Alice in Borderland Season 1 Episode 5 Recap

[00:00:30] A Ferris wheel lit up, inviting players to register for a game. Two men stood at the entrance, debating whether or not they should register for the game. One of the two men pointed out that their visas were expiring that night, so they didn’t have any choice. Arisu approached them to ask about “The beach.” The two men didn’t have any idea what Arisu was talking about. They rushed towards the ride in order to register for the game. Arisu still didn’t have any information regarding the whereabouts of the beach. Arisu met up with Yuzuha, but they were unable to find any information about the beach. She reminded Arisu that they needed to join the next game as their visas were expiring as well. Arisu didn’t want to join another game. He had three days remaining before his visa expired. Arisu needed to find the beach within three days.

[00:03:00] Yuzuha confirmed if Arisu would join her hunting the next morning. He wanted to learn basic survival skills. Arisu remembered his friends who gave their lives for his survival. He didn’t want to let them down. Arisu didn’t want to waste his moments on earth without thinking about the sacrifices other people made for him. Yuzuha entered her tent to sleep. Arisu tried to sleep outside, but he couldn’t due to mosquitoes. Yuzuha told him to just sleep inside the tent with her. Arisu lay beside Yuzuha; he was in for a very awkward night. Yuzuha took Arisu hunting the next morning. She taught him how to track a boar. He was surprised that boars were inside the city. Yuzuha told her that since there were no longer any people, animals had taken over. After their hunting lessons, the two of them joined a game to extend their visas.

[00:07:00] Arisu and Yuzuha scoped the area for the next game. He noticed that most of the participants were wearing the same bracelets as the men they saw during the game of tag. They kept an eye on the players that wore bracelets. After the game, they followed the players and saw that they had cars. Arisu and Yuzuha followed the cars out of the city. They had finally found the beach. Arisu wondered how they had electricity. Before they could go any further, they were discovered. They woke up inside a room surrounded by a few people. They were asked for motives as to why they were snooping around. Arisu responded that they were looking for answers regarding the game and where the other people disappeared to. A man wearing sunglasses entered the room and confirmed Arisu’s theory. He officially welcomed them to the beach.

[00:11:00] The man showed them a wall that listed all the cards that were won for each game. They crossed out a majority of the cards. The only ones left were the face cards of every suit as well as the 4 of diamonds, 4 of clubs, and the 7 and 10 of hearts. The man explained that the only way to get out of the game was to collect all the cards. Yuzuha asked him if the world would return to the way it was after they collected all the cards. The man told them that the world would not return to its previous state. He told them that only one person could return to the real world because it was impossible for one person to collect all the cards on his own. It was the reason they created “The beach,” to unite all the players for a common front.

[00:14:00] They managed to accumulate resources such as fuel, rain water, and firearms. The man explained the three rules within their utopian beach. Firstly, everyone needed to wear swimsuits at the beach. He explained that no one could hide firearms in swimsuits. Secondly, all playing cards belong to the beach. The man told them that their goal to send everyone back to the real world could be achieved if they all worked together. Upon gathering enough cards, everyone could go back sooner or later. Arisu asked him what would happen if he refused to cooperate with them. The man told him about the third and final rule, death to all traitors. Arisu apologized to Yuzuha for dragging her to the beach. Yuzuha didn’t need Arisu’s apology because she had chosen to accompany him. The man was checking Arisu and Yuzuha’s cards when he saw the 7 of hearts.

[00:18:30] The man welcomed them to the beach. He added that both of them would be promoted to a higher ranking as reward for the 7 of hearts card. Arisu and Yuzuha changed attires per the beach’s rule. They saw two ladies watching them by the pool. Arisu told Yuzuha that newcomers were always a spectacle for other people. The party continued all day long until someone shouted that it was time to participate in a game. Everyone waited for Hatter to arrive. The man wearing sunglasses appeared along with the other executive members. Hatter addressed the crowd to get them pumped up for the games. Everyone left the beach determined to gather cards for Hatter. Arisu and Yuzuha were placed in separate games. He asked Yuzuha to survive and meet him back at the beach. Yuzuha agreed.

[00:22:00] The hooded player from the tag game was also at the beach. He recognized Yuzuha and Arisu and told his associate that they might be useful for their plan. There were multiple games that night, beast hunter, hunting competition, human elevator, and bingo in match factory. Yuzuha participated in the bingo game, and it looked like she won. Most of the people from the beast hunter game fled as the militants arrived. They started killing the animals in order to rack up points. They were carrying guns with them as Hatter had told Arisu that some people were allowed to carry weapons. Arisu accompanied one of the executive members to a private game below the beach. She informed Arisu that the game would be his test to determine if he could become an executive member. The hooded player’s associate joined them as well, her name is Kuina.

[00:26:00] The newbie player from the tag game also joined them. He recognized Arisu and thanked him for saving his life. The game was a 4 of diamonds. They entered a room filled with water. Above them were live electric wires. The game was named “Light bulb.” They needed to determine which of the three switches would turn on the light bulb on the other room. There were three rules to the game. First, only one switch out of the three would turn the bulb on. Second, they could only flip one switch while the door was open. They could turn as many switches as they liked, but the door to the other room needed to be closed. Third, they could turn a switch if someone was inside, and they couldn’t close the door if a switch was open.

[00:28:00] The catch was if the room filled up with water, they all die from electrocution. One of the game members didn’t understand that the electrical wires were live; she touched one of the wires, killing her instantly. Now there were only 6 players remaining. Everyone argued with what needed to be done except for the executive member, Ann. She reminded Arisu that she was testing her. Kuina didn’t want to be a part of Arisu’s test, but she didn’t have a choice. Arisu wanted to just flip one switch, but Ann pointed out the risks of his gamble. Arisu realized something and asked Kuina to close the door. They didn’t understand why he wanted to close the door, but Ann just told them to do it unless they wanted to die. Kuina closed the door so that Arisu could flip the A switch.

[00:31:00] They waited for a few minutes before he turned off the A switch. Kuina opened the door and Arisu flipped the B switch, but nothing happened. He asked Kuina to touch the light bulb. She felt the bulb was hot. Arisu knew that the correct switch was the A switch, but so did Ann. After the game, Arisu went out to look for Yuzuha. They met at the pool and were glad that both of them survived. Arisu told Yuzuha about his test and that Ann knew the answer to the game. Kuina interrupted their conversation to ask if Yuzuha was Arisu’s girlfriend. Yuzuha denied being Arisu’s girlfriend. Kuina told them that they should start dating each other because they didn’t know when they’d die.

[00:35:00] Kuina told them that she had stopped smoking in order to save her stamina. She wanted to get back to the real world to take care of her mother. Just as Kuina finished her story, the militants arrived. She told them that the leader of the militants was Aguni. Kuina told Arisu to stay away from Aguni. Kuina added that besides Hatter and the executive group, the militants also had power at the beach. It was only a matter of time before a power struggle happened. Aguni asked Arisu what happened to Karube. From Arisu’s facial expression, Aguni knew that he was dead. He instructed Niragi to take Yuzuha from Arisu but he stepped in to stop them. Aguni ordered Niragi to break Arisu’s legs while the rest of his men took Yuzuha by force.

[00:37:00] Arisu stepped in again to stop them from taking Yuzuha. Hatter arrived to end the commotion. He told Niragi to back off, but he wanted the order to come from Aguni. He called his men off. Hatter told everyone that the executive members were going to have a meeting. He invited Arisu to come along because Ann told him about his potential. Arisu saw the hooded player at the executive meeting. They had almost collected all the necessary cards from the deck. The only cards missing were the face cards as well as the 10 of hearts. Ann told them that there might be a condition for the 10 of hearts to appear. Hatter told everyone to replenish their visas as he also needed to do so. One of the executive members wanted to replenish their visas by using the hearts game. They could sacrifice people in order to extend their visas.

[00:42:00] Hatter didn’t care what game he played. He was confident that he could clear any game because he has a 100% win rate. He told the executive members that he was going to attend a game the next day and left the beach in their care. Hatter invited Arisu to his suite. Arisu was hesitant to drink with Hatter. He suspected Hatter of poisoning the drink. Hatter drank from Arisu’s glass to assure him that there wasn’t any poison. Hatter seemed like a madman. He told Arisu about his hostess bar in Tokyo named beach. He looked at himself as a hero and didn’t care for the lives of other people at the beach. Hatter proposed a toast for Arisu and the beach.