‘The Hunger Games — The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes’ Ending Explained

Editors Note: The following contains spoilers for The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes.

The Big Picture

• The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes is a prequel that explores the backstory of the main villain, Coriolanus Snow.
• The film follows Snow as he reluctantly mentors Lucy Gray Baird, a tribute from District 12 in the 10th Hunger Games.
• Snow’s descent into evil is depicted as he becomes obsessed with power and commits violent acts to secure his future.

There’s a lot going on in The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes. A prequel to the four original dystopian films about children being made to fight to the death as a collective punishment for a past war, it is one of the better entries in the series thus far. Boasting some killer performances and plenty of visual style, it is also one of the more complicated entries to date because of how it takes a look at the main villain of Coriolanus Snow (Tom Blyth) rather than the characters we’ve known in the past. This also makes it one of the more interesting of all the films to discuss in detail. It is still geared towards younger audiences, but there is something more mature to the experience as well.

There is much that you should know before heading in, but we’re here to break down everything that comes after. In case it wasn’t already clear, this piece is going to contain spoilers for the whole darn thing and what it all means. Beyond that, this will also include some details from future films and books as well. Some of this should already be known going in, as it has a fixed point with Snow eventually becoming President and ruling the rest of Panem from the Capitol, but you can never be too safe. If you haven’t seen it for yourself, best bookmark this page and come back after you’ve done so. Without further ado, let’s dig in.

What Is ‘The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes’ About?

Based on the book of the same name by Suzanne Collins and taking place decades before the main story, the central focus of this film is around the reimagining of the Hunger Games as we will come to know them. Alongside this, it is also about the relationship between Snow and his musically talented tribute Lucy Gray Baird (Rachel Zegler), who he tries to protect in the 10th run of the games. She hails from District 12 and, much like Katniss, also emerges as a favorite before ultimately managing to “win” and get sent home. However, this victory is an empty one, as not only is she now scarred from what happened, but her world at home remains a perilous one. This is made even worse by the fact that Snow ends up popping up there as well as punishment for cheating in the games so she would win and he would get a prize as a mentor. Assigned to be a “peacekeeper,” he gets caught up in the conflict he’d mostly cared little about beyond it serving him. This culminates in him killing the local mayor’s daughter to keep his actions secret and having to take off on the run with Lucy for what she hopes will be a life free from the Capitol’s reach. Except that isn’t quite what happens.

Just as they are about to head out to make a future together, Snow discovers the gun that could implicate him hidden in the floorboards of a remote cabin. With the knowledge that he could dispose of it and return to the Capitol without having to look over his shoulder, the possibility of this path back to power consumes him. More than aware of this and his capacity for violence, Lucy takes off into the woods to make her escape. Snow begins pursuing her, though he is bitten by a snake that she presumably left as a trap for him. Flying into a rage, he catches sight of Lucy through the trees and fires at her. She seems to fall but has disappeared by the time he gets there. It recalls a song she sang earlier about her becoming a ghost that we now see will haunt Snow for the rest of his life. Even when he returns to the Capitol, the thought of her still being out there and the song she sang about The Hanging Tree will echo into his future. This isn’t something that will stop him from carrying out great violence and harm against people exactly like Lucy. If anything, it seems to be the motivating force of just how lost he has become. Snow was never a truly caring person, acting more out of self-interest than anything else he dressed his callousness up as, and this finale brings this all into focus. More than just the immediacy with which he was willing to kill Lucy to secure his future, it is everything that follows that shows any shred of decency he may have had has been lost.

Coriolanus Snow Descends Into Evil in ‘The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes’

After returning to the Capitol, Snow sets out to settle old scores by poisoning Dean Casca Highbottom (Peter Dinklage), who had been the one to punish him for cheating and was believed to be the one who brought the games into being in the first place. His teacher informs him before dying that it was actually the deceased Snow patriarch who stole his plans for the Hunger Games, which he said was a drunken idea he had never intended to come into existence, and ensured the murderous game became a yearly ritual. When put alongside everything the Snow offspring had done before this and his cousin Tigris (Hunter Schafer) remarking how he now looks like his father, the full depths of his cruelty emerge. For all the ways it seemed like there was good in him, that has been buried along with all the bodies that will accumulate in his murderous reign. As the murderous Snow walks out to oversee the Capitol he will soon oversee in the final shot, we see he has truly become his father’s son.

The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes is now available to rent on VOD in the U.S.

Rent on Amazon