Top 10 Craziest Alice in Borderland Moments

#10: The Joker Card

Season two of “Alice in Borderland” ends with the most spine-chilling cliffhanger ever. Our protagonist, Arisu, manages to beat the game and returns to the real world with Usagi. While neither has any memory of the death games they played in Borderland, they’re inevitably drawn to each other, hinting at a possible romance. However, director Shinsuke Sato wasn’t going to give us a happy ending, not with another season to go. So, before the curtain falls, we see the ominous Joker card, indicating that the game is far from over. Per Netflix, Arisu and Usagi will be forced to return to Borderland in season three, where they must beat a mysterious ‘Joker’ stage to survive. Clearly, they just can’t catch a break.

#9: Arisu’s Altruism Saves the Day

Like any self-respecting shōnen protagonist, our boy rarely hesitates to risk his life for others in Borderland. All that good karma serves him well, because during the four-of-clubs game, Distance, his selflessness saves him. Moments before reaching what he believed was the ‘goal’ with Usagi and Yamane, he decides to go all the way back to fetch an injured player who had been left behind on a bus. As it turns out, the bus was the goal all along. Meanwhile, Usagi, who had been running in the opposite direction, comes face to face with mortal danger as the underpass is flooded. Thanks to the bus, Arisu clears the game, saves Usagi, and keeps his integrity intact. The adrenaline rush this scene gave us was unbelievable.

#8: Chishiya Being an Unbothered King

Give it up for the undisputed winner of the nonchalant contest. Chishiya enters the Solitary Confinement game alone, but as it was a psychological match, our blonde fave was in his element. He survives all the rounds, thanks to his sharp observation skills, keen understanding of the human psyche, and a splash of luck, while correctly deducing who the Jack of Hearts was. Throughout the game, he remains detached and hardly ever breaks a sweat, even in the most dire situations. Eventually, he exits the arena unscathed, as the Face Card blimp explodes in the background. However, even the thunderous spectacle couldn’t faze Chishiya. He walks out with his hands in his pockets and an unimpressed look on his face. Talk about aura farming.

#7: Hatter’s Deception

The introduction of the Beach was easily one of the most jaw-dropping moments in season one of “Alice in Borderland”. The pseudo-paradise operated entirely on false hope. Members believed they could eventually get out of Borderland by collecting all the playing cards and handing them over to the Beach. However, this turned out to be nothing but a delusion that the Beach’s power-hungry leader, Hatter, came up with. The members’ faith in his doctrine fed his god complex until he abandoned his humanity. He responded to any resistance with a death sentence and called himself a hero for it. Sure, the Beach allowed members to indulge in escapism, and maybe even gave them purpose, but it was misguided and hence, cruel.

#6: Kuina Solos the Last Boss

This was one of the most memorable fights in season one. The Last Boss is armed with a katana, but our agile queen dodges his attacks with razor-sharp focus. As the battle heats up, Kuina realizes that in order to win, she must come to terms with her past as a martial artist. It was a traumatic period in her life, as her lack of aptitude for combat and the fact of her being transgender disappointed her father. However, it also strengthened her spirit. So, when the Last Boss mocks her for lacking a strong will to survive, she calls on her father’s teachings and assumes her fighting stance over a bed of broken glass. Within moments, a death blow ends the militant for good.

#5: The Balance Scale Game

If you see Chishiya walking into a battle of wits, it’s already game over for everyone else. The King of Diamonds game, called Balance Scale, was all about reading people and predicting their strategies. As we see throughout the show, Chishiya excels in both with a bonus talent for manipulation. He quickly figures out that the King of Diamonds, Kuzuryu, devised the game to uphold fairness. It has no foolproof solution and elimination is largely up to fate. So, instead of ensuring victory using pure logic, Chishiya triggers Kuzuryu’s sense of justice. Putting his life in Kuzuryu’s hands to test his ideals was a huge risk, but it ultimately paid off. The King of Diamonds burns in sulfuric acid while Chishiya clears the game.

#4: The Witch Hunt

The Ten of Hearts game exposes the darkest parts of human nature. The challenge of Witch Hunt was to find who killed Momoka Inoue. It was later revealed that she was a dealer in the Game and took her own life. So, the game wouldn’t have claimed any casualties if the players joined forces to investigate her death rationally. However, Aguni and his band of militants decide to go on a murderous rampage instead, using fear to elicit a confession or burn the players one by one until the witch is dead. The resulting massacre is barbaric, to say the least, and leaves the audience reeling.

#3: The King of Spades

Season two of “AIB” begins with the most brutal game which lasts until the penultimate episode. The King of Spades is a murder machine you can either run from or kill to survive. His appearance as a dark, cloaked figure, serving Grim Reaper realness, is bound to give you chills. He hunts the players in between games, leaving nothing but carnage in his wake. A final shoot-out ensues in Shibuya, which claims the lives of Kuina, Ann and Heya, but the fight they put up is lionhearted. Heya’s death becomes Aguni’s last straw and after a one on one with the King, he traps him with Arisu before delivering the killshot. The whole sequence is breathless, heart-wrenching, and exceptionally well-choreographed, making it a series highlight.

#2: The Queen of Hearts

The final challenge is a game of croquet. Mira Kanō as the Queen of Hearts, welcomes Arisu and Usagi with cloying cheerfulness, before gaslighting them into hopefully quitting. From aliens to VR, androids and mental illness – she conjures vivid explanations for Borderland, but then claims the first three were false. Thinking the games were all in his head, Arisu loses his grip on reality until Usagi grounds him and they clear the game. Then comes the bigger twist. The surviving players return to the real world with their memories of the games wiped clean. A near-death experience apparently transported them to Borderland and they returned after declining to stay there, but given the Joker card, this might not be the full truth either.

#1: Arisu Loses His Best Friends

The first two episodes of “Alice in Borderland” do a fantastic job of getting the audience attached to Arisu and his friends, Chōta and Karube. They enter Borderland together and we want them all to make it out alive. They survive the three-of-clubs game, and Arisu and Karube even clear Tag. However, when Hide-and-seek pits the trio against each other, Chōta and Karube sacrifice themselves to let Arisu win. The moment is a gut punch, breaking our hearts into a million pieces. Their death scene sets the ruthless tone of the show, establishing that there would be no plot armor to save our faves. Despite their brief appearance, Chōta and Karube leave a deep impact on viewers, making us miss them at every turn.

What was your favorite moment in “Alice in Borderland”? Tell us in the comments!