Merrilee Undersee

Spoiler Alert! This page may contain plot details relating to Sunrise on the Reaping or unintentionally spoil elements of the book.

Merrilee Undersee
Biographical Information
Age	16 (Sunrise on the Reaping) 41 (Catching Fire)
Also known as	Mrs. Undersee
Occupation	Housewife
Home	District 12
Relatives	Mr. Donner † (father) Mrs. Donner † (mother) Maysilee Donner † (twin sister) Mayor Undersee † (husband) Madge Undersee † (daughter) Unnamed grandmother †
Fate	Deceased
Physical Information
Gender	Female
Hair	Blond
Appearances
Book Appearances	Sunrise on the Reaping
Book Mentioned	Catching Fire

"I think of Madge's mother. Mayor Undersee's wife. Who spends half her life in bed immobilized with terrible pain, shutting out the world."

—Katniss Everdeen about Merrilee Undersee

Merrilee Undersee (née Donner) was the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Donner. She was Maysilee Donner's twin sister who was one of the female tributes for District 12 in the 50th Hunger Games. She was Mayor Undersee's wife and Madge Undersee's mother. She lived in District 12 with her family.

Biography

When Merrilee was younger, she lived with her parents and twin sister Maysilee above a sweet shop on the merchant side of District 12. She was close with her sister's best friend, Asterid Everdeen. Merrilee always went along with what her sister did and often dressed in the same clothing as her sister by their mother.

At some point, Merrilee and her sister were gifted bird pins made by Tam Amber. Merrilee was given a hummingbird pin while Maysilee was given a mockingjay pin which she greatly disliked, much to the disdain of Tam Amber's adopted niece Lenore Dove Baird.

Losing her twin

During the reaping of the 50th Hunger Games, Merrilee and Asterid were devastated when Maysilee was selected as a tribute for the Second Quarter Quell. After Maysilee's death during the Games, Merrilee and her parents attended her funeral, along with burials of Louella McCoy, Wyatt Callow, Jethro Callow, Willamae Abernathy, and Sid Abernathy. During the memorial service, Merrilee was mistaken as Maysilee by the victor of the 50th Hunger Games, Haymitch Abernathy, causing her and her father to break down in tears.

Adulthood

Years after her sister's death, Merrilee was never the same afterwards, suffering from massive headaches in her adulthood that caused her to lie in bed all day. Her daughter, Madge, passed on this information to Katniss Everdeen, and when Katniss asked why they didn't get medicines from the Capitol, Madge responded that even the mayor had his restrictions. After Gale Hawthorne was whipped, Madge asked her mother if she could bring some of her medicine to him and took it to the Everdeens' home, where Gale lay recovering.

Merrilee, her husband, and Madge, as well as the two people who worked for them, did not survive the bombing of District 12.

Relationships

Family

Merrilee's husband was the mayor of District 12. She had one daughter, Madge. She also had a twin sister named Maysilee, who died in the 50th Hunger Games after being attacked by a large number of bright, candy pink birds. Merrilee attended her twin's funeral alongside their mother and father.

Trivia

• Merrilee and Maysilee Donner are the only confirmed pair of twins in the trilogy.
  • Leeg 1 and Leeg 2, despite being played by identical twin actresses in Mockingjay - Part 2, are not explicitly referred to as twins in the book, though it is mentioned they look so similar in uniform that others can't tell them apart.
  • Pollux and Castor are also described as having a strong physical resemblance to one another, and their names refer to a pair of mythological Greek twins, but they are not explicitly confirmed to be twins in the text.
• On her and Maysilee Donner's 13th birthday, their father gave them pure gold pins, previously owned by his mother and fashioned by Tam Amber. Merrilee received a gold hummingbird pin.
• Her twin sister Maysilee Donner would often match outfits with her, including during the reaping of the 50th Hunger Games.