Jessup Diggs

Jessup Diggs
Age	18
Occupation	Tribute (10th Hunger Games)
Home	District 12
Gender	Male
Fate	Deceased (Died of rabies and injuries from a fall)
Book Appearances	The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes
Movie Appearances	The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes
Portrayed by	Nick Benson

Jessup Diggs was the male tribute from District 12 in the 10th Hunger Games. His mentor was Lysistrata Vickers. He became the ally of Lucy Gray Baird for the Games.

Biography

Jessup at the reaping.

Jessup grew up in District 12, already having been employed in the mines before the Reaping for the 10th Hunger Games. When his name was called by Mayor Lipp, he awkwardly ascended the steps to take his place. He shook hands with his district partner, Lucy Gray Baird, and she pulled him into a bow.

When the tributes were taken to the Capitol in a cattle car, Jessup helped Lucy Gray descend onto the platform, catching her and swinging her to the ground gracefully. At the Capitol Zoo, Lucy Gray encouraged Jessup to approach Sejanus Plinth and take a sandwich and plum from him, leading to the other tributes accepting food as well.

The first night in the zoo, Jessup was bitten in the neck by a furry animal in the dark, which was at first assumed to be a rat. From then on, him and Lucy Gray took turns sleeping. When Coriolanus Snow, Lucy Gray's mentor, arrived to visit her at the zoo, he made eye contact with Jessup, who was holding a handkerchief to his neck. Jessup then woke up Lucy Gray so she could talk with Coriolanus, and she later gave him two of the four crackers she had received from her mentor.

During the tour of the Capitol Arena before the Games, Jessup's assigned mentor, Lysistrata Vickers, gave him cream for his neck, as she had been working to connect with Jessup. When the rebel bombs exploded, Jessup protected Lysistrata by throwing his body over her, a fact that was later recounted to a reporter.

At the interviews, Jessup and Lysistrata were one of the few remaining mentor-tribute pairs that had something to present. During their turn, Lysistrata sat in her chair while Jessup easily lifted her over his head, demonstrating his strength. Partly because of this, he was one of the tributes that Capitol citizens favored to win.

The night before the Games began, Jessup stopped eating and began acting funny because he had actually been bitten by a rabid raccoon. Reaper Ash, the male tribute from District 11, apologized to each of the other tributes for having to kill them in the arena, and Jessup spit in his eye, passing on rabies to Reaper as well.

10th Hunger Games

When the gong sounded, Jessup was one of the few tributes that sprinted towards the weapons, though he soon dispersed. He and Lucy Gray hid out in the tunnels for the first and most of the second days of the Games. They moved from spot to spot, with Jessup getting sicker as time went on, and bedded down near the entrance during the first night.

Death

During the afternoon of the second day of the Games, Lucy Gray and Jessup emerged from hiding with Lucy Gray fleeing from Jessup, as the rabies had ailed him. Jessup chased Lucy Gray into the stands, though he had trouble keeping his balance. When a water bottle arrived, sent by Coriolanus, Jessup destroyed it, agitated. This led to Coriolanus and Lysistrata realizing he had hydrophobia as a result of his inability to swallow from rabies. To distract him from Lucy Gray, Lysistrata sent him many bottles of water to trigger this. He fell as he tried to run from the water bottles, and the sound of breaking bones could be heard as they were close to a speaker in the arena. Lucy Gray comforted him in his final moments, saying that he could sleep now. After Jessup died, Lucy Gray cleaned his face, and covered it from the audience with cloth.

Jessup's body was later lined up among the other corpses by Reaper in his makeshift morgue.

Film adaptation

Spoiler warning: the following may contain spoilers (Skip section)

In The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes, Jessup was infected with rabies on the train ride to the Capitol instead of at the Capitol Zoo. When the train arrived, bats were shown flying out of it, suggesting that it was a rabid bat instead of a rabid raccoon that got him. When the gong rang, Jessup remained on his pedestal for a while before inspecting his surroundings. Lucy Gray Baird grabbed him, telling him to leave quickly, and they escaped into the tunnels. They ran to a door, barely managing to squeeze inside before being killed by the two alliances outside.

The two tributes spent the night in that place, with Jessup in pain and unable to sleep. At dawn the next day, Jessup chased Lucy Gray to the stands. At that moment, Coriolanus Snow convinced Lysistrata Vickers to send him the water instead of Lysistrata doing it herself. The water hit Jessup, causing him to panic before falling and dying from the impact. Jessup placed 10th. Unlike in the book, he did not infect Reaper Ash with rabies.

Physical description

Jessup had a fringe of black hair plastered down on his prominent forehead. He was bigger than average for a tribute from District 12, and strong-looking. He had already been employed in the mines before the 10th Hunger Games, contributing to his griminess, but attempted to wash before the reaping, leaving a relatively clean oval in the middle of his face. However, it was ringed with black, and his nails were caked with coal dust. Jessup was also very strong, as he was able to easily lift Lysistrata Vickers over his head for the interviews.

When Jessup was afflicted with rabies during the Games, he was stiff-limbed and feverish with excitement, with foam bubbling over his lips. The rabies also loaned a maniac speed to his already powerful body, though his coordination was diminished, and he opened gashes on his body because of it.

Family

In the film, Jessup briefly mentioned his Pa as he and the other tributes were led at gunpoint into the arena.

Etymology

Jessup is a variant of the name Joseph, connected in the Bible to God taking away or giving— perhaps as Jessup is taken away in the reaping. His surname, Diggs, might refer literally to his district's coal mining industry.