28 of the biggest Sunrise on the Reaping spoilers & Easter eggs
Sunrise on the Reaping adds layers upon layers to The Hunger Games and The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes Hunger Games prequel, rewriting and enriching what we thought we knew about Panem’s history.
The connections to Katniss Everdeen via her parents, Lucy Gray Baird and the Covey, and familiar mentor faces we’ve already met in Catching Fire, Mockingjay and TBOSAS make for some of the most nostalgic, poignant and shocking spoikers we’ve seen yet. One thing’s for sure: we’re all going to be dissecting these spoilers for a long, long time.
Let’s face it, we’ve always wanted more layers to the Covey family to see how they fared. We wanted to get more context of this horrible, gruesome world that contains so many creepy and astute parallels to real life. And most of all, we wanted to get more of our beloved Slaymitch, aka, Haymitch Abernathy’s story.
If you haven’t read The Hunger Games trilogy and TBOSAS, I’d highly recommend brushing up before jumping in. Sunrise on the Reaping is packed with Easter eggs, and the more you know, the more fun (and devastating) it is to piece together Collins’ breadcrumbs.
Finally, just a heads up that I’ll be live blogging these as I read the book during the book launch week, so watch this space as I add more information and spoilers for people who want to skip to the chase, or for readers who want to circle back and absorb all the new information. Right at the end of this article, I’ve included the Sunrise on the Reaping ending and epilogue, too. Because if you’re on this Sunrise on the Reaping spoilers article, chances are, you wanna be spoiled.
If you’re looking to avoid spoilers, I’d recommend logging off the internet entirely and hiding under a rock until you’ve read the book ;)
Let’s get into the biggest spoilers, reveals and Easter eggs.
This article will be full of spoilers for Sunrise on the Reaping, The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes and possibly The Hunger Games. Save this article for later, if you haven’t read the books yet, or otherwise feel free to spoil yourself silly if that’s your jam.
1. Lenore Dove is Covey and she’s a Baird.
Let’s be real. Who hasn’t been dying for more insight into the Covey? Their fate has been a dangling thread ever since TBOSAS and the mystery of Lucy Gray Baird, and now we finally get to tug on it.
Many fan theories were correct in predicting that Lenore Dove, Haymitch’s girl is Covey AND she’s a Baird. (Here were the speculations on Reddit.)
2. Lenore Dove Baird’s mother died in childbirth.
Is Lenore Dove related to Lucy Gray? The answer to that question is a resounding yes! But the question remains… how? Who is Lenore Dove’s mother?
Tam Amber and Clerk Carmine, being Covey, raise Lenore Dove as one of their own, which hints that her mother might be Maude Ivory Baird, Lucy Gray’s cousin. Meanwhile, Barb Azure is notably absent from the graveyard, is she still alive?
On the flipside, is Lenore Dove Lucy Gray’s daughter? Some fans aren’t ready to let go of the theory that Lucy Gray could still be in the mix, either as Lenore’s mother or even grandmother.
Then, who is Lenore Dove’s father? That’s still up in the air. Haymitch narrates, “Lenore Dove might be related to them [the Chance family] on her pa’s side. They seem awfully fond of her even if it’s not official." Or could it be a wayward Peacekeeper who left the district?
Either way, one thing’s pretty clear, Coriolanus Snow is out of the running. The timeline just doesn’t add up.
3. Lenore Dove’s name poem is from Edgar Allan Poe’s The Raven.
As per Covey tradition, Lenore Dove is named for a song/poem and a color. Lenore gets her name from Edgar Allan Poe’s The Raven.
4. Haymitch is friend’s with Katniss Everdeen’s dad, Burdock Everdeen.
We can safely make the connection that Burdock Everdeen is Katniss’ dad, with the remarkable voice that can make even the birds stop to take notice, who owns a trusty bow and is a strong hunter and has excellent knowledge of plants, in Sunrise on the Reaping.
Folks who speculated that Burdock Everdeen was friends with Haymitch Abernathy were proved correct! In fact, it seems like Katniss’ dad and Haymitch were besties.
Furthermore, Burdock calls Lenore Dove “cuz”, implying he is close to the Covey somehow.
Now who is Burdock Everdeen’s mother, is the real question?! How is Burdock related to the Covey? Again, we can only speculate. Is his mother Barb Azure (a Baird cousin)? Was his mother Maude Ivory Baird? Or was his mother Lucy Gray Baird herself? Will we ever get answers? Probably not. Thanks Suzanne.
5. Katniss’ mom is named Asterid March and she’s the town beauty.
Burdock Everdeen has a huge crush on her ;) He brings her wildflowers to use in her apothecary. Most likely as an excuse to charm her.
6. Haymitch had twin sisters, but his mother lost them when they came too early.
The Donner twins held a certain fascination for him as he wondered what his own twin sisters might’ve been like.
Somewhere along the way, Maysilee becomes a friend and family in a way he never got to have. When he calls her “Sis,” it hits harder—it’s everything he lost and everything he found… and lost again. 😭
“A sister is someone you fight with and fight for. Tooth and nail.”
7. Maysilee Donner’s grandmother was a Covey music fan... or relative?
Maysilee Donner’s grandmother, just a Covey music fan, or something more? Maybe even a relative?
While teaming up in the arena, Maysilee talks about her grandmother and shows Haymitch a photo of her taken a year before she died. “Isn’t she beautiful?” she says.
She then shares something her grandmother used to tell her: “It’s okay, Maysilee, nothing they can take from you was ever worth keeping.”
Haymitch immediately recognizes the words. They aren’t just words. They’re lyrics. And not just any lyrics, but ones he knows well because Lenore Dove, his girl, sings them.
And now I can't stop thinking about how the movie could slip in a visual clue. Maybe we get a glimpse of Maysilee’s grandmother, and if we’re paying attention, we might recognize her. Though, with age and wrinkles, it might be a bit tricky to tell for sure. 🤔
8. Haymitch was ‘illegally’ reaped at the 50th Quarter Quell Hunger Games.
Yep, Haymitch wasn’t even originally reaped to be a tribute in the 50th Hunger Games. That honor went to a poor soul named Woodbine Chance (related to Arlo Chance, Lucy Gray’s inspiration for The Hanging Tree song).
When Woodbine Chance’s name was called, as one of the fastest runners in Haymitch’s class, he tried to make a break for it but it didn’t end well. A Peacekeeper put a bullet in his head.
Subsequently, Lenore Dove tried to help and console Woodbine’s mother and ended up in the middle of a scuffle with the Peacekeepers. Haymitch got himself involved by defending her. Drusilla Sickle, representative of The Capitol, decided this made him the replacement tribute and to cover the ‘mess’.
If this whole thing feels eerily familiar, it should. The parallels to Katniss are almost poetic. Both Haymitch and Katniss were thrown into the arena not because their names were drawn, but because they couldn’t help but try to save someone else.
9. The significance of the adjoined bird and snake on the Sunrise on the Reaping book cover: A gifted flint striker from Lenore Dove.
The Sunrise on the Reaping book cover symbolises the flint striker that Lenore Dove gives to Haymitch as his 16th birthday gift. It’s a beautifully-made striker which his mother puts on a leather strap for him to wear around his neck.
But beyond its sentimental value, the flint striker necklace also serves as a symbol of Haymitch himself. In the Capitol, where matches and lighters are abundant, no one sees the striker’s potential to create fire, just as most fail to underestimate Haymitch’s own resilience and cunning.
The songbird-and-snake design of the flint striker catches President Snow’s attention, stirring memories of Lucy Gray and perhaps the Covey.
“The blue eyes narrow, but he’s not focused on my face. Is he looking at the flint striker?” narrates Haymitch. “The way he was going on about that flint striker and the Covey… Glad it wasn’t, though. She’s much safer in that ‘ghastly wilderness’ around 12.”
How poetic and eerie, right?! We all know what happens, right?
10. Wiress and Mags Flanagan are Haymitch and District 12’s mentor in the 50th Hunger Games.
The cat’s out of the bag, our beloved Mags and Wiress were both Haymitch’s mentor during his Hunger Games. This is because District 12’s sole winner, Lucy Gray, has seemingly disappeared off the face of the Earth and there is no one else from District 12 who has ever won The Hunger Games who could be a mentor.
When Haymitch wins his Hunger Games with his act of defiance to the Capitol in bombing the generator, Haymitch is saved from certain death and kept alive by President Snow. Mags and Wiress are amongst Haymitch’s closest that suffer, Mags in a wheelchair, and Wiress twitching her head about in a birdlike manner, having evidently been tortured for information.
11. Wiress won the 49th Hunger Games without killing anyone or spilling a drop of blood.
We learn Wiress won the 49th Hunger Games the year before the 50th Hunger Games in an arena full of shiny surfaces, reflections and mirrors. She won with brains and intelligence by finding a blind spot and avoiding detection.
She fought no one, killed no one and left the arena without a scratch. When asked how she won, she says, “I followed the light beams.”
12. Louella McCoy, one of female tributes from District 12 doesn’t even make it to the Hunger Games :(
Louella is killed when she gets thrown off her chariot at the tribute parade when her horses get startled. Chaos erupts, hooves pound, and in the frenzy, she’s flung to the ground. The impact is fatal. Her skull cracks against the pavement, turning a moment meant for spectacle into a bloodstained tragedy. Get the complete list of Sunrise on the Reaping deaths here.
13. Easter egg: Why does Haymitch call Katniss sweetheart?
Louella McCoy was like a sister to Haymitch, and he called her his “sweetheart.” It’s a word that carries even more weight in hindsight, knowing he later called Katniss “sweetheart,” as she stirred up in him memories of his sisterly sweetheart, Louella McCoy, a little poignant Easter egg for Hunger Games fans.
“I first saw the girl at the Hob when she was just a baby. Burdock was so proud of her, he toted her around everywhere. After he died in that mine explosion, she started coming alone, trading the odd squirrel or rabbit. Tough and smart, her hair in two braids then, reminding me for all the world of Louella McCoy, my sweetheart of old. And after she volunteered for the Games, that nickname couldn’t help but slip out.”
It’s the kind of detail that sneaks up on you, making everything about Haymitch and Katniss’s relationship hit a little harder. We’re all crying.
14. Louella McCoy gets replaced with a body double, who District 12 tributes term ‘Lou Lou.’
Snow’s cruelty knows no limits. The imposter, “Lou Lou” isn’t just a lookalike. She’s a heavily drugged replacement for Louella McCoy, taken from District 11, which Mags speculates on when she’s drawn to the District 11 variety of bread in the bread basket. The horrifying confirmation comes when, on the morning of the Hunger Games, as she’s being transported to the arena, she sings the District 11 harvest song for children.
“There’s some sort of device attached to her chest, pumping a drug into her, I think. I was afraid to remove it. That might kill her,” says Mags.
Additionally, she seems to have some sort of audio implant in her ear that is is a two-way transmitter. In other words, the District 12 tribute team’s very own human ‘jabberjay’.
15. Easter Egg: The origin of the name ‘Lou Lou.’
Haymitch refuses to call the imposter Louella, so Maysilee suggests Lou Lou, after her pet canary. And if that name rings a bell, it should. In The Hunger Games books, Katniss’ mother, mentions she ended up with Maysilee’s canary.
Katniss in the HG trilogy and now Haymitch in SOTR tell us how District 12 uses canaries.
“Reminds me of the canaries we take down to the coal mines in 12. They are the first to die when there’s deadly gas around, warning the miners of imminent danger.”
And just like that, Lou Lou’s fate is foreshadowed and sealed. Like a coal miner’s canary, she serves as Haymitch’s warning in the arena when she recognizes a Bee balm healing plant and dives into it, crushing handfuls of the leaves and burying her face in the red blossoms. Moments later, she’s convulsing, turning blue, bleeding out. Just like a canary succumbing to toxic gas.
A little foreshadowy Easter egg nestled in the horror.
16. Haymitch gets a 1 on his tribute prediction score.
He really pissed The Capitol, the Gamemakers, and most significantly, President Snow off with his rebellious and defiant actions on Reaping Day and at the parade. But on the plus side, his abnormally low score makes him stand out amongst the tributes and he cleverly plays it to his advantage in his interview with Caesar Flickerman. Which probably grinds Snow even more, as it doesn’t get shown in interview recaps.
17. Ampert, a tribute from District 3, is Beetee Latier’s son.
…And Beetee is District 3’s mentor. Let that level of cruelty marinate for a second. New level unlocked of Snow’s capacity for atrocity.
Imagine being forced to coach your own child through a televised death match. I can’t.
Just like Rue reminds Katniss of her little sister, Prim, Ampert Latier reminds Haymitch of his little brother, Sid, in a poignant parallel to the events if Katniss’ 74th Hunger Games.
18. Do we see a cameo from Tigris?
Is Tigris on Sunrise on the Reaping? Well… maybe. If she is, she’s never mentioned by name. That said, this is pure speculation on my part… there is an unnamed lady with surgically implanted cat ears in the audience, that Haymitch engages with during his interview with Caesar Flickerman. Could it be Tigris? Is she already working with the rebels to overthrow the Capitol and her sociopathic cousin, Coriolanus?
19. Wyatt Callow is neurodivergently coded.
He is an oddsmaker and a mathematical genius. This is my head canon, but I love the representation.
20. The cameo of the mockingjay pin.
One of the biggest Easter Eggs is Sunrise on the Reaping. Maysilee Donner doesn’t appreciate the mockingjay pin, which we find out is because she views mockingjays as “half mutt” rather than a symbol of resistance against the Capitol.
We know this pin later gets given to Katniss, via Madge Undersee, whose mother happens to be Merrilee Undersee, Maysilee’s twin sister.
Tam Amber created the mockingjay pin.
21. Effie Trinket saves the day.
Is Effie Trinket in Sunrise on the Reaping? Yep, she sure is, and she’s awesome.
District 12’s stylist, Magno Stift, is an absolute disgrace. He couldn’t care less about the tributes or even pretending to do his job well.
When he fails to show up to dress Haymitch, Maysilee, Lou Lou, and Wyatt for their interviews with Caesar Flickerman, Haymitch’s prep team member, Proserpina Trinket calls her sister to freak out that she won’t get good academic grades.
And yes, that sister is none other than Effie Trinket, who swoops in to help her sister, toting her great grandparents stylish clothes that were never thrown out, ensuring that District 12 look impeccable and stylish for their interviews.
She also comes to see the District 12 tributes off before they enter the arena, when Magno yet again, fails to show.
Finally, at the end when Haymitch is crowned victor and Drusilla and Magno fail to show up, Effie Trinket stands by Haymitch at his victor ceremony, styling him and escorting him.
22. Plutarch and Beetee were in cahoots to take down the Capitol at the 50th Hunger Games.
Beetee and Plutarch both give Haymitch information on how to blow up the arena. Plutarch also says “You should know that, despite appearances, a desire for freedom is not limited to the districts.”
The rebellion wasn’t something that simply ignited with Katniss’s defiance decades later. It had been simmering in secret corners, whispered between allies who hid in plain sight. Plutarch’s words suggest that even within the Capitol, discontent was brewing. Not every citizen was complicit. Some were waiting, watching, and laying the groundwork for something bigger.
By the time Haymitch stepped into the arena, rebellion wasn’t just an abstract hope, it was a movement in its infancy, one that had already found unlikely allies in high places.
Moreover, isn’t it poetic that decades later, Beetee was instrumental in being the biggest catalyst to blow up the 75th Hunger Games Quarter Quell’s arena, with the help of Katniss, leading to the resistance/rebellion against Snow and the Capitol?
23. Easter egg-like parallel in Plutarch’s clues to Haymitch.
In Sunrise on the Reaping, Plutarch seems like he is attempting to give Haymitch a clue about the 50th Hunger Games arena by parading him through his conservatory, a place teeming with beautiful, rare and poisonous plants, such as nepenthes, which lures insects in with their deliciousness, resulting in their death. It feels less like a casual tour and more like a veiled clue about the arena. Plutarch might have even been on the verge of revealing more when President Snow interrupted, violently ill from a bout of self-inflicted poisoning, this time, a calculated move to eliminate Incitatus Loomy, while ensuring no one suspected him.
History repeats itself in an eerie mirror when Plutarch hints years later to Katniss about the nature of the clock arena for the 75th Hunger Games Quarter Quell, showing Katniss his watch, with the mockingjay on it.
24. Clerk Carmine Clade has same-sex love interests.
He’s been together for about 30 years with a fellow in town who replaces busted windows.
“They have to keep it quiet because loving differently can get you harassed by the Peacekeepers, fired from jobs, arrested even.”
Additionally, Clerk Carmine and Tam Amber together have raised Lenore Dove after her mother passed in childbirth. While this isn’t a major spoiler, it’s definitely heartwarming to know there is queer representation and also that Lenore was raised by her two Covey uncles.
25. Haymitch didn’t set out to be a victor of the 50th Hunger Games.
He had his mind set on firstly helping his other allies win, whether it be anyone from the Newcomers pack, such as Maysilee or Wellie, and then finally accepted that Silka would win.
In a twist of fate, while he was nearly fatally wounded in his guts and stumbled to his “safe place” at the edge of the arena, Silka followed him, also grievously wounded. She threw her ax, aiming to end Haymitch. But he was too weak to keep upright and his knees buckled and he collapsed low enough to miss the blow. But what goes around comes around, and the ax did just that, ricocheting off the invisible barrier and embedding itself into Silka’s skull. The cannon fired. Haymitch thought he would die too, but wanted to paint his final poster before his death.
Then came his real act of defiance. Haymitch, bloodied and exhausted, used his last bit of strength to trigger an explosion, because if he was going to die, at least he’d do it on his terms. But the Capitol doesn’t like loose ends. They don’t like defiance. And most of all, they don’t like a Hunger Games without a victor. So they patched him up, paraded him around, and made sure he lived. Not because they wanted him to, but because they needed him to.
“I’m the hero of the moment. The star of Panem. The victor of the Quarter Quell. And that can only mean that President Snow has won the day.”
Parallel: 24 years later, Katniss threatened to leave the Hunger Games without a victor when her and Peeta made to eat poisonous berries, which resulted in Seneca Crane, the Head Gamemaker, allowing two victors. Where Haymitch’s final act of defiance failed, Katniss succeeded. And if there’s one thing President Snow couldn’t stand, it was a message he didn’t control.
26. What is Lenore Dove’s secret?
Lenore Dove had a few secrets. For one, she never wanted to discuss District 12’s one and only victor. That secret is that the victor was her relative, Lucy Gray. See points 1 and 2.
Secondly, why does Lenore Dove have orange nails? Lenore Dove’s secret that Maysilee figured out was why she has orange paint on her fingernails when she shows up to play for the mayor’s birthday party.
Lenore Dove’s secret is that she’s a “rebel,” and often tries to undermine and defy the Capitol in the ways she can. One of those ways, Haymitch discovers, is a message sprayed in bright orange paint, in a back alley in town: “NO CAPITOL, NO HANGING TREE!”
It’s a rebel play on Capitol’s propaganda, and a rallying cry beyond the Peacekeepers’ radar.
27. Sunrise on the Reaping connections.
Here are all the SOTR connections I spotted.
Burdock Everdeen: Katniss Everdeen’s father
Asterid Everdeen: Katniss Everdeen’s mother
Maysilee Donner: Madge Undersee’s aunt
Lenore Dove: Descended from Baird lineage, which could mean Maude Ivory, Lucy Gray or Barb Azure
Otho Mellark: Peeta Mellark’s father
Ampert Latier: Beetee Latier’s son
Proserpina Trinket: Effie Trinket’s sister
Drusilla Sickle: Related to Agrippina Sickle, from TBoSaS (daughter?)
Woodbine Chance: Related to Arlo Chance, the man who was hung in TBoSaS, the inspiration behind The Hanging Tree song.
Caesar Flickerman: I’m assuming he’s Lucetius ‘Lucky’ Flickerman’s son from TBoSaS.
Plutarch Heavensbee: Related to Hilarius Heavensbee from TBoSaS.
28. Sunrise of the Reaping ending, explained.
Lenore Dove’s death is one of those moments that gutted me, one of the most devastating in Sunrise on the Reaping.
It happens so simply and so cruelly. She picks up a bag of gumdrops, and Haymitch assumes they’re the ones he arranged for Sid to give her after the Reaping. When they finally reunite, they embrace, and he feeds her one, maybe two, before realizing something is horribly wrong. These aren’t the ones he sent. These are a bloodred shade—the same shade as the rose Snow wore at the Victor’s ceremony.
He orders her to spit them out. But it’s too late. Lenore Dove hasn’t eaten in days, and without an antidote like charcoal tablets, there’s nothing Haymitch can do. He calls out for Clerk Carmine, screaming for help, but the blood-flecked foam already bubbles at her lips. In her final moments, she whispers, “Don’t you… let it… rise… on the reaping.” And Haymitch, desperate, pleading, swears to her that he won’t. That he’ll find a way to stop it. Her eyelids flutter shut. And she’s gone. Poisoned by Haymitch’s own hand. Courtesy of President Snow.
So, if you’ll excuse me, I’ll be sobbing for the foreseeable future.
And then we get the gut-wrenching aftermath. Clerk Carmine and Tam Amber try to restart Lenore Dove’s heart, but it’s useless. And Haymitch is stuck in a grief loop, repeating her name poem like a broken record. Would it had been different if she had been named after a less ominous song? Jolene, Mary, Caroline? Anything but a poem where its the name of some dude’s dead love, amirite?
Anyway, this moment breaks Haymitch and explains so much. We fully understand the PTSD and alcoholism that define Haymitch in the original Hunger Games trilogy. He pushes away the people who love him such as Burdock, Blair and Asterid because he’s terrified Snow will come for them next and his guilt is surely unfathomable.
And, who’s to say President Snow didn’t come for Burdock, Asterid and Haymitch’s loved ones too? Some fans theorize Burdock’s mining “accident” was anything but. Others think Prim’s name being drawn in the 74th Hunger Games wasn’t chance at all, but it was Snow, who was trying to devastate Haymitch again by targeting Burdock’s innocent child. Except the much fiercer Katniss volunteered, throwing a wrench into Snow’s plans. Just a theory, we’ll probably never get an answer to.
And then. The epilogue.
I was not okay. I was a wreck.
Haymitch tells us that when he dreams of Lenore Dove now, she isn’t angry. She isn’t dying. She’s radiant, and he takes that as forgiveness. Because he fulfilled his promise to Lenore Dove and finally stopped the sunrise on the reaping, or at least lent a hand to Katniss (😭). He reminisces about how Katniss reminds him of Louella, the first girl he called sweetheart, and finally opens up to Katniss and Peeta about his past. About Maysilee Donner and the mockingjay pin. About his family, his tributes, his comrades. About Lenore Dove, the love of his life.
Subsequently, Katniss brings him a basket of goose eggs to hatch. And when they do, the goslings see Haymitch’s face first, imprinting on him. He often takes them for walks in the Meadow, the same place where he made his fondest memories with Lenore Dove. He still talks to her, knowing the Capitol can never take her from him.
And when he tells her that, she replies, “I love you like all-fire.”
And Haymitch, says back, “I love you like all-fire too.”
The end. I am officially all cried out and a hollowed-out shell of a human being.
More Sunrise on the Reaping spoilers to come.
As I mentioned, I’m live blogging this, so I’ll be adding to this as I continue progress throughout the book! Happy Hunger Games peeps. I love you like all-fire. 😭
To be continued…
