The Real Meaning Of Netflix's Apple Cider Vinegar Show Is Right In The Title
The title's explanation secretly says it all.
Warning: this article contains spoilers for Apple Cider Vinegar.
Netflix's miniseries, Apple Cider Vinegar, tells the unbelievable "true-ish" story of Belle Gibson. Belle Gibson is a real-life influencer in Australia who fell from grace during the first half of the 2010s after it was revealed that she had been faking her cancer diagnosis to gain attention. The series also fictionalizes parts of the story by adding different characters and events or changing the names of those involved. However, many of Apple Cider Vinegar's seemingly dramatized moments actually happened, making the story that much more unusual and tragic.
While the story alternates across different times in Belle's career, Apple Cider Vinegar's ending sees Belle finally get exposed for her fraud, and it brings attention to the people that she has harmed. Especially for the show's fictional characters, like Lucy or Hek, Belle Gibson's story and beliefs mean something, and her eventual exposure forces them to come to terms with reality. In this sense, there is also a deeper meaning to the story that is revealed in the final episode, and it actually relates to the title itself.
He Relates How She Drank Apple Cider Vinegar Hoping It Would Cure Her
After being fired, Hek, Belle's crisis manager, decides to finally face his own struggles, and attends an AA meeting at the beginning of Apple Cider Vinegar's final episode. He introduces himself to the group and decides to tell a story about his former client, Belle. Hek relates how Belle got ringworm and believed that she could cure herself by drinking apple cider vinegar. After chugging the apple cider vinegar, Hek says that Belle told him she puked up a worm, confusing ringworm with a tapeworm. Medically, this makes no sense, since ringworm is a fungus, not an actual worm.
Though drinking apple cider vinegar for ringworm would have no efficacy, medically speaking, it served as a sort of placebo for Belle.
While the people in Hek's meeting laugh, knowing that apple cider vinegar does, indeed, not treat ringworm, his point was that Belle Gibson believed it did. Though drinking apple cider vinegar for ringworm would have no efficacy, medically speaking, it served as a sort of placebo for Belle. Just like many of her other lies throughout the series, Belle Gibson was unable to distinguish between the real and the fake in that situation. Thus, the final episode reveal explains where the title comes from, but it also points to the deeper meaning of the series as a whole.
Hek Knows That Belle's Belief In The Apple Cider Vinegar Is More Important To Her Than Whether It Actually Works
In telling this story to his group, Hek obviously knows that Belle is lying, but he remarks on how having a simple solution to life's problems like that would be nice. Despite not understanding any medical information or even knowing the difference between ringworm and tapeworm, Belle felt relief from drinking the apple cider vinegar. Especially considering that many of Apple Cider Vinegar's characters faced ongoing health concerns like cancer or substance abuse in Hek's case, Belle Gibson's method of dealing with problems through sheer belief seemed satisfying.
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Understandably, it would make life's difficulties much simpler if they could be dealt with so quickly and completely, showing that the real meaning of the show and its title is the desire for an easy solution. The story also gives insight into Belle's state of mind and personality. As was enforced throughout the series, Belle wanted to move through life easily and avoid the problems that other people faced by creating her own, fictional, version of the truth. In the end, knowing how this story relates to Apple Cider Vinegar's real message makes the show that much more interesting.
Your RatingApple Cider Vinegar
Release Date
2025 - 2024
Network
Netflix
Directors
Jeffrey Walker
Writers
Samantha Strauss