How It All Goes Down
- Gale's comments really hurt Katniss's feelings, because they have a little bit of truth to them. She decides she doesn't need either guy.
- The next day the team is able to watch a TV broadcast from the other side. The rebels have made progress and the Capitol's strategy is changing. There have been some losses on both sides.
- Civilians begin to flee the Capitol.
- Tigris goes to gather information.
- Meanwhile, Katniss's suspicions about what they should do grow. She's worried about their options both now and when/if the rebels win. She still wants to assassinate Snow and is now also worried that the other Games victors will be in danger.
- Tigris eventually comes back with real food and everyone eats ravenously. On the streets, the civilians are spilling over into a mad sea of folks seeking refuge.
- It's clearly getting more difficult to restrain public feeling. A young man was murdered just because he had a slight resemblance to Peeta.
- The team will not be able to stay with Tigris much longer.
- Katniss and Gale step aside to confer. They decide to strike the next day. They want Peeta to stay behind because he's a loose cannon.
- Peeta says he'll create a distraction so they can get through. Gale gives him his own suicide pill in case there are no other options.
- That night no one can sleep. The next morning they fortify themselves and head out. Tigris – ever helpful – helps them put on disguises.
- They go out into the streets like all the other refugees.
- Katniss lets Peeta out of his restraints. They hug.
- Once outside, the five team members are split into groups as they move along with the refugees. Things seem OK until a bunch of shots are fired. Several civilians and children die. Katniss is concerned that these deaths were caused by folks on her side.
- Katniss and Gale don't join in because they're trying to keep their cover. They gather more weapons and then keep going forward.
- They step into a huge fight scene. The rebels are fully on-site and taking down members of the Capitol's forces. Everywhere, terrible weapons go off. We're talking chaos.
- Katniss and Gale work together to move through it, as major carnage takes place all around them.
- Then one of the streets breaks in half – yeah, we didn't think that was possible either – and Katniss and Gale are separated. She almost falls into the huge crevasse and is barely able to pull herself back out.
- Gale is trapped in front of a door that won't open. Katniss shoots at it and it opens, but he then gets snatched by Peacekeepers. He says something but Katniss doesn't know what it is. Then he disappears.
- She runs.
- Then Katniss realizes that Gale is at the total mercy of the other side and was asking her to kill him before they could torture him, but she didn't do it in time. She feels like a total failure – in a weird way, given that we think it's great to <em>not</em> kill someone.
- She has to keep going, though. She's still undiscovered, so she heads back out into the groups of refugees.
- She finds herself right in front of Snow's palace in the downtown area. Imprisoned children surround his estate, and Katniss realizes the kids are being held there to keep him safe.
- Then she realizes the rebels have arrived. For a moment, everything is great and full of hope.
- She sees a bunch of small balloons come down to the children holding food and other things they need. Yippee!
- Then, oh so cruelly, these "charity" balloons begin blowing up. The children are dying.
- Even more cruelly, Katniss sees some rebels who are medics coming in to help the kids. One of them is Prim. Katniss is running desperately towards her sister and their eyes lock before even more explosions go off.