The conclusion of Alice in Borderland is finally here, and fans across the globe are all tuning in to see how the epic series will end its run. There are even more games, blood, and death, and with this being the final season, there are also a lot of questions left unanswered regarding the ending and how the story fits into the wider context of the world.
As always, things are kept quite ambiguous in terms of narrative answers, with many queries remaining constant throughout the entire show and never being fully resolved. Now that it’s over, all viewers can do is speculate and pick apart the minute details to attempt to piece together a more cohesive set of conclusions than the show itself offers.
Spoiler Alert: This article will discuss major spoilers for the entirety of Alice in Borderland, including season three and the ending.
The Watchman
A Leader, Or Something More?
The Watchman is easily one of the most interesting characters in Alice in Borderland, as he only appears in the final episode, and his time on-screen is pretty short-lived. He shows up after Banda is executed by a laser from the sky, and Arisu assumes that he is the Joker, the one pulling the strings and controlling the games behind the scenes.
As it turns out, The Watchman is more of a messenger or overseer of death, observing as players come and go between realms and offering them a choice to either return to the realm of the living or plunge into the void of death. The biggest surprise comes during a line where he mentions an impending disaster where many lives will be lost. Only time will tell if that level of death was a warning or a premonition of a larger cataclysm to come.
The Land Of The Dead
Is There Really Life After Death?
One of the new characters in Alice in Borderland season three is Ryuji, a psychiatrist professor who becomes obsessed with the concept of near-death experiences and a potential afterlife. He seeks out answers after the survivors mention games in a different world, eventually being drawn in by Banda, who tasks him with killing Usagi to earn the answers he seeks.
In the end, Ryuji’s humanity returns, and despite almost taking Usagi with him into the void, he chooses to go alone, being sucked into the vortex and, as a result, dying in the real world. It is unclear whether Banda’s offer was merely a trick or a true reward. If there really is an entirely different world full of death, then there may be a chance that all three realms could collide, given the right circumstances and the right people to make it happen.
The True Creator
Where Did It All Begin?
Even after three seasons, there are still no concrete answers as to who or what is actually behind the games in Alice in Borderland. In the second season, Mira is revealed as the Queen of Hearts; someone who at least played a large role in creating and controlling some of the games, but even she falls victim to the sky lasers, which means that there has to be a power higher than her.
Season three then positions Banda as the Joker in the Borderlands, a mysterious figure with an untold level of power whose only desire is to watch people suffer and to bring Arisu back to the games. Yet Banda is also killed, this time by The Watchman, who also doesn’t seem to have any answers as to why the games were made or who is really behind them at the top.
Usagi’s Dad
Closure, But No Closer To An Answer
There are many times during Alice in Borderland where Usagi mentions her father and his death, as she still feels a lot of pain and guilt after he supposedly committed suicide. However, Usagi herself says several times that her father would never do that, despite suffering from a recurring nightmare where she watches him step off a mountain face.
Even in the final episode, her father is shown on the edge, only this time he embraces his daughter and allows her to finally accept his death. What is strange, though, is that it is still never confirmed whether he died in the way the papers reported or whether there was something far more sinister going on. Perhaps he was taken to the Borderlands and executed there instead?
Connections Between Realms
Memories And Characters Alike
An ongoing theme in the final season of Alice in Borderland is the connection between the real world and the Borderlands. The only clarity given is that to travel between the two worlds, one must experience death, either through an event or by taking a drug that the characters use to return one final time.
However, there are some questions regarding memories and a certain character’s place in the world. For one, it is strange that some characters retain memories of certain events, meaning that the connection remains for those who survived. Also, Banda manages to enter the real world, but is stopped by Ann, who can somehow see him, showing that there are even more forces at work controlling the world from the outside.
Other Borderlands
Keeping Things Open Just A Crack
The final scene of Alice in Borderland poses perhaps the most questions of all. In a very similar way to the Squid Game finale, the show ends with a new report stating that several earthquakes have been measured across the globe, with a map showing many different locations from Europe to the USA.
Then the location shifts to a café in America, where viewers are given a brief glimpse of an unknown character named Alice. This ominous ending indicates several things. First, the assumption is that there are (or have been) several different Borderlands spread across the globe, or at least multiple different instances. Reading into things more deeply, it could echo The Watchman’s warning of further death, showing that the reach of the Borderlands goes far beyond Japan and that the games are not isolated to a single region.
- Release Date
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December 10, 2020
- Network
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Netflix
- Directors
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Shinsuke Sato
- Writers
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Yasuko Kuramitsu
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Kento Yamazaki
Ryohei Arisu
