The series Alice in Borderland officially returned with its second season on December 22, and it has immediately created a global sensation. According to statistics from NetflixGolden, one of the official Twitter accounts of Netflix, Alice in Borderland has become the non-English language series with the highest viewership in its first week of streaming on this platform, garnering over 61 million views.
Alice in Borderland is adapted from the famous manga of the same name by Aso Haro, revolving around the journey of Arisu, a game-obsessed young man, as he explores a dystopian world. Here, he must survive by participating in deadly games that are categorized according to a hierarchy similar to playing cards. The end of season two finally revealed the essence of the “Borderland” world and all the horrific events Arisu had to endure.
However, only a few brief moments in the final seconds suggest that the deadly games in Alice in Borderland have not yet concluded.
What events transpired in the finale of Alice in Borderland season 2?
After Arisu survived the most challenging games, the nature of the “Borderland” world was further revealed. To gain clarity on this, viewers were transported back to the first episode of season one, where Arisu and his friends Chota and Karube were in Shibuya, amidst a festive atmosphere, only to face an impending disaster.
However, that was not fireworks but rather a powerful meteor shower descending upon Japan. This collision caused a catastrophic disaster, leading to immense loss of life. Arisu himself fell into a precarious situation. In the consciousness of a gamer, he inadvertently envisioned the “Borderland” world. Yet, those residing in this world are merely victims of the cruel nature of the games, where survival is the only way to reclaim life after the disaster.
In other words, nearly all the events depicted in the two seasons of Alice in Borderland are manifestations of Arisu’s imagination during his unconscious state on a hospital bed. Just like Arisu, the survivors participating in the final games of Borderland are all seemingly familiar but do not recognize each other, and none of them remembers the events that transpired in the dystopian world that Arisu created.
Borderland appears to be a boundary between life and death, symbolizing Arisu’s inner conflicts as he seeks the will to live. Before the meteor strike, he was just a nameless individual drifting through life, day by day indulging in manga and video games. This ultimately explains why, while in Borderland, Arisu often feels lost and has a tendency to float, as he cannot confidently determine his own actions or how he would change if returned to a normal life.
Season two skillfully integrated many details related to Arisu’s psyche, presented through thrilling games or dialogues from other characters. For instance, “K Tep” Kyuma once remarked to Arisu: “I hope you will soon find the will to live. I wish you would realize the reason for continuing to live is for yourself, not for anyone else.“
Even when the truth of the Borderland is revealed in the final episode, Arisu’s internal narrative becomes clearer and more coherent. However, traversing through deadly games is essentially a journey through his mental struggles and the emotions he has lost, a fortunate survivor amid the tragedy. This has imbued Alice in Borderland with a deeper meaning, elevating the series above many typical survival narratives.
Does the survival game truly come to an end?
The conclusion of Alice in Borderland season 2 left many viewers believing that the series has officially tied up the narrative threads. However, in the closing moments, the camera panned to a playing card resting on a table, revealing a single card that had not yet appeared in previous episodes: the Joker card.
In the manga version, the Joker is a hidden character, depicted as a driver who brings “tourists” to Borderland. This character also briefly appears during Arisu’s victory over death to reclaim life before he falls into a coma. However, the final episode of Alice in Borderland bypassed this detail and replaced it with a Joker card, suggesting that deadly games are far from over.
In reality, there are many details that suggest Netflix would continue to produce another season for this series. First, season two has hinted that the survivors, after all the games have concluded, will be selected to become the new Game Masters in this world and will manage the deadly games in the next cycle.
While the main characters strive to become the successful citizens of Borderland, Sunato Banda and Oki Yaba, who together with Chishiya won the game with the J card, both have shown interest in taking over this new role. This implies that Netflix may continue to explore the series if they decide to produce the next season, with a new ensemble of Game Masters in Borderland.
Secondly, the “final boss” of Borderland has yet to be revealed, and that remains one of the biggest enigmas the series has left behind. After the first season concluded, many viewers speculated that Mira Kano was the one behind the series of bizarre games that Arisu had to fight through. However, in the end, it turned out that she was just a Q card, a significant card but not too different from other cards in the deck.
So who will be the one to control Borderland? At this point, there is a new wave of speculation surrounding the Joker card – a mysterious character who has yet to appear in the two seasons just concluded. Regardless of the outcome, Netflix is set to further expand the narrative of the original work and continue the story in the dystopian world, with even more thrilling and challenging games that are “boss fights.”
Referring back to Mira, we have one more reason to believe that Alice in Borderland has not concluded. As the Q card, Mira acts as the pivotal connection in Arisu’s final moments and is also the most “dangerous” player among all citizens in Borderland. Not as fierce as “K Bich,” nor as calculating as “K Ro,” Mira’s strength lies in her ability to manipulate the psyche, drawing her opponents into a deep psychological trap that can easily lead to confusion.
Before delving deeper into Arisu’s profound emotional state, Mira has often mentioned Borderland. At times, she has suggested that this is a dystopian future for humanity hundreds of years from now, when technology and science have vastly advanced; while at other times, she has merely indicated that Arisu is participating in a game without realizing it. Ultimately, it is her psychological influence that helps him escape from the emotional turmoil following the deaths of his two closest friends.
The question arises whether the meteor strike is real or merely a manifestation of Mira’s psychological manipulation? Or is it just a dimension of psychological gameplay that Mira has conjured? What would happen if Arisu remains trapped in the Q game, unable to achieve victory as he imagines? And it’s uncertain whether his experiences in the hospital were merely a fleeting dream or a different reality where he has yet to escape, similar to the dream bomb in Christopher Nolan’s Inception.
In summary, Netflix has delivered a fairly complete ending for Alice in Borderland, but it has not forgotten to leave an opening for the next season. Observing from a broader perspective, this series has traversed many compelling narrative arcs from the original work that could easily be adapted for a film adaptation, including the sequel Alice in Borderland Retry, where Arisu again finds himself trapped in this peculiar world.
Source: Netflix, Inverse
