and finds Peeta reviewing old Games footage. When Peeta opens his arms, Katniss finally lets herself lean on him, and the two share a moment of real closeness for the first time since the Quarter Quell announcement. Their talk with a Capitol attendant also reminds Katniss that some Capitol citizens may pity the victors even if they still support the Games.

Katniss then notices an unwatched tape: Haymitch's victory in the Fiftieth Hunger Games, the previous Quarter Quell. Katniss and Peeta secretly watch it and learn that the twist was twice the usual number of tributes. In the tape, Katniss recognizes Maysilee Donner, her mother's friend and Madge's aunt, and realizes the mockingjay pin once belonged to a girl who died in the arena. The film shows a young Haymitch surviving a beautiful but poisonous arena, allying with Maysilee, losing her to vicious birds, and then defeating the final District 1 tribute by luring her to a cliff where the arena's force field sends her own ax back into her head.

After the tape ends, Katniss and Peeta understand that Haymitch's real offense against the Capitol was not only winning but exposing and using a hidden part of the arena against its makers, much as Katniss and Peeta used the berries. Haymitch appears behind them, no longer sober, and dryly confirms the comparison. Instead of feeling only fear, Katniss comes away with a new sense of who Haymitch is and with fresh confidence that two people who have already embarrassed the Capitol might still find a way to get Peeta home alive.