Be warned! There are major spoilers ahead from Alice in Borderland season 3 episode 2.
The second episode of Alice in Borderland season 3 picks up immediately after what happened at the end of the previous episode. Arisu has finally arrived in the Borderlands on a mission to save Usagi, and is about to play his first game since being back, along with several other players. The game takes place at a shrine.
Sacred Fortunes game
A woman comes on the intercom and announces the name of the game and how to play it. It's called "Sacred Fortunes." The game is played where players must draw ten fortune slips (like paper fortunes or omikuji) to test their luck. To clear the game, players must correctly interpret the meaning of their slips and survive the process. But there are rules. Players have one minute per draw to complete each attempt, and each player can only draw a slip once. In other words, no redrawing for a better result.
There are twists as well. Some slips might seem like automatic wins or safe outcomes, while others contain complicated math problems that players must solve. If a player answers incorrectly, a punishment is triggered. Fire arrows rain down, and the number of arrows equals the numerical difference between their wrong answer and the correct answer. For example, if the correct answer is 50 but the player says 45, five fire arrows will fall from the sky, and the players must hurry up and run for protection in order to survive the round. The game quickly becomes a team effort.
Throughout the game, multiple people are killed and some are even injured. Arisu starts to recover old memories of his previous time in the Borderlands while playing. Once the tenth and final round comes around, it's Arisu's turn to pull a slip. Unfortunately, he answers his math problem incorrectly. This causes a hundred million arrows to start falling from the sky. After using his wits, Arisu finds a way to escape the game arena. He and the other players find an underground tunnel to escape through and clear the game.
Now, they must wait around for the next game to start. The tunnel leads them to an abandoned mall. They decide to camp out there for now and get to know each other. Each person seems to have been “recruited” in a similar way by Banda as they all have a Joker card. Their memories of previously playing games in the Borderlands begin to gradually resurface as well. However, they don't have much time to process everything since the next game is about to start.
Zombie Hunt game
The next game takes the players to a research institute. The game is called "Zombie Hunt." In this game, each participant begins with seven playing cards and must use them in one-on-one matches at tables spread throughout the facility. In these duels, players compete using cards of the same suit, and the person with the highest total wins. The victor then takes a card from their opponent’s hand.
To make things more complicated, three special cards come into play:
- The Zombie card instantly defeats any other card. The losing player becomes “infected” and gains a Zombie card in their hand.
- The Shotgun card can be used at any time, even if no Zombie card has been played, but it’s a one-time-use card that disappears afterward. It can be used to eliminate a player who is a zombie, but is ineffective against humans.
- The Vaccine card provides a non-violent option, canceling out a Zombie card’s effect. However, it’s randomly assigned, and it cannot be used on oneself.
The game lasts for 20 rounds, and whichever side—humans or zombies—has the most players at the end wins. The group with the fewest members is eliminated. At the start, there are four separate groups across the facility and only four Zombie cards in total (one per team). Arisu quickly deduces that finding out who holds the Vaccine cards is key to survival, though they could be hidden among players from other groups. At the same time, he’s determined to reunite with Usagi, though the tournament-style rotation of games means there’s a real chance they might be forced to face each other.
While playing the game, Arisu reads people carefully and notices one opponent avoiding eye contact. He correctly identifies her as a zombie who has already infected another player. While some in the group push to simply kill infected players, Arisu argues for a safer solution using the Vaccine cards. His plan involves convincing infected players to reveal who turned them, effectively making a risky alliance by offering themselves up as hostages. If trust is broken, the Shotgun card could still be used as a last resort. But Arisu hopes it doesn't come to this.
One of the first to step forward is Rei, a cheerful, blue-haired player. She proposes what she calls a “trust barricade” strategy. Basically, the strategy is to scare zombies into staying hidden while the humans rely on just enough Vaccine cards to shift the balance. It’s risky, since no one knows how many Vaccine cards are actually in play, but it gives them hope. The team also distributes number cards evenly to make sure no one is left at a disadvantage.
Not everyone agrees to play by these rules, though. A reckless player named Ikeno insists on using Shotgun cards aggressively to wipe out zombies. He gains support from another player, Mr. Kazuya, who kills a zombie-card holder outright. Now, the game has completely turned around. But while Arisu is shocked by everything unfolding, Rei seems to embrace the chaos. Since the game doesn't end this episode, it looks like it will continue into the next episode.
Alice in Borderland season 3 is streaming on Netflix right now.