New To Divergent? Recap The Series Pre-'Allegiant'

With so many dystopian YA franchises around these days, it can be hard to get your facts straight and remember what apocalyptic event or traumatic love triangle happened in what series. Yet with the end of The Hunger Games last fall, there's been a bit of a lull in the teen apocalypse drama — which is why it's so exciting that The Divergent Series: Allegiant is out this month. The third movie in the Divergent franchise, Allegiant comes right after what happened in Insurgent , which arrived in theaters last March. Yet while that was only a year ago, the movie was filled with so much chaos and confusion that it'd be understandable if you needed a bit of a Divergent series recap before delving into Allegiant, out Mar. 18.

First, the basics: The Divergent movies are based on the Divergent books, a bestselling young adult series written by Veronica Roth. In the first book and movie, fans were introduced to Tris Prior (Shailene Woodley), a teenage girl growing up in a world in which people are divided into factions that are based around personality traits: Amity (the peaceful), Candor (the honest), Dauntless (the brave), Abnegation (the selfless), and Erudite (the wise). Born an Abnegation, Tris chooses to become Dauntless when she turns 16, but learns she is Divergent — someone who doesn't fit squarely into one of the factions, but has a combination of traits and an ability to defy mind control serums. Divergents are considered threats to the government, and so Tris keeps her identity a secret.

Yet it doesn't stay that way for long. Once a Dauntless, Tris meets Four (Theo James), a fellow Divergent and her soon-to-be love interest. Together, they fight against members of Erudite, led by power-hungry Jeanine (Kate Winslet) who are attempting to violently take over the factions. At the end of the first installment, Tris and Four have managed to bring defeat, but Jeanine and her helpers are out for revenge.

Which is where last year's Insurgent begins. With Jeanine having ordered all Divergents to be rounded up for fear of what they're capable of, Tris and a few others, including Four, are in hiding. They briefly ally with the Factionless, homeless people who don't belong to any group, before heading to Candor, where they are captured and forced by truth serum to reveal their secrets. With Jeanine ordering Tris' capture and causing innocent deaths until it is done, Tris turns herself in, and is forced to undergo tests to see if she's the strongest Divergent there is. When she seems to fail and die, she's moved from Jeanine's sight — but it turns out that Four had faked her death by giving her a sleep serum.

Once awake, and with her allies at the defense, Tris goes to open a mysterious box that Jeanine had been protecting, and the entire city hears its message — that the factions are an experiment conducted by the outside world.Jeanine is shot and killed, and Tris is hailed as a hero; at the end of the film, she and Four walk into a crowd of grateful people, ready to explore the world outside the wall. And that's where this month's Allegiant will presumably pick up.

So there you have it, all you need to know before the newest Divergent movie hits theaters. Excited yet?

Images: Lionsgate; Giphy