It appears that Lucy Gray won’t last long in the Games, but to everyone’s surprise, she becomes the victor in The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes. So, how does Lucy Gray Baird win the Hunger Games?
The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes is a prequel that is set 64 years before The Hunger Games. It’s the 10th Hunger Games in the prequel, and Coriolanus Snow is a mentor who’s assigned to District 12’s tribute, Lucy Gray Baird.
Warning: This article contains spoilers for The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes!
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How Did Lucy Gray Win the Hunger Games?
Lucy Gray Baird won the Hunger Games through luck and because Coriolanus Snow cheated to help her win.
First, Coriolanus gave her his mother’s compact filled with rat poison so that she could poison the other tributes. Second, he dropped a handkerchief previously used by Lucy Gray into the snake tank so that they would recognize her scent and not attack her.
Towards the end of the Games, the snakes attack all the candidates except Lucy Gray. She then becomes the victor of the 10th Hunger Games, but records of that year’s game were erased because Coriolanus was caught cheating.
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What Happened to Lucy Gray After the 10th Hunger Games?
After the 10th Hunger Games, Lucy Gray was sent back to District 12, and Dean Casca Highbottom secretly gave her money.
As a consequence of cheating, Coriolanus gets expelled from the Academy and reluctantly joins the Peacekeepers. He asks to be assigned to District 12 so that he can see Lucy Gray again.
Lucy Gray and Coriolanus reunite, start dating, and plan a life together. Both of them plan to run away together and escape to the North.
However, Coriolanus later reveals that he killed three people, and Lucy Gray asks who the third one is. Coriolanus lies about this, saying that he killed his old self.
Lucy Gray and Coriolanus arrive at a cabin near District 12’s lake. Coriolanus then finds the guns used to shoot Mayfair Lipp and Billy Taupe.
Lucy Gray realizes that Coriolanus could destroy the guns, which would wash away all physical evidence of his connection to their deaths. Lucy Gray is also aware that she’s the only witness left who could tie him to the crime.
Lucy Gray then tells Coriolanus that she will dig up some katniss, but she never comes back. Coriolanus pursues her with the rifle. He finds the orange scarf he gave her but gets bitten by a snake.
This angers him, and he estimates her position and shoots into the trees. He becomes confused about her location when Lucy Gray sings "The Hanging Tree" and the mockingjays pick up the song.
It appears that Coriolanus was able to shoot Lucy Gray, but when he went to the spot where he thought she would be, Lucy Gray wasn’t there.
It is unclear whether Lucy Gray died or if she survived. When Coriolanus goes back to the Capitol, he’s informed that people thought that the mayor killed her, but no one could prove it. So it's either Lucy Gray died, or she went into hiding.
Lucy Gray is indirectly mentioned by Katniss in the first chapter of The Hunger Games book.
Katniss mentions that there have only been two victors from District 12, and only one is alive. The one alive is Haymitch Abernathy, and Katniss doesn’t mention more about the other dead victor.
Talking about this reference, author Suzanne Collins said in an interview that Katniss doesn’t seem to know anything about the person worth mentioning.
Collins also said that while her story is not well-known (as Dr. Gaul erased nearly all copies of the 10th Hunger Games, but left one master copy), Lucy Gray lives on through her music and that her legacy is that she introduced entertainment to the Hunger Games.
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