Released between 2021 and 2025, Squid Game quickly became one of Netflix’s biggest hits. This gripping series delves into serious issues like greed and how far people will go to achieve success, and it’s struck a chord with viewers worldwide. Despite its dark and violent nature, the show’s connection to real-world problems makes it incredibly compelling and thought-provoking.
While Squid Game became a huge hit, its popularity unfortunately overshadowed other compelling thriller series. One example is Alice in Borderland. Although Squid Game is known for its intense moments, Alice in Borderland actually surpasses it in brutality with a single episode in its second season.
Alice in Borderland is a Hard Survival Thriller to Watch
Alice in Borderland is a thrilling Japanese sci-fi series on Netflix, adapted from Haro Aso’s manga. The story unfolds in a deserted, parallel version of Tokyo, where a group of people are forced to compete in dangerous games to stay alive.
In this show, losing a game means death. That’s why many viewers compare it to Squid Game – both series share that high-stakes, life-or-death element. However, the reasons people become players are different: the characters in this show are desperately trying to escape overwhelming debt.
Unlike other survival games, the participants in Alice in Borderland have all narrowly escaped death. They find themselves in a world that mirrors reality and must complete dangerous games to earn “visas” that extend their lives. If a visa expires, they are killed by lasers from the sky. A central question throughout the series, especially in Season 2, is whether winning these games will actually return them to their normal lives.
The games in the series Borderland are all based on the four suits from a standard deck of playing cards – hearts, diamonds, clubs, and spades. These suits dictate the type of game players face and how challenging it will be. While Alice in Borderland hasn’t gotten as much attention as some other Netflix hits, it’s been well-received by viewers and critics alike. The show is particularly praised for its exciting action and thought-provoking moral questions, with its intense survival story often compared to films like the 1997 movie Cube.
One Alice in Borderland Episode Emphasizes Brutality Through Psychological Warfare
In Season 2, Episode 3 of Borderland, the contestants are locked in a prison and forced to participate in a dangerous game. Each player wears a collar that displays a symbol every hour. At the end of each hour, they must correctly identify the symbol on their collar. An incorrect answer causes the collar to explode, resulting in immediate decapitation.
Players can’t see their own secret symbols. The device holding the symbols can’t be turned to view them, and players aren’t allowed to use mirrors or other reflections to check either. This means everyone has to depend on each other to figure out what their symbol is. The game continues until the group successfully identifies and eliminates the player secretly designated as “the Jack of Hearts.”
This situation presents some difficult choices. One possibility is that everyone tells the truth, but as a result, they would be imprisoned for life. They have enough food to survive for years, and their travel documents are on hold, preventing them from losing time. While this guarantees everyone’s survival, being stuck in prison forever isn’t a good outcome.
As a cinema devotee, I’ve always loved a good twist, and thinking about this scenario, one possibility is that the Jack of Hearts is secretly pulling the strings, picking off players one by one until they’re the sole survivor – essentially winning by eliminating everyone else. But honestly, it feels a bit far-fetched. The more the players start to doubt each other, the more they’ll probably resort to lies just to save their own skins. That’s when things get really interesting, because it becomes a constant game of figuring out who you can trust, who you need to watch out for, and when you can get away with a little deception yourself. It’s a total psychological battle!
As a film buff, I’m totally gripped by this story! It’s fascinating how, with no clue who the Jack of Hearts is, everyone starts to fracture into smaller groups, just trying to save their own skin. Every round, with someone else getting eliminated, the paranoia just skyrockets. It’s like, the more people die, the more likely everyone is to turn on each other. Honestly, within 12 hours, most of the players are gone, but the fact that the Jack of Hearts is still out there means the game has to continue. It’s a really tense setup!
Despite only showing the aftermath of violence – blood splatters from explosions – this episode is shockingly intense. It goes beyond simply frightening the players; it forces them to compromise their morals, leading to deceit, betrayal, and a willingness to sacrifice others for self-preservation. A particularly devastating moment occurs when Ippei Oki chooses to end his own life rather than risk incorrectly identifying the suit he’s wearing.
Witnessing the contestants betray and kill each other shattered his faith in humanity. He always believed in the good of people, but now he’s seeing firsthand how wrong he was. Unable to continue fighting when it meant others would die, he chooses to stop participating. Ippei Oki would rather face death than endure the agonizing and cruel environment that’s transforming everyone around him into something monstrous.
The show makes you question whether the characters are simply desperate people trying to live, or if they’ve always been cruel. While Squid Game explored this idea, Alice in Borderland took it to a much more extreme level.
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2026-02-09 01:39