Dhruv Trivedi
‘Brand New Cherry Flavor’ takes viewers down a surreal rabbit hole of witches, kittens, and drug-induced dark magic, which are all part of a jilted young director named Lisa Nova’s plot for revenge. There are ancient forces at play, and at the center of it all lies a mysterious and powerful entity that slowly reveals itself in the form of a couch! What is the White Jaguar, and what is its story? Let’s dive in.
What is the White Jaguar?
The White Jaguar is first mentioned by Boro— the witch that drags (a willing) Lisa into the dangerous and surreal occult mire. According to Boro, the White Jaguar is an ancient magical spirit animal that gave Boro her powers hundreds of years ago. As the story goes, Boro was a man 900 years ago and had a sexual encounter with the White Jaguar that gave her (Boro) a small amount of the ancient creature’s magical powers. Boro then became ruler of a kingdom but once again needed the help of the Jaguar when enemies attacked. For all the assistance the Jaguar gave Boro, it demanded a sacrifice in the form of Boro’s lovely young wife. Boro couldn’t bear to part with her and tried to trick the White Jaguar by offering up another woman in the guise of his wife.
This started the centuries-long rivalry between the two, and the ancient spirit animal has since been chasing Boro to exact revenge for the betrayal. At some point, the White Jaguar was killed (by the Spanish, hinting at the magical creature’s South American Shamanic connection) and has since, according to Boro, been turned into a couch. Sure enough, we see a couch upholstered with what looks like the skin of a white jaguar in Lisa’s surreal basement, which Boro condescendingly talks to. The White Jaguar also shows up repeatedly as the creature stalking Lisa, and in the final episode, assaults Boro, leaving her with a bloody face. Though not stated, it also seems like the White Jaguar is female.
There also seems to be a deep connection between the faceless entity revealed to be Lisa’s mother and the White Jaguar. During her “poisoned frog ceremony,” when the hallucinating heroine finds herself facing the entity said to be her mother, it is seen sitting on the White Jaguar couch. It almost seems as if Lisa’s mother and the White Jaguar are of the same lineage, which means that deep inside, Lisa too channels the White Jaguar’s powers. This would explain why the kittens she regurgitates are pure white while all of Boro’s other cats are dark in color. The witch’s keenness in consuming Lisa’s kittens’ blood would make sense, as the occult magician would want to consume more from the lineage that originally gave her her powers 900 years ago.
Lastly, when Lisa kills James offscreen, we hear growling sounds, and the young director seemingly rips her would-be assassin’s throat out and eats it. Though not discussed, this also seems to hint that Lisa herself is part of the White Jaguar’s lineage. This also connects to why, under the effects of Peyote, Mary saw the same entity inside Lisa that is eventually revealed to be a representation of the spirit animal. Since this happens before Lisa ever meets Boro, it looks like our heroine has been channeling the powerful and mysterious entity of the White Jaguar all her life. Therefore, leaving LA and going back to Brazil is likely not going to change much, and Lisa might come face to face with the occult forces inside her before long.
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