Abhiroop Das
Helmed by Shinsuke Sato, Netflix’s ‘Alice in Borderland‘ tells the story of Ryohei Arisu, who finds himself inexplicably trapped in a parallel reality with a group of strangers. The only way out of this realm is by playing and winning cruel death games, and the participants leave no stone unturned in ensuring their victory, even if it means bringing harm to others. Arisu finds his soulmate, Yusuha Usagi, in the middle of this battle royale, and together they pass every hurdle and secure their path towards victory. The second season of this science fiction thriller ends with all surviving players being given the chance to either exit the space or become a permanent citizen, capable of playing with the very fabric of this new reality. While the protagonist chooses the former, his dynamic with the supernatural still has many more layers left to unpack. SPOILERS AHEAD.
Alice in Borderland Season 3 Plot Recap
Following the events of season 2, the story opens with Arisu and Usagi leading a normal, happy life as married couples. While they do not have any memories of the game they took part in a few years ago, the duo, along with many of the survivors, vaguely remember going on a journey, along with other vivid images from their time in that realm. This peculiarity is recorded by Professor Ryuji Matsuayama, a gifted psychopathologist with an interest in near-death experiences. Upon meeting Usagi, however, he instantly decides to make her his new target. This decision is not entirely his own, as a mysterious death game introduces him to Banda, one of the game’s survivors who chose to stay behind in the Borderland as a permanent resident. Banda is desperate to make his life more entertaining, and that means beginning another game, with several of the players being veterans of this world.
While talking to Ryuji, Usagi explains that she sees strange visions of her deceased father, which prompts her to enter Borderland as well, in the hopes of locating him. When Ryuji learns of this, he takes the help of Ann, a former player who remembers everything from her past. She explains that it takes two minutes for a person to die after their heart stops beating, and the entirety of the Borderland can be experienced in that time frame. Determined to save his wife, Arisu agrees that his heart will be stopped as a trigger for his reentry. Once there, he finds himself amidst unfamiliar faces, with the first round beginning shortly after. The theme is fortune telling, and each participant has to solve a logic and arithmetic puzzle or risk instant death by a fire arrow. Though the team makes many errors, they eventually survive due to Arisu’s quick thinking.
From there, Arisu leads his team through a number of challenges, each designed specifically to target the group’s weaknesses. Although the numbers keep thinning, the bond between the survivors continues to grow stronger. Elsewhere, Usagi, along with Ryuji, leads a group of her own and makes it to the final round, where she comes to meet Arisu once again. As the couple reunites, the final round is announced, with Usagi’s unborn child being registered as a player as well. The game takes the form of a complex maze, which shows everyone their possible futures. Ryuji is secretly tasked with finishing off Usagi in an attempt to bring out Arisu’s full potential, but with each round, the psychopathologist questions his own values. The brutal round takes many casualties, but ultimately, Arisu and Usagi manage to win the game with most of the participants still alive. However, the game is not quite finished, and a bonus round flips everything on its head yet again.
Alice in Borderland Season 3 Ending: Does Arisu Save Usagi? Do They Make it Out of the Game?
From the moment the game begins, Arisu only has a singular goal in mind: to bring Usagi back from the claws of death. Wth only two minutes between the stopping of their hearts and permanent death, the protagonist has to make the best use of this liminal space, even if it means sacrificing himself. To that end, Arisu chooses to remain in the game at the end of the final round, letting his wife walk free. However, that doesn’t quite translate to her being rescued, as the world outside is revealed to be yet another part of the simulation, and massive earthquakes and tsunamis threaten to destroy everything Arisu has worked towards. When Usagi gets swept away by the waves, he breaks out of the trap and leaps into the waters, determined to find her. Although a number of hurdles mar the path towards victory, Arisu and Usagi eventually unite and survive the torrents.
The environmental disaster marks the end of the Borderland games, and with that, both Arisu and Usagi make it back to the real world, where only two minutes have passed since their hearts stopped working. While Arisu wakes up at Ann’s quarters, Usagi regains her heartbeat at the hospital, and the two reunite soon after. Although the bulk of the final showdown occurs in the supernatural realm, Banda also tries to settle the deal in the real world by choking Arisu to death. This scene syncs up with the protagonist nearly drowning inside the game, indicating that one’s physical conditions can be affected between these two spaces. This also estabilishes a psychological link between the two planes of reality, as exemplified by Ann, who not only saves Arisu’s physical body, but also gives him the final push to save Usagi.
In the buildup to Arisu and Usagi’s victory, we learn that the world is split into two topographically distinct halves. While one end marks the path towards freedom, the other ensures death. This contrast is crystallized by a gigantic vortex that swallows everything in sight. Although Arisu has a clear shot at making it to the other end, he changes his mind upon discovering Usagi nearly at the cusp of that gaping hole. His decision to jump in is described as amusing by the watchman, as it speaks to the protagonist’s ability to bend fate to his will. This is confirmed when Arisu bridges the two halves by simultaneously saving Usagi from the vortex and bringing her to the other end, towards light. With this rebellion against the entity pulling the strings from behind, he not only protects his partner but also their unborn child.
Does Ryuji Live or Die?
While Arisu and Usagi make it out of the game alive, it comes at the cost of bidding goodbye to their foremost ally, Ryuji. While the psychopathologist enters the game with selfish reasons of his own, in the final moments, he chooses to relinquish them in order to save Usagi’s life. With certain death awaiting him at the end of the vortex, he uses the final ounce of his strength to bring Usagi to safety before letting go and joining the current. Ryuji’s decision has its roots in his past mistakes, which began with his decision to experiment fatally on one of his students. With a lifelong fascination with life after death, the professor has relied on near-death experiences as the pillar of his research. However, he makes a habit of never doing it himself due to the fear of losing his life. To that end, both his former student and Usagi serve as a vessel to further his selfish interest, and by choosing to let the latter live, he steps towards redemption.
Death and the world beyond serve as the thematic anchor to Ryuji’s character, and given his obsession with getting to the core of his phenomenon, there is a potential for Ryuji to make his way to a different supernatural realm. Notably, his own future projections show that the act of killing Usagi is followed by his taking his own life. The revelation, coupled with Banda’s promise of showing him life after death, suggests that the only way Ryuji can discover the truth is by taking a leap of faith. This adds a new spin to his self-sacrifice, as he also gets over the fear of death itself. Although we are not given a glimpse into what becomes of him inside the vortex, the possibility of the character having to offer more cannot be ruled out. In the real world, however, Ryuji dies for certain, as depicted by the doctors covering his face, a universal indicator of passing away.
Does Usagi Find Her Father? Who is the Joker?
Usagi’s return to the game is governed by her desire to reunite with her father, who mysteriously died years ago. A series of dreams tells her that he might be trapped in the Borderland, and the only way to interact is to enter and play by its rules. In the end, Usagi survives the tsunami and climbs up a rock with Arisu, only to find her father at the top. Whether he is really Tsunami or an imaginary construct remains ambiguous, but the scene nonetheless fulfills its true purpose, giving the father-daughter dynamic a sense of closure. The deuteragonist’s father, who is deemed a cheat in the present, turns out to be a warm and affectionate figure who fondly remembers his daughter’s childhood. While we are not told the exact circumstances that led him to the game, he realizes that it is not somewhere one can be happy. To that end, he steers Usagi back to a life in the real world, advising her to strengthen her bond with the people she loves, most notably Arisu.
Notably, the true nature of this world and the games that take place in it firmly remain in the dark, even by the end of the season finale. However, the introduction of the Joker, as both a card mechanism and the mastermind behind this entire saga, leads to a new dimension to this mystery. Right when the Tsunami hits its peak, Arisu comes face-to-face with an enigmatic figure who has the ability to unfreeze the elements of the game at will. Initially, Usagi believes him to be the Joker, but the man, who identifies as a watchman, quickly corrects him. Instead, he describes the Joker as an entity akin to God, toying with everyone’s lives and ultimate fates. Although the Joker card appears to be a way of breaking free from fate, granting the users the ability to sift in and out of the two worlds, Arisu’s encounter confirms that the only way to truly defeat the Joker is through sheer force of will, the one thing outside of its understanding.
Who is Alice? Is a New Game Starting?
With the game behind them, Arisu and Usagi return to their normal lives, eager to start a family. Although the protagonist leads a healthy life, regularly conversing with his fellow survivors who have no recollection of the game, minor fissures in the narrative hint at something bigger coming. This comes to Arisu’s notice as well, with the most glaring symbol being the recurring earthquakes simultaneously taking place all around the world. With this, the scene shifts to the United States, where the final reveal of the season takes place in a cafe. The nameplate of a server, whose face remains out of sight, reads Alice, signaling that the main player of the game is about to make their grand entry. As the story is largely inspired by the original children’s novel, ‘Alice in Wonderland’ and its sequels, a direct connection can be made between the protagonist of that story and this new character, further opening up the show’s creative potential.
With a new wave of games on the cusp of becoming reality, Arisu and Usagi are bound to find their lives turned upside-down once again. Notably, the scope of the earthquakes extending beyond Japan suggests that the entire world might become a part of the next stage. This idea is also substantiated by the watchman claim that many new souls will make their way to the purgatorial realm in the near future, which suggests that the next games might be more challenging than ever before. Given that the Joker and its representatives remain undefeated by the end of the season, one can expect many familiar antagonistic faces to return. Conversely, with the entire world now at risk, a number of veteran players might take on the responsibility once again, this time targeting the very source of this phenomenon.
Read More: Shows Like Alice in Borderland
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