After Katniss's interview dress transforms into black feathers, Caesar identifies her as birdlike and Katniss calls herself a mockingjay. Katniss immediately understands that Cinna has done something politically dangerous by turning her into a rebel symbol in front of the Capitol, and she fears President Snow will punish him. The audience erupts in applause, and Katniss returns to her seat to watch Peeta's interview.

Peeta begins with Caesar in their usual easy style, but he quickly steers the conversation toward the Quell's cruelty. He claims that he and Katniss already consider themselves married through a District 12 ritual, then escalates further by revealing that Katniss is pregnant. The announcement shocks the Capitol audience into outrage and grief, because it reframes the Games as the deliberate destruction of a family and an unborn child.

When the anthem plays, Katniss takes Peeta's hand and then Chaff's, and the other victors follow until all twenty-four stand linked together. The moment becomes an unmistakable public act of unity across districts, and although the broadcast cuts out, it happens too late to erase what viewers have seen. Back at the Training Center, Katniss tells Peeta he has nothing to apologize for, because his performance has created a powerful challenge to the Capitol.

Haymitch returns alone and reports chaos in the city and the cancellation of the interview recap, but he insists Snow will never stop the Games. Katniss and Peeta send love to Effie, say goodbye to Haymitch, and Haymitch gives Katniss one last instruction: remember who the enemy is. Katniss refuses to be separated from Peeta that night, and they spend the remaining hours together in exhausted silence.

At dawn, Cinna and Portia come to prepare the tributes. Cinna dresses Katniss in a thin blue jumpsuit, returns her mockingjay pin, and reassures her before the launch. Just before Katniss rises into the arena, Peacekeepers burst in, brutally beat Cinna, and drag him away while she screams helplessly behind the glass. Katniss is launched moments later and emerges into a bright arena made entirely of water, realizing she has entered a place completely unsuited to her identity as the girl on fire.