At the presidential after-party, Haymitch is displayed in a locked golden birdcage and forced to play the grateful victor for Capitol guests and cameras. Terrified by Snow’s threat about his homecoming, Haymitch performs total obedience, hoping submission might protect the people he loves. Near the end of the night, Plutarch quietly tells Haymitch that Lenore Dove was never released from the military base, which convinces Haymitch that she is still at the Capitol’s mercy and makes him more determined to keep pretending.

Instead of being sent home, Haymitch spends ten more days being paraded around the Capitol at parties, interviews, and fashion shoots. When he is finally put on the train, he is chained again and learns why the departure was delayed: the bodies of Louella, Maysilee, and Wyatt are being loaded aboard in coffins to return with him to District 12. During the journey, Haymitch spirals into grief, thinks about Lenore Dove and forbidden songs, and reaches District 12 physically weakened, haunted, and afraid.

Haymitch arrives before dawn to an empty station, is abandoned beside the tributes’ coffins, and walks toward home with a brief, desperate hope that his family may still be waiting. That hope collapses when he sees his house burning. Neighbors restrain him from running into the fire, and Burdock and Blair tell him they could not save Haymitch’s mother or Sid. Asterid March gives Haymitch sleep syrup, and when he wakes at the McCoys’ house, he is taken to the funeral for his mother, Sid, Louella, Maysilee, and Wyatt; he also learns that Jethro Callow has killed himself after his son’s return.

After the burial, Haymitch returns to the ruins and concludes the fire was not an accident but arson ordered by Snow as punishment for the arena sabotage. Burdock and Blair bring him to the Victor’s Village, but Haymitch cannot endure staying still. In the night, he slips away to find Lenore Dove, deciding that District 12 is now fatal for anyone close to him and that he may have to leave alone to keep her safe.

At dawn in the Meadow, Haymitch sees Lenore Dove, newly home but still under house arrest, and they reunite with relief and joy. While sharing the gumdrops Haymitch had once sent her, Haymitch notices they are all bloodred and realizes too late that they have been poisoned. He desperately tries to save Lenore Dove, calling for help and urging her to vomit, but she collapses, speaks her final words about not letting the sun rise on the reaping, extracts a promise from him, and dies in his arms. Tasting the poison on her lips, Haymitch understands that Snow has destroyed the last person he hoped to save.