As the midway point in the season, the fourth episode has a lot of disparate work to do. We finish up the Jack of Hearts game, get a peek at Kaito Kameyama’s Borderland documentary, run into the deadly King of Spades yet again, and discover Aguni survived the Beach. After two episodes so fully immersed in gameplay, it could be a jarring transition, piecemeal rather than fluid. But it’s not. As we transition from one game to another, check in with our ensemble, and hear one woman’s chilling account of how she came to be in Borderland, this show weaves the elements in a way that breathes further life into this fictional world. Let’s break down those interconnected parts.
If you were hoping for a happy ending in the Jack of Hearts game, you should know there is no such thing in Borderland. Chishiya survives, but most of the players die. The two characters who “win†the game by forming a sudden and unlikely alliance are the abusive Mr. Yaba and the despicable Banda, who we learn killed and raped four women before coming to Borderland. Matsushita, who was previously in an alliance with Banda, is revealed to be the Jack of Hearts and is beaten terribly by Yaba and Banda for information about the gameworld … information he is either unwilling or unable to give as a citizen. After an hour of interrogation, Matsushita lets his collar explode rather than face another round in the winners’ hands. Yaba and Banda may be like Arisu because they are intent on learning more about the rules in Borderland. But unlike Arisu, they have no qualms about killing, maiming, or betraying those around them in order to glean any information.
Following the deaths of Tatta and Kyuma, both of which he feels somewhat responsible for, Arisu isn’t as motivated to continue looking for answers. “Even if we clear the games, we might not be able to go back,†he tells Kuina. “The world that we came from may not exist anymore.†They are valid concerns — spurred on by the trauma he has endured in Borderland. I like that this show takes time to show the effects of this trauma. Even before coming to this gameworld, Arisu struggled with his mental health. Unmotivated and isolated from everyone but his best friends, he spent his days playing video games and avoiding any form of responsibility. I’m honestly not judging this fictional character or real-life people who use this form of escapism to cope with the modern world. I think video games are immersive forms of storytelling with great potential for creativity, ones I enjoy. But outside of his coping mechanism, Arisu is susceptible to the kind of depression that leaves him unable to feed himself, seek help, or look for opportunities that might change his status quo positively. Moments of life-or-death crisis may snap Arisu out of it, but that doesn’t mean he is magically cured of mental illness. Why would he be when he is living such a traumatic reality? But Kuina gives Arisu a pep talk before she leaves, and Usagi coaxes Arisu into bunny hunting, and then Arisu is running for a life he is still willing to fight for.
Yaba and Banda have their own psychopathic way of looking for answers about Borderland, as does filmmaker and photographer Kaito Kameyama: He makes a documentary, traveling the city to interview people about their lives in the Borderland. We see an excerpt of the unfinished doc, interspersed between our protagonists’ adventures and when Arisu and Usagi stumble upon a dying Kameyama and his 8-mm project. Arisu and Usagi learn what brought Kameyama to the camp where he would die: a woman with unique memories of how she came to Borderland lived here. In her interview with Kameyama, she tells him about the fireworks that weren’t fireworks the day they all came to Borderland. “I guess nobody remembers it,†she tells Kameyama before the King of Spades comes into camp and starts shooting, cutting her story short.
The film ends, and the King of Spades appears again, like a bad penny. Arisu and Usagi run, like they always do, and get separated in the fight for survival. But Arisu finds some new and old friends in the terror: A young woman with a running blade as a foot and a bow in her hand saves Arisu’s life with her arrows, knocking him out in the process. When he wakes up, he is by a fire in the woods, and Aguni, the man who led the Witch Hunt that killed so many last season, is there too. It looks like Niragi wasn’t the only seemingly deceased guy with bad choices to make it out of the Beach. Is it weird that I am glad to see him?
Expired Visas
• Before officially learning their names to write this recap, I just referred to Banda and Matsushita as Team Bangs.
• Honestly, I wondered if Chishiya might be the Jack of Hearts too.
• I was low-key rooting for Kotoko to win the Jack of Hearts game. If she hadn’t bet on the wrong man — the Jack of Hearts — she might have stood a chance, too.
• Chishiya may not express much explicitly, but he understands people. After losing his partner at the end of the last episode, he makes it through the next round not by convincing anyone to tell him the truth about his suit but by guessing and then telling others the truth. He doesn’t need them to tell him the truth (at least not in the long run); he needs them to know that he told them the truth.
• “I’ve never been in a land as beautiful as this one,†says Banda of Borderland. “This is the only world that is worthy of my control,†adds Yaba. Yeah, these two are, unfortunately, perfect for one another.
• Kuina leaves Arisu and Usagi to look for Ann and Chishiya. What with their camaraderie in the King of Clubs game, I forgot that these characters have a certain degree of autonomy from one another, especially the members of the Beach from Arisu and Usagi. Ann and Kuina were friends before they got to know Arisu and Usagi.
• I am very impressed that Kuina is still only wearing a bathing-suit top. (Though she did pick up jeans this season.)
• “In life, even when it seems like you’ve hit a dead end, you turn a corner, and there’ll be a narrow road leading you further.†Karube gives some sage advice, even from beyond the grave.
• Arisu and Usagi go bunny hunting for dinner in this episode, and it’s basically their first date.
• “Film.†Kameyama’s final word. Man was dedicated to his craft.
• “Do you watch it with this?†Arisu, looking at the projector and trying to figure out what to do with the 8-mm film. Yep, he’s a Zoomer.
• We also get to check in on Ann, who seemingly doesn’t need a visa anytime soon and is hiking to the outskirts of Tokyo. She makes her records as a scientist: “The fish are increasing in numbers, and the vegetation is becoming denser. The vegetation is increasing at an incredible rate.†This is her way of looking for answers.
• This episode has some really beautiful shots of Tokyo overrun by plants.
• You’d think it would be harder for the King of Spades to sneak up on people, given that he comes with a massive blimp.