The White Lotus Season 3 characters have all been on such intense journeys, that sometimes it’s easy to forget none of this happened by accident. The signs were there for a while, in some cases from the very first episode.
Case in point? The Ratliff family and the poisonous fruit of the pong-pong tree, which plays an (almost) devastating role in the series’ finale. The thing is, though, the so-called “suicide tree” didn’t come out of nowhere. The clue was there in episode 1.
What happens in The White Lotus Season 3, episode 1?
Shortly after we’re first introduced to the Ratliffs, hotel worker and “health butler” Pam (Morgana O’Reilly) gives them a tour of their villa. A bored Saxon (Patrick Schwarzenegger), irritated at the hotel ban on phones in public spaces, wanders off and picks up a green piece of fruit from the ground.
“What am I supposed to do here all week without my phone?” he pouts. “Eat a bunch of fruit?”
“We do have a lot of amazing fruit here, but I wouldn’t eat that,” responds Pam. “That is the fruit of the mighty pong-pong tree, and the seeds of the fruit are toxic.”
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“Yeah? Could it kill you?”
“Yeah it could, actually. It’s very poisonous.”
The fruit doesn’t come up again until the finale, but it’s a great example of showrunner Mike White giving us a very early hint to the conclusion of the Ratliff family’s arc.
The other hint at the future, that comes when they’re deciding who’s going to share a room with who? Saxon saying that Lochlan (Sam Nivola) can’t share with his sister Piper (Sarah Catherine Hook) because “that’d be weird.” Oh dear.
The White Lotus Season 3 is streaming now on Max.
