Chapter 19
So in this chapter we finally get to see President Coin's real plan for Katniss (thanks to Boggs): She does not 100% support Coin who wants to make sure she keeps her position after the war, so the only thing left for Katniss to do is die in the war because it'll look good and motivate the rebels. Which is where Peeta comes in. It's a great sort of evil mastermind plan, actually. Showing Peeta fighting with the rebels after being captured and tortured by the Capitol does make for great propos, so no one can really question Coin's decision to send him to the Capitol as the newest member of Squad 451. More importantly, Peeta has been hijacked by Snow to, essentially, kill Katniss. He was doing well enough to do Finnick and Annie's wedding cake, and to go through basic training with the rest of the soldiers, but he's still unstable. Thankfully, the Squad actually cares about Katniss, so they take shifts watching Peeta.
Katniss is not the only one they care about, either. They care about Peeta, whether it's because they knew him from before or because he helped save District 13 from the Capitol's attacks. Peeta is having trouble distinguishing between his real memories and those that were hijacked and corrupted. So Jackson starts the game that brings us all the feels:
You guessed it, it's Real or Not Real. Peeta tells them about a memory, whether or not it's him getting District 12 set on fire (Not Real) or watching an Avox getting tortured to punish him (Real). They all take shifts watching Peeta and helping him figure out who he really was before he was taken.
The chapter ends with the them filming Propos which gets cut off when a blast literally takes out Bogg's legs. Ouch. Josh Hutcherson did a great job portraying hijacked Peeta at the end of the last movie (and by great I mean terrifying) and I'm sure he'll do this version of Peeta justice as well. Part of me is looking forward to it while another part is already crying at the thought of seeing Katniss and Peeta's stunted but super emotional discussions over what seem to be mundane things like their favorite colors. I honestly don't think I can ever be emotionally prepared enough for these scenes, but I'm excited for them nonetheless!