Ben and Rob conclude their journey through Panem with The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part Two, directed by Francis Lawrence and starring Jennifer Lawrence, Josh Hutcherson, Liam Hemsworth, Woody Harrelson, Elizabeth Banks, Julianne Moore, Philip Seymour Hoffman and Donald Sutherland. What begins as one final YA franchise finale slowly mutates into something far stranger; a conversation about propaganda, blockbuster filmmaking, dead children, sewer monsters, wigs, merchandising, oligarchs, trauma, rebellion branding, and whether Suzanne Collins may have quietly pulled off one of the most outrageous sleight-of-hand tricks ever hidden inside a studio franchise.

Why does Donald Sutherland feel like he’s acting in an entirely different film from everybody else? Why does this franchise keep accidentally becoming more relevant every single  ...