I’m warning you now: if you haven’t seen or read “The Hunger Games” yet, this blog contains plot spoilers so consider yourself warned!

A fan-made theory surrounding Foxface’s death by consuming some poisonous Nightlock berries, which Peeta had inadvertently gathered as food, is currently circulating the Internet. Supporters of the theory theorize that Foxface, an elusive and highly intelligent tribute, had eaten the berries on purpose in order to commit suicide, rather than having mistaken them as food. Foxface committed suicide, because her prospects of winning were close to zero with only the best and most lethal tributes left in the Games. Foxface’s high intelligence would have prevented her from not recognizing the berries in the first place, so it must have been on purpose that she ate them. In the movie, Foxface is seen in the training centre operating a gigantic matching game of various plants; this game resembles some sort of warped aptitude test for Royal Air Force pilots. This shot shows Foxface’s extensive plant knowledge. She must have recognized the berries as a quick route out.

But, I’m here to refute this theory, although I like the idea of it.

The matching test is, in no way, a test of plant knowledge. It just looks like a matching game, a spot the difference game. The game could have used little colourful monsters instead of plants to achieve the same purpose. I think the purpose of the scene was to just demonstrate her mind’s flexibility and huge computing power. That’s the way I interpreted it. It was an impressive show of eye-mind-hand coordination, not whether she could name plant properties. In fact, a knowledge of flora is not once attributed to her in the book, just her ability to out-think and out-manoeuvre others. If she had had this impressive plant knowledge, she would not have relied so much on stealing food from the Careers to feed herself. As Rue pointed out, the arena held an abundance of edible plants, if one knew where to look. She obviously didn’t. Wily intelligence is not the same thing as survival skills. The Foxface Suicide Theory relies a lot on the assumption that she knew that the berries were Nightlock. If she couldn’t dig up the roots that Rue and Katniss had been eating, then more likely than not, she thought Peeta’s berries were perfectly safe to eat. She ate. She died.

I also have a problem with Foxface suddenly coming to the conclusion that she no longer had a chance in the Games and so decided to commit suicide. Why? Her chances of surviving out of a field of twenty-three other tributes at the beginning was much smaller than surviving out of only four others nearer the end. If her tactic was to wait for everyone to kill each other, there’s no saying it couldn’t have paid off, especially the closer to the end. Peeta, Katniss and Cato were all very close to dying at the Cornucopia at the hands of each other and the muttations. Katniss described the stand-off on top the Cornucopia as “stalemate”; it could have swung any way. I don’t deal in “what-if” situations, but from Foxface’s standpoint, if she had continued to remain elusive and let it all play it, there was an okay chance it would play out in her favour. She was clever; she must have realized right from the start that her tactic was unlikely to bless her with a win. I think she resigned to play the Games to the best of her ability, knowing full well only a tremendous amount of luck combined with her own cunning would get her out of there alive. She didn’t commit suicide, because she had a sudden epiphany and realized her chances were running low. She always knew. The berries were an accident that cut her short.

What do you think of this theory? I like the idea of the theory. It gives Foxface a strong grounding to her character and an insight into the personal struggles and strife of each tribute. However, the premise of which it is founded is inherently flawed. If Suzanne Collins came out tomorrow and said “Foxface committed suicide by nightlock”, I would not back down.