Abhiroop Das
The third season of Netflix’s ‘Alice in Borderland,’ based on the eponymous manga by Haro Aso, continues the story of Ryohei Arisu, a former gamer who gets a taste of real horrors when he is inexplicably transported to the realm known as the Borderland. Trapped inside with many strangers, Arisu takes part in a string of deadly games in the desperate hopes of making it back to his normal life. With each step in that direction, he gets a clearer look into the forces behind it all, but there are more elements at play. The fate of one of the players, Ryuji Matsuyama, is inextricably tied to his and Usagi’s, and as the story moves into the final round, a silent clash of ideologies takes place between the two forces. In the end, Ryuji is tasked with making an important decision, with his entire life’s work at stake. However, the consequences of his choice affect not only him but also the new bonds he has cultivated as a player. SPOILERS AHEAD.
Ryuji Chooses the World of the Dead at the End of Alice in Borderland Season 3
The third season finale of ‘Alice in Borderland’ brings the characters face-to-face with their worst fears repackaged as potential futures. Although Ryuji is among the survivors of this game, it only confirms the fact that his death is near, as one of the futures he sees shows him killing Usagi, as planned, before taking his own life. Throughout the game, his goal has been to experience and study the afterlife; however, this turn of events tells him that the path towards discovery lies through his own death. But Ryuji refuses to follow the tides of fate and spares Usagi his bullet, rejecting his deal with Banda in the process. Going further, Ryuji saves Usagi’s life during the tsunami, and shortly after, chooses to let go and fall right into the vortex, presumably meeting his end. The sequence works on several levels, bringing back his original decision to end his life, but this time with a hopeful twist to it.
Although we never quite see what happens to Ryuji inside the vortex, the Watchman claims that the path sends one on a journey of eternal peace and nothingness, via death. This completely subverts the psychopathologist’s original intention of seeing the world beyond life and death, bringing a poetic sense of irony to his arc. Back in the real world, Ryuji’s death is explicitly confirmed, as Usagi wakes up in a hospital bed to find his corpse being carried away. While there is a certainty to his death in this world, the same cannot be said about the Borderland. As established prior, this supernatural realm fundamentally breaks the human understanding of the world, and the concept of death, as such, should be no different. Given that Arisu has already shown that it is possible to fight the currents of fate, it is likely that Ryuji is in a realm beyond the ones we have experienced so far.
Kento Kaku Might Not Be Returning For a Fourth Season
With Ryuji seemingly dead in the real world, the chances of actor Kento Kaku reprising his role as the assistant professor are quite slim. Although he becomes one of the most memorable presences in the show over the course of a single season, his character is still bound by the established narrative. To that end, his possible return depends entirely on Ryuji’s true status. On the surface level, the character’s death seems almost certain, but that does not erase the prospects of the actor returning in the form of a flashback sequence or as a vision guiding the protagonist. However, the same has not been true for the other major characters who have met their end over the course of the show, which makes it more likely that Kento Kaku’s time in the show has come to an end.
Although the curtains seem to have closed on Ryuji Matsumoto for now, a lingering plot thread might set up room for his surprise return. This, in turn, also opens the door to the possibility of Kento Kaku making a comeback in the potential fourth season. As the story goes, Ryuji originally had a student who was enthusiastic about exploring the afterlife through near-death experiments. However, when one such simulation went wrong, she tragically lost her life, triggering the events that led up to his present circumstance. Given that both characters are now dead, there exists a distinct possibility of their arcs intersecting once again. With a new game on the horizon, the potential is endless, and Kaku might join the long list of fan-favorites who show up in the show once again, either as Arisu and Usagi’s allies or simply survivors who are leading better lives than before.
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