Sunrise On The Reaping Features The Most Disturbing Moment In The Entire Hunger Games Franchise

This article contains spoilers for "The Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping."

In Suzanne Collins' most recent addition to the "Hunger Games" universe, the standalone origin story titled "Sunrise on the Reaping," a lot of horrifying stuff happens. While that's par for the course with anything in the "Hunger Games" franchise, which centers around a deadly game played by children between the ages of 12 and 18 that only produces one victor — all at the behest of the evil tyrannical Capitol — I have to admit that even I, a seasoned fan of the books and films, found myself surprised by some of the twists and turns Collins provided for the prequel about Haymitch Abernathy, a District 12 victor played as an adult in the films by Woody Harrelson. So what's the most messed-up thing, for all you particularly macabre readers?

That would be the "replacement" of a District 12 tribute, Louella McCoy, after she's killed during the traditional parade of tributes in the Capitol in front of President Snow (played in the original movies by the late Donald Sutherland). With double the number of tributes in these Games thanks to the second "Quarter Quell" — a "special" occasion of sorts for the Games — Haymitch is grouped with Louella and their fellow District 12 dwellers Maysilee Donner and Wyatt Callow are paraded just like everybody else, but in the midst of a chariot accident, something horrifying happens. Louella falls, and Haymitch realizes right away that she's dead.

Haymitch is crushed by the loss of his longtime friend Louella, but during a private, off-the-record meeting with Snow and Plutarch Heavensbee (played in the movies by Philip Seymour Hoffman), Plutarch and Snow offer Haymitch a ... gift of sorts to force him to behave. 

"My heart leaps, then sinks like a stone," Haymitch thinks upon seeing Louella walk into the room. "I feel Louella's crushed skull leaking hot blood into my hand. See her vacant eyes. She was good and dead in a way that defied return. So who is this girl in the doorway? She sure looks like Louella [...] She checks every box. But this isn't Louella. In the same way you instinctively know the waxed pears on the table lack juice, this girl lacks Louella's essence."

So here's what the Capitol did. Louella died, and they produced some sort of clone of her to stand in for the real Louella, largely because the camera didn't linger on the accident, and nobody watching at home in the districts knows that Louella died (Haymitch guesses it's a modified girl from District 11). That news again: the Capitol recreated what Haymitch calls "Fake Louella" to trick everyone, including her loved ones, and intend for this lesser and ill-prepared clone to simply die in the Games. This is, without question, one of the grossest and most disturbing things in any of the "Hunger Games" stories.

Okay, so who is Louella McCoy in the first place, and why is her replacement particularly devastating? During the reaping — where Haymitch isn't even chosen as a tribute properly — Haymitch watches in horror as Louella is chosen alongside Maysilee. "I feel sick," he thinks in the moment. "Louella McCoy lives three houses down from me, and a smarter, spunkier 13-year-old doesn't exist."

Haymitch and Louella become quick allies as they head to the Capitol to train for their time in the arena, calling the other "sweetheart" as a little in-joke, and that's when tragedy strikes during the parade. As chariots collide and Louella falls from the chariot she's sharing with Haymitch, he tries to help Louella, but he immediately realizes what just happened: "Her vacant eyes confirm [her death] as I slide the lids closed. One of her braids rests in the blood leaking from the back of her skull, which cracked open when she hit the pavement. The penciled black eyebrows jump out from her drained face. I arrange her braids, lick my thumb, and wipe a drop of blood from her cheek."

That's when Haymitch does something bold and probably also sort of stupid; he hijacks a chariot from District 1, which is first in line, and brings Louella's broken body right to the President of Panem in an act of utter defiance. "The horses come to a stop directly under the balcony," Haymitch narrates. 

"I look up and freeze, too intimidated to breathe. President Snow. Not on a screen, but in the flesh. The most powerful and, therefore, the most brutal person in Panem. He stands calm and erect, surveying the calamity of the opening ceremony. His head dips slightly, and a lacquered silvery blond curl falls onto his forehead. Our eyes meet, and a smile plays on his lips. No anger, no outrage, and certainly no fear. I have not impressed him with my performance. The reckless mountain boy with the dead girl in his arms seems foolish, a trifle amusing, and nothing more."

This moment brings the Louella replacement — or, as they come to call her, Lou Lou — into a new light, because not only is it a PR play to keep the audience from finding out the truth, it's also a punishment for Haymitch. The Capitol does a lot of bad stuff in the "Hunger Games" books and films, but this does feel like a new level of hell.

The way Lou Lou acts when she appears in "Sunrise on the Reaping" is so disturbing. She seems to barely understand her surroundings, keeps trying to eat poisoned mushrooms during training, and has full-blown meltdowns over seemingly innocuous phrases. Ultimately, Haymitch and two of his allies and mentors Wiress and Beetee — characters we met "previously" in "The Hunger Games: Catching Fire" — figure out that Lou Lou has some sort of audio implant, making her sort of a sick human walkie-talkie. As Haymitch says, they all understand this is both sinister and useful. He explains: 

"Don't tell Lou Lou any secrets. There's a flip side to that, though. We can gain an advantage by telling her lies. During the Dark Days, the Capitol spied on us with jabberjays, mutts that looked like regular birds but could record the rebels' conversations and play them back word for word. We figured this out and fed them false information. The Capitol released the jabberjays at the end of the war, thinking they'd die off, which they did, but not before they'd sired a whole new species by mating with female mockingbirds, creating Lenore Dove's precious mockingjays. Now I guess Lou Lou is our own little jabberjay."

Eventually, the programmed spy and sad facsimile of a girl meets a bitter end. Frankly, she survives in the very dangerous arena full of genetically engineered mutations for an astoundingly long time ... until she reunites with Haymitch and sniffs some poisoned flowers. "She collapses against me, and I cradle her in my arms as the convulsions begin," Haymitch narrates in a totally gutting passage. "There is nothing I can do but watch, helpless again. Just as I was to save Louella. For a moment, the two merge, Lou Lou and Louella. She's just one pigtailed kid I've known her whole life, and I would do anything to spare her this."

"Sunrise on the Reaping" is already being adapted into a film set to release in late 2026, so eventually, audiences will watch this play out on the big screen.