Though it should go without saying, especially considering the fact that I already warned you earlier this morning, this article, and others like it, do indeed boast no shortage of SPOILERS regarding the final episode of The White Lotus’ third season. This season, Mike White and company plopped viewers down in Thailand, where we were given an exploration of fate, privilege and a tragedy-transcending love story, with franchise newcomers and familiar faces alike turning in some truly inspired performances.
As the critical consensus for the latest chapter in White’s ongoing HBO blockbuster started to take shape the morning after, so too did a revisiting of a pivotal variety of fruit that, as many viewers had theorized leading into the finale, proved instrumental in the events of Season 3 closer “Amor Fati.” While the Ratliff family ultimately escaped the season with nary a death to their name, they came perilously close to meeting a very different fate after Tim, played by Jason Isaacs, prepared poisoned piña coladas for everyone (sans young Lochlan) in commemoration of their final night on vacation.
Tim, as viewers know, spent the bulk of the season in a suicidal state in response to news of money laundering allegations that threatened to bankrupt the family once they returned to the States. While a gun was initially presented as Tim’s possible way out, what ended up (nearly) transpiring was his blender-enabled use of seeds from a so-called “suicide tree” on the resort property.
Below, we take a closer look at the real-world facts of this tree, as well as the truth about what would happen should a person actually ingest a signature Ratliff piña colada.
What happened in The White Lotus Season 3 finale?
In short, Tim damn near offed his entire family, save for Lochlan, by serving up a blended concoction of poison. A last-minute change of heart, however, saw the character thinking better of his urges, though any sense of peace was short-lived when he awoke to find that Lochlan had incidentally ingested the poison, leading to a near-death experience that ended up defining the Ratliff family’s time in Thailand and reinvigorating Tim’s sense of purpose.
Are The White Lotus suicide trees real?
Very much so. Cerbera odollam, morę commonly referred to as “the pong-pong tree” or “suicide tree,” is unlikely to be found here in the States. Per a recent WebMD breakdown, the tree is native to India and Singapore and is mostly known for its use as a source of shade and for decorative purposes.
What does the poisonous fruit from The White Lotus do to the body?
While the fruit the tree bears may appear harmless on first glance, the truth is it is anything but. Merely touching the fruit won’t kill you, but ingesting its seeds—as depicted on The White Lotus—boasts a high chance of leading to exactly that. As outlined in a National Library of Medicine-published case report circa 2018, ingesting the seeds “causes disrupted cardiac electrical activity leading to fatal dysrhythmias.” Put another way, eating the seeds causes a potentially fatal reaction in the heart.
Have people actually died from eating the poisonous fruit seen in The White Lotus?
Yes. The aforementioned case study pointed to “hundreds of deaths worldwide,” while an older study cited data showing that the tree was responsible for roughly half of plant poisoning cases in the Kerala, India region. That number is said to jump into the thousands when taking into account Cerbera venenifera, considered a “related species” in Madagascar.
Check out Complex's list of The Best TV Shows to Watch on HBO Max Right Now and see where The White Lotus ranks on our list of The Top 20 HBO Shows Of All Time, Ranked.