Peeta was indeed brainwashed, though the term used in the book is "hijacking". Hijacking is a type of torture employed at the Capitol using the hallucinatory effects of tracker-jacker (the wasps from the first book/movie) venom as a way to manipulate the victim's memories.
His feelings and memories are distorted with hallucinogenic tracker jacker venom, in a mind-control technique known as "Hijacking." The Capitol uses this method to turn Peeta against Katniss, making him believe that she is not only responsible for the death of his family, friends and the destruction of District 12, but ...
For a period in Mockingjay, Peeta is brainwashed by the Capitol to hate Katniss and try to kill her. But he recovers, and in the epilogue, we learn that Peeta and Katniss are married with two children.
Like Katniss, Peeta ended up back in District 12, which was still recovering after being firebombed. By that point, Peeta greatly recovered from the brainwashing, but he still had PTSD from having his mind hijacked. Being in close proximity to Katniss was greatly beneficial as they relied on each other to heal.
In the third and final book, Mockingjay, Peeta is held captive by President Snow and used against Katniss. During his captivity, he was tortured, beaten, and hijacked using tracker jacker venom to distort his memories of Katniss until he believed she was a mutt trying to kill him.
The Entire Life of Peeta Mellark (Hunger Games Explained)
Does Peeta ever love Katniss again?
It took time for Peeta to break out of that conditioning, and even when the possibility existed that Peeta could be a danger to Katniss, the two of them still elected to be together and build a future in a post-Hunger-Games world. Their love for one another is evident.
He has betrayed her and is betraying all of District 12 by buddying up with the Careers, whom she calls the "Capitol's lapdogs." She decides that if the Careers don't kill him, she'd be more than happy to. Then, she wonders why Peeta hasn't told them about her bow and arrow skills yet.
Complete hijacking requires many sessions. Peeta, after weeks of treatment (he was presumably in the Capitol for about five to six weeks total), was still able to resist the effects. He warned Katniss Everdeen of the Capitol's plans to attack her, even though his memories about her had been hijacked.
we know he was injected with the tracker jacker serum and conditioned to fear katniss. under the influence of the serum, he was shown footage of her and probably the bombings in district 12 too, so he'd associate her with all these horrible things and believe she's the cause of them.
Peeta used the dyes to paint a picture of Rue after Katniss covered her with flowers when she died. He says he wants to hold them accountable for killing Rue, and Effie tells him that that kind of thinking is forbidden. Katniss then tells the team she hung a dummy of Seneca Crane.
Mockingjay the book ends happily, I guess you could say. Katniss isn't dead, Peeta isn't dead. They're together, they have kids. How's this for happy: "My children, who don't know they play on a graveyard." How's this for happy: "One day I'll have to explain about my nightmares.
No one on earth could endure the torture that Peeta went through without being horrifically traumatized, but the fact that he was so forthright about his love for Katniss didn't do him any favors in that department either.
Devastated and left mentally and emotionally stranded , Johanna spent the next few years in isolation, wallowing in her sorrow and trauma. During this period of time, she served as a mentor for the tributes reaped in her district.
While a prisoner of the Capitol, Peeta was hijacked into believing that Katniss was not human, but in fact one of the Capitol's mutts. Conversely, Johanna Mason suggested that the Capitol's torture replaced Peeta with an "evil-mutt version" of himself. This sentiment was later echoed by Katniss.
In Chapter 9, as Caesar Flickerman interviews Peeta before the Games, Peeta reveals to Caesar and all of Panem that he's in love with Katniss. Peeta's revelation sets in motion the storyline of him and Katniss as ill-fated lovers that carries on throughout the Games.
Katniss is told to put on her Mockingjay uniform and join Gale and Finnick for some filming of the destruction aboveground. Coin wants to make it clear that the Mockingjay lives. But Katniss can't perform for the propos because she's too upset about Peeta and grows increasingly distraught.
Katniss here's this and understands that even though she may not love Peeta (then) that it's one less person who has to die. (At least that's what I have always thought.) Katniss realizes that if she pretends to be in love with Peeta people will want the capitol to let them survive.
Buttercup. Prim's cat, Buttercup, is a symbol of survival and a parallel to Katniss herself. Buttercup, though unfriendly, survives again and again, much like Katniss. He is not a particularly affectionate or attractive cat, but Prim loves and protects him, and that is enough to make Buttercup loyal and loving to Prim.
For Peeta to look like he was tortured, many think he went on an extreme diet. But in reality, they used CGI to slim his face and make him look abused and beaten.
She stumbles into the snow at first, but then she dusts herself off, rises, and begins waving to the photographers, arm in arm with Peeta. The camera zooms out to a neutral angle, giving audiences a sudden, somewhat startling reminder that oh, that's right—Katniss is slightly taller than Peeta.
Peeta's warning District 13 of the imminent bombings places him in great danger, yet he still does everything he can to protect Katniss and keep her safe. By warning District 13, the district's citizens have enough time to make it into the deep bunkers.
Why so evil, Peeta? Well, as we learn at the beginning of Mockingjay (spoilers, obv), he's been brainwashed by a method called “hijacking,” in which Tracker Jacker venom is injected to create hallucinations. In this particular case, he's been brainwashed to hate Katniss.
Toward the end of the novel, Katniss realizes that Haymitch has been keeping information from her and using her to help the rebellion, causing her to feel extremely betrayed. On the other hand, his goals are generally good ones.
Ignoring Katniss's arrow, Cato runs straight past Katniss and Peeta, headed for the Cornucopia. Upon sighting the mutts, the two race after him. Once on top of the Cornucopia, Cato takes a few moments to catch his breath before he grabs Peeta in a headlock, effectively cutting off his ability to breathe.
Why does Katniss break glimmers fingers with a rock?
Admittedly, this aspect could very well be Katniss' hallucinogenic tracker jacker stings working against her, but she does have to break Glimmer's fingers to retrieve the bow the other tribute was carrying, adding to the scene's grimness.
