Is the Suicide Tree Fruit in ‘The White Lotus’ Real? Inside the Details

Spoiler alert: This article contains spoilers for the Season 3 finale of The White Lotus.

Fans are still processing the jaw-dropping finale of the popular HBO series The White Lotus. Lives were tragically lost, friendships were strengthened, and cash windfalls were realized — but one of the most shocking elements of the finale involved a deadly fruit.

Now in its third season, The White Lotus continues to be one of television’s most celebrated shows, both critically and by die-hard fans who can’t get enough of the changing cast of characters and locations for each highly anticipated season at a luxury resort.

So, is the suicide tree fruit from The White Lotus real?

Hollywood often creates fictional things to further a narrative in television and movies, but the pong pong tree, also known as the suicide tree, is completely (and frighteningly) real.

The lore attached to the pong pong tree is well known throughout Southeast Asia, as the tree has been the source of thousands of deaths that have earned the tree its deadly nickname.

Part of the dogbane family, the pong pong tree is made up of flowering plants that produce poisons, according to National Geographic. In addition to Southeast Asia, it is also found in the Pacific Islands and northern Australia.

The active poison in the flowering plants of the tree is cerberin, which is mostly concentrated in the seeds of the fruit on the pong pong tree, per the outlet. While even a small dose of the poison can be fatal, some who have ingested it have recovered.

“Like with any poison, it depends on the person — their age, their sex, their size, and whether they've got any existing illnesses,” said Hilary Hamnett, an associate professor in forensic science at the University of Lincoln, per National Geographic.

If you have been watching this season, then you’re well aware of the ongoing and intense struggle that the Ratliff family patriarch, Tim, has been going through, knowing that complete financial ruin awaits him back home due to shady business dealings. As such, he has spent the entire season thinking of ways to kill himself and his family so that they don’t know the horrors of no longer being wealthy.

In the season finale (and after his attempts with a gun were unsuccessful), Tim decides that the best way to kill his family, except for young Lochlan who admitted that he could live without the family’s extreme wealth, is by poisoning them by grinding up seeds of the pong pong tree fruit into a round of homemade piña coladas.

As the four Ratliffs (Tim, Victoria, Saxon, and Piper) take hesitant small sips of the drink, noting that it smells and tastes weird, Tim has a last-minute change of heart and slaps the poisoned drinks out of their hands, proclaiming, “The coconut milk is off!”

However, the following morning, residue from the pong pong seeds remains in the blender, and young Lochlan unknowingly makes a smoothie with it, passing out by the pool where it appears that he died due to his father’s deadly plan. But alas, he comes to a short time later, and the Ratliffs leave Thailand in one piece, but their darkest days await them at home, as Tim forewarns that “things are about to change.”