Content warning: this article contains spoilers and mentions of suicide.

The season three finale of HBO’s hit series “The White Lotus” aired on April 6, complete with the answers and character development viewers were looking for. While this season was set on a remote island in Thailand, it featured a surprising connection to Durham, N.C.

The show follows a peculiar mix of wealthy vacationers staying at the luxury White Lotus Resort & Spa. And one group, the Ratliffs, is a family of Durhamites.

The Ratliff family represents the iconic UNC-Duke rivalry and Durham’s Southern culture. At first, a playful and flattering incorporation of Duke and Durham into the series, the progression of the show’s depiction of Duke became controversial. 

The Ratliffs are a family of five: Timothy, a rich Durham businessman and Duke University graduate; Victoria, Timothy’s highbrow wife with an over-exaggerated Southern accent; Saxon, a recent graduate of Duke now employed by his father; Piper, a UNC senior who wanted to go to Thailand for a thesis that doesn’t exist; and Lochlan, the highschool senior torn between attending Duke or UNC. 

While vacationing, Timothy receives news that he will go to jail for money laundering upon returning to Durham. After hearing this information, Timothy steals a gun from the White Lotus security guard that he brings back to his family’s villa. 

Viewers watch Timothy struggle with thoughts of suicide or even killing members of his family with the gun. In many of these scenes, he wears a gray t-shirt with big blue letters reading “DUKE.”

Screenshots of a photo of actor Jason Isaacs, who plays Timothy, holding a gun to his head wearing a Duke shirt have gone viral online. On April 5, after Duke’s March Madness Final Four loss to Houston, the Instagram account @barstoolbdevils, which has almost 30,000 followers, posted the photo. 

Prior to this, Duke University did not seem to take issue with The White Lotus’ use of their school’s name and brand. Mark Anthony Neal, a professor of Black popular culture at Duke, said he thought most students were probably oblivious to it at first. 

“In some ways, it’s a badge of honor. I think there’s some Duke students who probably reflected upon it that way. I think it was more of concern amongst the leadership of the university because they were concerned about what damage the depiction would do to their brand,” Neal said. 

In an emailed statement, Frank Tramble, Duke’s vice president for communications, said the university did not support the inclusion of its brand into the series. Despite Duke’s disapproval of the series’ portrayal of the university, Isaacs wore a Duke shirt to the premiere of the “The White Lotus” season finale. 

“Duke appreciates artistic expression and creative storytelling, but characters prominently wearing apparel bearing Duke’s federally registered trademarks create confusion and mistakenly suggest an endorsement or affiliation where none exists,” Tramble said in the statement. 

Duke took issue with “The White Lotus” associating its brand with suicidal thoughts, an issue that was heightened during the peak of Duke’s run in March Madness. According to Warner Bros. Discovery, the season finale, which pictures Timothy Ratliff attempting to kill his family with poisonous piña coladas, gathered 6.2 million U.S. viewers. 

“”The White Lotus” not only uses our brand without permission, but in our view uses it on imagery that is troubling, does not reflect our values or who we are, and simply goes too far,” Tramble said in the statement. “Suicide is the second-leading cause of death on college campuses. As imagery from the show is being shared widely across social media, we are using our brand to promote mental health awareness and remind people that help is available.”

According to Jennifer Jenkins, a clinical professor of law at Duke, “The White Lotus” is legally allowed to use the Duke brand without Duke’s permission as long as it doesn’t imply university endorsement. 

Jenkins said trademark law permits expressive use in media, , such as in TV shows, on three conditions: that the use “has some artistic relevance to the new work,” that it “does not explicitly mislead as to the source of the works” and that it “is not used as a brand identifier”. 

“The policy underlying this rule is that trademark law should only apply to artistic works when the public interest in avoiding consumer confusion outweighs the public interest in free expression,” Jenkins said.  “When a TV show depicts a character who is a Duke grad wearing a Duke shirt, this satisfies all of these criteria.” 

Duke has not taken legal action against HBO and likely cannot unless it can prove that the use of its’ brand in “The White Lotus” appears to be supported by the university. Jenkins said that public and university reactions prove that no such perception exists  and “The White Lotus” was simply exercising its right to free expression.