Lucy Gray Baird

Lucy Gray is the first victor from District 12, as she wins the Hunger Games through a combination of luck and strategy. She returns to District 12 and goes back to performing ballads with the Covey. In the end, she decides to run away with Coriolanus Snow. However, Snow bails on her at the last minute, and she runs away to District 13 by herself.

Lucy Gray Baird Character Profile

• Name: Lucy Gray Baird
• Gender: Female
• Age: 16 (The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes)
• Place of origin: District 12
• Physical appearance: Dark curly hair, slim
• Skills: Singing and performing
• Strengths: Charming, brave, quick instincts, showmanship
• Weaknesses: Unskilled in any particular weapon
• Loyalties: Unknown

Personality and Physical Description

At the Reaping ceremony of the 10th annual Hunger Games, Lucy Gray is described as a young spritely girl with dark curly black hair, which is pulled up and woven with wildflowers. She also sports her signature rainbow-colored dress with ruffles of various colors, including daffodil yellow, raspberry pink, and royal blue. She wears makeup – blue eyeshadow and black liner for her eyes, red lipstick for her lips, and rouge for her cheeks.

During the Games, she wears her hair in braids. After the Games, Lucy Gray wears a gray dress when she returns to the impoverished District 12. She adds a black scarf to her ensemble during the hanging of Arlo Chance. Author Suzanne Collins has mentioned that Lucy Gray speaks with a deep Southern accent from the United States.

Lucy Gray is a born performer and thrives in front of an audience. She is motivated by ambition and the need for fame and glory, which helps her distinguish herself in the Games from other tributes. She is loud and colorful, much like her signature dress. Her enchanting charisma captures the heart of her mentor, 18-year-old Coriolanus Snow. She is quick on her feet, has excellent survival skills, and is highly confident in herself. Lucy Gray can also be deceptive and manipulative when required, with the ability to make the best out of the worst situations.

Biography

Early Life

Lucy Gray was born in District 12. She is the youngest of 3 siblings. However, she loses her family at a young age. Her father is shot by peacekeepers for speaking his mind and her mother gets her head broken for trying to keep her family together. An old man then takes Lucy Gray in, along with five other Covey children (including her cousins Maude Ivory and Barb Azure). Soon, the old man dies of a black lung, leaving the Covey children to take care of themselves. The Covey then begin performing ballads for the people of District 12 as a way of earning money.

10th Hunger Games

The Reaping

Lucy Gray Baird’s name is called out as the female tribute from District 12. However, the Reaping Ceremony is rigged by Mayor Lipp, who entered Lucy’s name in the Games on purpose. His daughter, Mayfair Lipp was dating Lucy Gray’s ex-boyfriend, Billy Taupe, and Mayfair felt threatened by Lucy Gray. However, Lucy takes revenge on Mayfair Lipp by slipping a snake down her dress as she walks up to the stage.

Mayor Lipp strikes Lucy in the face for her antics, giving her a purple bruise. However, undeterred, Lucy captures Panem’s attention by singing on stage, with the audience and Peacekeepers joining in.

At The Capitol

Lucy Gray Baird is taken to the Capitol after the Reaping, where she meets her mentor, Coriolanus Snow, at the train station. She is then taken to the Capitol Zoo, where Coriolanus visits her daily. A few days later, she attends a tour of the Capitol arena with the mentors and other tributes. However, the arena is bombed and Coriolanus is caught in the rubble. Lucy rescues him, and in return, asks him to help her win the Games.

Coriolanus and Lucy then begin strategizing together. At the pre-Games interview with Lucretius Flickerman (played by Jason Schwartzman in the upcoming movie), she performs “The Ballad of Lucy Gray Baird” for the audience. The depth of the song moves them to tears. However, young Coriolanus is jealous as the song refers to a lost lover. He tells her how he feels and gives her his mother’s compact to smuggle rat poison into the Games. Lucy accepts the compact and tells Coriolanus that she has a sweet spot only for him.

In The Arena

Lucy Gray’s strategy in the arena was to hide in one of the tunnels, only coming out for food and water. She emerges on the second day only to see her District partner, Jessup, suffering from rabies. Due to rabies-induced hydrophobia, Jessup falls from a great height and breaks his bones. Lucy stays with him as he dies.

Lucy also uses rat poison to kill one of the other tributes, Wovey. Soon after, Dr. Volumnia Gaul, the Head Gamemaker of the 10th Hunger Games, releases the snake muttations into the arena. However, the muttations do not attack Lucy as Coriolanus has familiarized them with her scent long before they entered the arena. Lucy is then able to control the snakes with a song.

The Games continue until there are only three tributes left – Lucy Gray, Treech, and Reaper. Lucy Gray kills Treech by planting a snake on his neck. She then poisons the water that Reaper drinks, thereby becoming the victor of the 10th Hunger Games.

Post-10th Hunger Games

Lucy Gray returns to District 12, where she continues to perform with the Covey. However, the compact with the rat poison is discovered on her. As a result, young Coriolanus Snow, who was already in trouble for manipulating the snake muttations, is expelled from the Academy for cheating. He is forced to become a Peacekeeper instead. He asks to be posted in District 12 so that he can meet Lucy once again.

Lucy and Snow reunite in the meadow of the Seam, where the two of them exchange stories. Snow meets the rest of the Covey, where they are interrupted by Billy Taupe, who causes a scene. Later, Snow and Lucy decide to meet again the coming weekend, when Lucy would be performing at a gig.

They meet, however, things get frosty between the two when they begin talking about Coriolanus’ job in District 12 (capturing and destroying jabberjays). They discover that their beliefs about the Capitol are fundamentally different. However, they reconcile, and Lucy invites young Snow to go to the lake with her family the next day.

At Lucy’s next performance, Lucy and Snow accidentally happen upon a rebel plan that Sejanus Plinth was concocting with Billy Taupe and Spruce. Mayfair Lipp finds them and gets killed in a resulting scuffle. Billy Taupe is shot by Spruce, and Lucy and Snow escape narrowly.

The next day, Lucy is suspected of the murders, and Mayor Lipp has instructed the Peacekeepers to arrest her. She, therefore, informs Snow that she plans to run away to the north. Snow promises to join her. The next day, Snow learns that he has received a promotion and is bound to be transferred to District 2 as an officer. However, he still decides to follow through with the plan of running away with Lucy Gray.

As they make their way into the woods, Snow finds a bunch of weapons in a shack, including the one he used to kill Mayfair Lipp. Realizing that he can bury the evidence and create a new life for himself, he decides to kill Lucy Gray and return to District 12. However, Lucy has discovered Snow’s true self and has understood that he has revealed Sejanus’ treachery to the Capitol, resulting in Sejanus’ hanging. She, therefore, no longer trusts him and leaves a snake out in the wild for Snow to find. Snow is bitten by the snake and he retaliates by shooting bullets at Lucy’s direction. However, none of the bullets connect, and he is no longer able to find Lucy.

Snow returns to Panem, where he is given the position of Gamemaker at the post-war Capitol. Lucy, however, goes missing. Citizens of District 12 assume that she is killed by Mayor Lipp. However, there is no evidence to prove so. It is speculated that she escapes to District 13 and makes a life for herself there.

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