After arriving in the Capitol, Haymitch, Louella, Maysilee, and Wyatt are treated like doomed exhibits rather than honored tributes. A Peacekeeper dismisses chaining them together because they are "long shots," which confirms Haymitch’s low expectations but also shows how little the Capitol values District 12. At the old Academy gymnasium turned Tribute Center, the tributes are separated by sex, stripped, chemically washed, and sprayed with insecticide in a harsh cleaning process meant to dehumanize them before public display.

In the boys’ area, Haymitch protects his flint striker by passing it off as a harmless necklace token. He sizes up the other boys and sees the Careers’ strength, the hunger in other districts, and Panache’s cruelty. After the shower ordeal, Haymitch is handed over to his inexperienced prep team, Proserpina and Vitus, who are oddly kind despite treating his body like part of a school assignment. They shave and groom him, explain that Magno Stift is still District 12’s stylist, and make it clear that even Capitol insiders consider District 12 an undesirable posting.

While waiting alone, Haymitch thinks about Lenore Dove and fears she may try something reckless now that he has been taken away. He remembers her likely role in sabotaging Clay Chance’s hanging and in arranging the burning of a Panem flag beneath a reaping stage, acts that led to arrests and warnings but no conviction. Those memories deepen Haymitch’s anxiety because Lenore Dove’s defiance is part of what he loves about her, yet it could also get her killed. Later, after a meager meal, Haymitch watches other districts leave for photo shoots and the chariot procession, and Maysilee openly mocks District 1, showing that she refuses to be cowed even in the Capitol.

District 12 is left waiting because Magno Stift arrives late with nothing new prepared. When he finally appears, he ignores Drusilla’s outrage and dumps out the same shabby coal miner costumes he has reused for years, proving that the Capitol has invested almost nothing in District 12’s image. With no better option, the four tributes put on the old outfits and are rushed straight to the stables, apparently photographed only while still trapped in their van. Their chariot, horses, and presentation are clearly worse than every other district’s, reinforcing that they are expected to fail.

In the stable, Louella nearly collapses from fear, and Haymitch steadies her by telling her she is better than the Capitol and promising, "You and me to the end." Once the parade begins, District 12 struggles to stay upright before a drunk, hostile Capitol crowd that throws trash and jeers at them. A firework explodes in front of their team, the horses bolt, and District 12’s runaway chariot collides with another vehicle badly enough to shear its wheel apart. Haymitch is thrown to the ground and briefly thinks he has escaped the arena by dying early, but then he realizes the blood is Louella’s: she has been killed before the Games even start.