“Alice in Borderland” is a Netflix original thriller, initially released on Dec. 10, 2020. The series features a supernatural world, referred to as the borderlands, which is the dimension between life and death. Time in the borderlands are worth a lot more than in the real world. Season two, released on Dec. 22, 2022, ends with all the characters winning the games, which involve thrilling face card challenges in which losing them meant death. The characters that did make it out of the borderlands also forgot everything that occurred during that time period.

Season three of “Alice in Borderland” was released on Sept. 25, 2025. It starred the two main characters from the previous seasons, Ryohei Arisu and Yuzuha Usagi. At the start of episode one, both Arisu and Usagi had been interviewed by psychologists who were conducting a study of their time in a coma. The most frequently depicted psychologist was Ryuji Matsuyama; he is a psychology professor and is convinced that there is a land between life and death. In his studies, he recognizes that some people have experienced games during a near death situation. For instance, in season one, episode one, the people of Tokyo were struck by an asteroid.

Matsuyama, the next day, was exploring the main office when one day there were signs with arrows for directions, similar to the ones seen in the three of clubs game: “Dead or Alive.” The arrows lead him to a large room. Within the room, there were seven people just like him and a table. An anonymous man in a suit instructed the seven others to sit on one of the seven available chairs. Even Matsuyama, who was in a wheelchair, was required to sit on one of the chairs, which meant leaving his wheelchair so the man could proceed. After everyone sat, the man revealed that the seven of them would be playing Old Maid. To play this game, the player is given several cards each and for one to win, they need to have the joker card as their last card in their hand. The moment they start the game, they must discard any number pairs in their hands. A player takes a card from the pile of cards from the hand of the person to their right, the game rotates counter-clockwise. If the card the player pulls out from the other’s hand is a joker, they lose. The consequence of losing is death by electrocution. All the chairs are strapped with an electrical device within them. Matsuyama ends up winning the game. There are no strategies in this game that can give one the advantage to win; however, in the very end Matsuyama is seen using reverse psychology to win, as he had the joker in his hand and he needed to have it to win. After Matsuyama’s victory, the lights began flickering and Matsuyama got transported to the borderlands and the anonymous man became Sunato Banda, one of the supernatural beings that works for the borderlands.

Soon after, Usagi also enters the borderlands after having flashbacks of the ten of hearts game: “Witch Hunt.” She had flashbacks of people being shot in the same hotel, that was the last scene Usagi was shown in the real world, she gets transported to the borderlands after this. For Arisu, the moment he saw Usagi completely unconscious, Arisu knew that he needed to be in the same unconscious state so he could save her. Rizuna Ann, who had already participated in the games in previous seasons, provided Arisu with a drug so he could go to the borderlands by causing him to go into a coma. Ann also explained that Arisu had two minutes in the real world to get Usagi and make it out; if he took more than two minutes, he was guaranteed to die. Ann also explains that two minutes is enough to fight a war in the borderlands. This season was able to explain what truly happens when players are in the borderlands: in earlier seasons, they simply ended up in the borderlands, with no true explanation. 

Arisu’s first game was “Sacred Fortune,” the sacred fortune being the fortune slip being drawn out by one of many cubbies which is selected at random. The game itself took place in a shrine. He could not locate Usagi in this game, but he did meet characters that would end up playing a great role in the rest of the season, some being Nobuaki Hida and Tetsu Shimazaki. The game was simple, one drawed a fortune slip and answered the question on it. However, the questions ended up being outrageous, some making no sense at all.

The consequence of getting an incorrect answer was fire arrows. The arrows came down rapidly from the sky; however, the fortune slip also informed the players where the arrows were going to be coming from, so with enough attention, players were able to avoid the arrows. Arisu took the last fortune slip. The question was “What is the world population in billions?” There were 10 million fire arrows on the line if Arisu were to get the last question of the game wrong. Arisu’s guess was 7.9 billion, which ended up being incorrect. However, Arisu found a way to save himself and plenty of other players by locating an underground pathway within the shrine as the arrows were approaching.

Arisu left with the other eight survivors and went directly to the next game, “Zombie Hunt.” This game was split up into four groups of 16, therefore being 64 total players. The game was simple but strategic. All the players start with seven cards with numbers varying from numbers one to ten. There also is a zombie card, a shotgun card and a vaccine card. There are four people who have the zombie card at the very start of the game. The win condition is to be on the side with the most people, that being either zombie or human. Zombies can turn humans into other zombies by tapping them to challenge them in a game of cards, however, humans can use the shotgun or vaccine card. The shotgun card kills the zombie, therefore killing off the player entirely, or if they are interested in a friendlier approach, they can use the vaccine card to cure the zombie, removing the zombie card from their deck of cards. Every player is given a shotgun card at the start of the game. Vaccine cards are extremely limited. The winners ended up being the zombies, since they spread faster than the shotguns could kill them. No vaccine cards were used throughout the game.

The next game, “Rhythm,” takes place in an underground tunnel system. This game is played by Usagi, Matsuyama and many other unnamed background characters. The game is about having a rhythm: participants are required to dodge lasers coming at them at a rapid rate. If the laser touches the person, it kills them; the goal of the game is to reach the other end of the tunnel without coming in contact with the laser.

From “Zombie Hunt” to “Rhythm”, the thrill level increases exeedingly. Matsuyama, while on his wheelchair, was able to navigate through all the lasers and beat the game. His strategy consisted in pulling people to give his wheelchair a boost, which would also result in the death of the people he pulled. Both Usagi and Matsuyama survived the laser game, all other surviving players were left aside, not to be seen again.

The next game was “Runaway Train,” where both Arisu and Usagi would play and see each other for the first time in the borderlands. The objective of the game was to go through eight different rooms with a gas mask and five canisters of clean oxygen. Four out of the eight rooms would fill up with poisonous gas at random, there wasn’t a pattern nor there were clues; there was minimal room for mistakes. Their goal was to guess if the room was going to dispense poisonous gas or not, if they breathe in the gas directly, they will die. After the eight rooms, the remaining players were required to stop the train before it hit a wall. Usagi and Matsuyama’s first bet was to use the canisters in the first round, however, there wasn’t poisonous gas in the first room, so they had wasted an oxygen canister. 

When they got to room six and used yet another canister in a room without poisonous gas, they realized that everyone in the train would potentially die since there were not enough canisters to survive the last two, which should both have poisonous gas. Their solution was to jump from their moving train to the other, which had no survivors, but the train didn’t have any upcoming rounds; therefore, if they’d make the jump, they’d win. Matsuyama managed to leap across using Usagi’s help, but left his wheelchair behind. Others were able to make the jump as well, but the ones who didn’t jump from one train to the other wouldn’t make it since they didn’t have enough canisters. After they jumped, another train passed by, which was Arisu’s train. Arisu and Usagi made eye contact, but then the trains separated once more. Then the scene shifted to Arisu’s perspective, Shimazaki claims that Usagi was with another man, to which a woman tells him to cut it out. To Arisu’s relief, Usagi was alive.

The “Runaway Train” game is highly similar to the two of hearts game featured in the “Alice in Borderland” manga, played by Saori Shibuki, who was seen in the first 3 episodes of season one. The game is also brought up in the first episode of the first season of the series, but is never actually depicted. The only major difference in the games was that in the two of hearts game, players were allowed to steal other’s oxygen canisters. This is different from the series, since the series clearly depicts that they are not allowed to take others’ canisters.

In the next game, Usagi and Arisu had to play separately from each other once more. Arisu and his group play “Kick the Can,” which requires players to find a bomb shaped can within a building and return it to the playing area on the ground floor within one minute. There are 10 rounds; therefore, the most people that can survive is 10. There are also additional factors to consider in this game. For instance, some escalators in the building have been blocked off entirely, and if the bomb undergoes any form of impact, it explodes. Out of the ten potential survivors, only five of them actually survived. Those being Arisu, Hida, Rei Morikage, Sachiko Makino and Shimazaki.

While Arisu played “Kick the Can,” Usagi and Matsuyama’s game was “Tokyo Bingo Tower.” The winning condition of this game was to find and press buttons with numbers on them, when they form a bingo, they win. Additionally, when a button is pressed, several metal balls fall from the sky. Also, a “free” space is placed on the center of the board but it will require someone pressing a button on top of Tokyo Tower.

The only survivors of this game were Usagi, Matsuyama, Sohta Itsuki and Yuna Itsuki.

That left nine people in the entire borderlands to the final game, “Future Sugoroku.” At the very beginning of the game, the players are provided a collar and a bracelet, which they were required to wear. This game is based on strategy and sacrifices. Players are told to roll dice, one green, one blue, one yellow and one red. Each of these dice corresponds to the door with the selected color. The number rolled is the number of people who are allowed in the room at once, if the sum of all the dice is less than the amount of people in the room, someone will need to stay behind and the room will go into a locked state in which the room creates artificially generated images of the players inside the locked room, the goal of this was to make the person inside hopeless of making it out. To unlock the person within this room, two people who are on opposite sides of the locked room need to sacrifice their turns. Additionally, each room comes with a cost, all players start with 15 points. Unlocking a door costs one point, and after everyone had entered a room, someone needs to pay an additional cost of being inside the room, which is unknown until after everyone is in the room.Players can keep track of their points by checking their digital bracelets. If a player reaches zero points, the player’s collar bursts, killing the player. This game is also where Usagi finds out she is pregnant since the game provides an extra bracelet for the fetus, so Usagi had 30 total points.

The sole purpose of the game is to try to show that humans are selfish, yet the results prove otherwise. Each wall in the room corresponds to the door of its color. The walls create images of how the person is going to end up in the future, however, it is not ever guaranteed to actually predict their future. Their goal is to find the exit within a five by five grid, therefore meaning that in one of 25 rooms, which is not revealed. A lot of teamwork is needed, players are able to communicate with each other, even if they are in different rooms, they communicate using their bracelet.

Both Itsuki and Shimazaki died by running out of points. In the last room, in which the exit is revealed, they must roll the dice to see the amount of people that can go through the door. When they roll the dice, it is shown that one person had to stay behind, and this had to be Arisu since in one of the future predictions, it depicted him staying behind, right in front of the exit and dying. So Arisu kept his word and knew it had to be done.

When Usagi, Matsuyama, Sachiko, Morikage, Hida and Itsuki left the room, the screens on the room showed them on the outside of the games. Then Matsuyama pulls out a weapon from his pocket since Banda had told him that if he killed Usagi after the last game, he would answer all his questions he may have about the borderlands. Arisu, seeing this, was yelling from inside the room, seeing Usagi crying because she had thought Arisu was already dead and now a weapon is being pointed at her. Arisu could not warn her, the room Arisu was locked in was sound-proof. Then, the screens within the room change to Banda talking directly to Arisu, one on one. Banda offers Arisu a permanent residency, which Arisu rejects. As a result, Banda starts a tsunami throughout the entirety of the borderlands. Many buildings start crashing down. Arisu builds the strength to open the door which leads to the outside. Matsuyama had already put the weapon away, since he remembered one of the future predictions of his was that when he shoots Usagi, he would also shoot himself.

When Usagi fell off into the water, Arisu instantly dived in to save her. Arisu began drowning and Usagi was out of his reach. Banda begins feeling the satisfaction of being able to kill one of the best players of the borderland, which for him. Back in the room where Arisu was sitting unconscious within the real world, Ann noticed that Arisu was acting off, almost like he was nearly dying in the borderlands, which she was correct to assume. Her response was to shout his name loudly, then she was able to see Banda right behind him. Banda didn’t think that Ann could see him since he was an entity from the borderlands.

Then Arisu came back, he dived back up to save Usagi, his hope and determination was restored. Then Banda stops him, giving him one more chance to stay in the borderlands with him, if he answered no, then Banda would kill him. Arisu rejects Banda’s offer once more, then a laser strikes from the sky, straight through Banda’s head. Then the Watchman, in a higher authority than Banda, appears. He pauses time itself, the running water pauses mid-flow. Arisu questions if he was the joker, he claims that there never was a joker. He then explains that life is full of challenges and if Arisu and Usagi wanted to live, they’d have to dodge all the challenges there was in the path, or Arisu could choose the path of death, which is easy, it’s not difficult to fall and get brought down from the strong currents from the whirlpool. 

Then the Watchman unfreezes time, which gives Arisu his chance to decide, in which he chooses to go take the challenge to save himself and Usagi. Matsuyama decided to throw himself down the whirlpool, noting that he had done just too much and he’s been in the wrong all along, as he tried to kill Usagi and made other’s lives insufferable during their time in the borderlands. Arisu snaps back to the real world, forgetting everything that had happened, his first question to Ann was if Usagi was saved in which Ann reminds Arisu that he was in the games so he should be the one that knows best. Arisu sprints to the hospital to see Usagi okay. 

“A deck of cards has four suits with cards numbered from 1 to 13. If you add up all those numbers, you get 364. Add the Joker, and it becomes 365… the same as the number of days in a year in the human world. Add one more Joker, and it becomes 366 — a leap year. The two Jokers are indispensable cards based on the truth of time in the human world. The Joker exists in the gaps between cards, in the gaps of time — a jester who fills the space between life and death.” The Watchman said.

This entire season is all about human psychology and love, a love so strong that one will go out of his way to go to hell and back to see the person they love again.