The intervening time has seen them become comparatively comfortable but their romance of convenience fizzled once they were safe. Now they again have to put on a show for the cameras.
The small crumbs of rebellion they showed to the Districts in the Games has sparked a minor but irksome rebellion.
President Snow makes it clear to Katniss that any misbehaviour or failure to convince him of the on-screen couple's undying love will end with her death and that of everybody she loves including Gale: her actual lover in District 12.
Katniss has never been very good at following instruction.
This starts to show more of the workings of the authoritarian state of Panem which has a very "North Korea, but America" flavour. The Districts they visit are clearly restless and after an initial bit of rebelliousness from the pair has awful unintended consequences they settle in to borderline malicious compliance.
Inevitably they are thrown back into the Games through Executive fiat and we get a slight rerun of that section from the first.
What's great is that their supporting team of Haymitch (Woody Harrelson), Effie (Elizabeth Banks) and Cinna (Lenny Kravitz) believably rally round and try to steer them correctly in the run up to give them a chance of success. Elizabeth Banks turns an almost joke character into a fantastic showing of a seemingly powerless figure who nonetheless has an important effect. There were hints of this in the first but it's clear here.
Just as it feels like the Games are taking too long to get anywhere it takes an abrupt left turn with a cliffhanger that's both refreshing but also would have been frustrating at the time with a long wait for the next instalment. It's very "hang on lads I've got a plan".
More nuanced than the first but not self contained it's still worthy of an 8/10.