Alice In Borderland (Netflix): we explain the end of season 2

Arisu, Usagi and the other survivors of the first games have given Netflix subscribers an appointment for a season 2. If you have already watched the eight new episodes – which have already broken a record on the streaming platform only a few days after your release – you certainly want more information about the conclusion of the story. It must be said that the end of episode 8 is puzzling. Before offering you a complete decryption, here is a little reminder of what happened in the final hour of season 2 ofAlice in Borderland. After beating all the kings of the card game, Arisu once again faced Mira, the Queen of Hearts. Like all heart games, we know that the participant will have to think about psychology and feelings. But that’s not how Mira sold Borderland’s latest exercise: to win, Arisu simply had to complete three games of croquet, win or lose. Naturally, at the end of the second, Mira offered him a most dubious tea. If he refused to drink it, the queen of hearts still managed to enter his mind. She made him believe that it was all in his head, and that he was traumatized by the death of his friends after a car accident. Mira explained Usagi’s presence by the fact that she was a patient of the hospital with whom he had become friends. To help her regain her senses and “wake up” from Mira’s hypnosis, Usagi had to cut her wrists. It is now that the explanation of the end arrives.

Borderland players thrown into a near-death experience after falling victim to a natural disaster

After Usagi finishes the game against Mira, she explains to him that he will have to make a choice. Survivors are thus offered the option of becoming a resident of Borderland or returning to their real world. Provided that this supposed real world really exists. Clearly, they are rather asked if they want to die or live. Indeed, those who decided to return to where they came from woke up in a hospital. They are then told that the fireworks they saw in Borderland were actually a meteorite that fell on Tokyo. Those we saw in the series were then trapped in a parallel dimension for a minute, what is also called a near death experience. It is proven that people who have already experienced this feel like they have spent days or even years somewhere, firmly believing that this is reality, when in the real world this experience can only have lasted a minute. The power of the mind. Players have forgotten all about their journey in the game and the bonds they have created there. Arisu and Usagi bump into each other at the coffee machine, and have a strong sense of deja vu. They are sure they know each other, but cannot remember where they might have met or under what circumstances. Series Alice in Borderland could therefore stop at this conclusion, which is surprising but plausible. However, the last scene suggests that the games still could not be finished…

What can the Joker card seen at the end of season 2 mean?

The Joker card can have two meanings. The first, and the one that would end the series, would be that the characters initially had to die during the meteorite attack and thatthey finally got a second chance at life. The second option, the one that leaves the door open for a sequel, is that the Borderland games aren’t finished yet. After the number cards, then those of the figures, there is still the Joker card, considered the most powerful in the game. The presence of this card can therefore imply that appearances are deceptive. Moreover, in the collective imagination, the figure of the Joker represents deception and pretense. A way to make it clear that Borderland got you again! What you believe to be an explanation would ultimately not be one: it would be a decoy. Players might have entered a new phase of play, without the memory to recall past events. The series could end there but the craze aroundAlice in Borderland as well as all the questions that remained unanswered let us suppose that the game is not over. If the story ends the same way in the eponymous manga, spin-offs exist. Netflix can therefore opt for a sequel drawn from its imagination or by developing derivative projects aroundAlice in Borderland.

Article written in collaboration with 6médias