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Alice in Borderland Season 1 Episodes
Season 1 Episode Guide
8 Episodes 2020 - 2020
Episode 1
Episode 1
Thu, Dec 10, 202047 mins
In Tokyo, video-game-obsessed Arisu hangs out with his friends Chota and Karube. After causing an altercation in Shibuya Crossing, the trio hide from police in the station bathroom but reemerge to find the city empty. At night, they follow a billboard's instructions to a "game arena". They find a stack of phones, which display the game's difficulty level, illustrated by a playing card. The group is joined by a high school girl and another woman named Shibuki, who informs them that once a player enters an arena, they cannot leave, as a laser will shoot them dead if they try. In this game, a "Three of Clubs" difficulty-level titled "Dead or Alive", the group is forced to pick between two doors within a time limit: one containing an entrance to another room with the same choice, and the other, certain death. The original trio and Shibuki make it out alive, with Chota badly injured. Outside, the group is given individual "visas", which are extended the more they play and result in execution once expired.
Episode 2
Episode 2
Thu, Dec 10, 202047 mins
With no way of escaping the abandoned city, Arisu and Karube decide to play another game to extend their visas, leaving Shibuki to tend to an injured Chota. Arisu and Karube find another game arena in an apartment complex and encounter several new players, such as the mysterious Usagi, the friendly Tatta, the strong Aguni, and the sly, quiet Chishiya. Arisu also learns the meaning of each card: spades represent physical games, clubs are games based on teamwork, diamonds are a battle of wits and intellect, and hearts correlate to games of trust and betrayal. This game, a "Five of Spades" difficulty-level titled "Tag", forces the players to hide in the building from two armed attackers while also looking for a room containing two buttons that must be pressed at the same time to stop a bomb from killing them all. Arisu, Chishiya, and Usagi work together to find the room and win, though Arisu later feels guilty when he sees the attackers executed. Karube finds a radio telling them to "Return to the Beach".
Episode 3
Episode 3
Thu, Dec 10, 202042 mins
Karube tells his group about the radio. To extend the visas of Shibuki and Chota, they go together to a game arena in a botanical garden. There, they enter a "Seven of Hearts" difficulty-level titled "Hide-and-seek" as the only participants but soon learn only one of them can survive. They are given facial recognition headsets and assigned animals, with three of them being "sheep" and the fourth being a "wolf". To play, a player switches animals every time they lock eyes with another, with the wolf at the end winning the game and the sheep dying. Arisu eventually becomes the wolf and spends the rest of the game looking for his friends, who have decided to sacrifice themselves for him. They communicate via the headsets and spend their last minutes together saying goodbye; Arisu screams in pain as he is covered in Karube's blood.
Episode 4
Episode 4
Thu, Dec 10, 202047 mins
Usagi finds a despondent Arisu and decides to help him. They visit a game arena inside a bus, located in an underpass, and enter the game with three other players. In a "Four of Clubs" difficulty-level titled "Distance", they are told to "reach the goal". Deducing that the goal must be at the end of the tunnel, Arisu, Usagi, and two other players run to it, leaving behind another player with a sprained leg. Halfway there, the four players are attacked by a panther, who kills one. At the end of the tunnel, Arisu finds diesel fuel in a motorbike and decides to go back for the other player. Once he returns, however, he learns the bus has the word "goal" written on it, and they were running away from the target. Water spurts from the end of the tunnel, and while the other player is killed, Usagi manages to make it back to the bus and win, alongside Arisu and the injured player.
Episode 5
Episode 5
Thu, Dec 10, 202051 mins
Arisu and Usagi, looking for "the Beach", secretly follow a group of players with similar wrist tags to a hotel housing many players. They are found and taken to the place's leader, Hatter, who confirms they have made it. Hatter says the Beach's mission is to collect all the cards, which they believe will allow them to leave the city, but that the face cards have yet to appear. Arisu and Usagi are tasked with joining groups of players to collect the remaining cards. Later, Hatter reveals to a group of "executive members", including Arisu, who participated in a game as a "test" from Ann, that the only remaining number card to collect is the "Ten of Hearts".
Episode 6
Episode 6
Thu, Dec 10, 202041 mins
Needing to extend his visa, Hatter leaves to participate in a game, but his henchmen bring him back to the Beach dead, stating that he died during the game. A vicious Militant, Niragi, forces the executive members to vote Aguni in as the new leader of the Beach, and he receives the code to a safe containing Hatter's deck of cards. Chishiya works out the code and convinces Arisu to steal the deck. Arisu does not know he is being used as an expendable pawn. When the code fails to open the safe and an alarm is set off, Chishiya betrays him to Aguni to protect himself. Niragi locks Arisu up, to ensure he will die when his visa expires at midnight, and torments Usagi, intending to rape her. Chishiya deduces where the real safe is and obtains the cards. He and his accomplice Kuina try to depart with the stolen deck, almost dying when a wall of lasers rises around the Beach to prevent anyone leaving. An announcement summons all fifty-eight residents to the lobby. The Beach is revealed to be an arena for a game titled "Witch Hunt", with a difficulty level illustrated by the "Ten of Hearts".
Episode 7
Episode 7
Thu, Dec 10, 202048 mins
A girl named Momoka is found stabbed to death, and the game's rules are stated: the players must work together to find the "witch" who murdered Momoka, throwing the suspect onto a bonfire to win. With only two hours to search for the killer, Aguni and his followers, known as "militants", decide to throw everyone into the fire to collect the final card. As dozens are murdered, Usagi teams up with a group of players and rescues Arisu. Ann figures out that Hatter was murdered and searches for fingerprints on Momoka's body. The building is lit on fire, Kuina kills a dangerous militant known as the Last Boss, and Chishiya severely injures Niragi. After thinking about the logistics of the game, Arisu tells the group that he knows the identity of the hidden witch. Ann learns the murderer's identity, before being knocked unconscious.
Episode 8
Episode 8
Thu, Dec 10, 202052 mins
In a flashback, Momoka wanders through the empty city with her friend Asahi, recording videos with a cellphone. In the present, Arisu confronts Aguni who, believing he is the "witch", confesses to shooting his best friend Hatter in self-defense. The real witch is Momoka, who killed herself. As Aguni attempts to kill Niragi, who is still intent on murdering everyone present, the remaining players throw Momoka onto the bonfire and win the game. Chishiya collects the final card. The next day, Arisu and Usagi watch the videos recorded by Asahi, who had sacrificed herself during the game. In them, Asahi and Momoka reveal they are "dealers", players who organize games to extend their visas. In one video, the pair visit an underground lair filled with "gamemasters". Arisu and Usagi manage to locate the lair but find the "gamemasters" dead. Chishiya and Kuina appear and learn the "gamemasters" were actually players. Mira, who was one of the Beach's executive members, appears on screens around the city and introduces a new set of games to collect face cards.
