Alice in Borderland S1E2
Previously on Alice in Borderland
Now: Episode 2
Opening up this episode is a flashback between the new character, Usagi. She is reminesicing with her and her father rock climbing. Homegirl ends up fumbling then falling is saved by her father hanging on to that tether for dear life. She looks up at him lovingly. This is the memory Usagi is looking back on as she is currently standing on top of a building overlooking lasers killing players in the distance. She will fight in memory of her dad. Aww.
It is now the next day for present day Arisu and he just peeks around trying to see if he can find any working cars around here. No luck in that department but they trek on to a nearby mall for their campout. Interestingly, Chota notices that any and all electronics all the IC chips are destroyed. Basically anything that has a circuit board doesn't fucking work. Except the radio I guess but what good would that do? (har har)
Chota did bring an interesting point that maybe this is the work of an electromagnetic pulse attack that when inserted in the atmosphere it has the capability to destroy any and all electronic devices in the city. Hmm that's kind of the plot to Falling Skies!
Arisu then wonder if that is true...then why do their devices for the game work then? No answer but then the device that Arisu is holding loses power so it means fuck all to them now.
All across the mall is Karuba and Shibuki are seen scavenging for foods and other things of interest to their survival.
They all come back together and eat in the mall having a nice dinner asking where everyone was when THE HAPPENING - oh ok I mean the vanishing thingy happened. Shibuki lied and said she was at work but really, she was having extra marital activities with a man as seen with a wedding ring removed and set on a nearby table.
Karube doesn't seem to like her much. He views her as someone who takes advantage of others for her own benefit but she's like 'whateva I do what I want!' attitude. She did describe how grueling her experience in past games were like.
So they are all theorizing the origin of why they are all there to begin with. Arisu believes that there is some kind of game master that orchestrated. but Karube scoffs at such a thing but not like anyone is even closer to getting out of whatever they're in, right?
Shibuki thinks it's some kind of VR tech that created a paralell world.
Chota thinks it's some kind of divine intervention
No one knows.
Since Chota is a battered man, Karube and Arisu agree to go to play an upcoming game to extend their visas while Shibuki nurses Chota to health and join them on the next game.
Tonight is that night.
They approach an L shaped multilevel (I counted 8) apartment with a huge group of there players. This is where they meet Usagi for the first time. New game, New phones. Mmkay. I wonder what happens to the dunked off phones? Eh.
The game has official started and there are 13 people participating this time in a game of 5 of Spades. The pair is like WUT but a dude right next to them says that it stands for a physical game as determined by the suit. He introduces himself to them as Nitobe.
Diamonds is wits
Spades is physical
Clubs is team battle
Hearts is "the worst one"
And of course the numbers indicated is represented by the difficulty.
This game, though? TAG
So the object of this game is that they have 20 minutes to run and hide from gun weilding fella in a mask because that person is "it". Evading "it" is not the only objective though. Hide but also look for a room with a specific symbol on it and press it. If not then building go BOOM. So yeah. It's not optional.
Back at the resting peeps. They both open up to each other about their backgrounds. Speaking of backgrounds, Usagi is also in the background but has yet to talk with anyone in the group unlike others like Nitobe and Tatta.
After the rules are explained, they have a 2 minute head start for them to scatter around the floors to attempt to hide before whoever is "it" gets released.
Meanwhile Chota and Shibuki are shacking it up at the mall. She overhears his prayers in which he opens up to her about his particular background. He said he was bullied quite a bit for his inclusion in this cult but Karube and Arisu are strong people- Shibuki then takes note implying to him that his friends are only dragging him down and his loyalty to his friends might be his demise. Nah, he says. She's wrong.
Timer has officially started counting down mothafuckas.
With everyone scattered around the floors. Some are in groups and others are loners, anticipate when finally on the 6th floor steps out "it".
Guess who else just so happens to be on the 6th floor? While trying to find the open door, another player runs into "it" first and gets eliminated. They peer around the corner to see the bloodied player on the ground and HOLY FUCK THEY"RE CAUGHT! They run for their lives to avoid the gun shots. Yeah, the tagger "tags" you by shooting you to death so totally not good. They ended up losing Nitobe during their chase and right around the corner...
Chota is next seeing crying as he is pouring his childhood traumas. This is when Shibuki confides in him that she lied about where she was during the vanishing of the people's. Why? IDK but I think she likes Chota. In fact, they do the nastyyyy.
As another guy is trying to run, Nitobe because the unfortunate next one to be taken out. Well, that sucks. After seeing Nitobe's shakedown, he tries to yeet himself out of there. The second he steps out of the bounds, a laser from above puts him out of his misery and he flops to the ground.
Eerie music is now playing as more and more people are getting killed off sending more people scattering like chickens with their heads cut off and it's just depressing and sad how many are being plucked from existence.
There is a flashback now when Chota was a kid and remembers that during one of these religious services that his mother goes to up to have some "alone time" with one of the superiors. Implying she gave her body to these church elders. Ewwww.
Arisu makes an attempt for everyone to communicate with each other so that hopefully teamwork can make the dream work! heh. Usagi is the first to answer the call. She cautions everyone to GTFO 2nd floor. She warns a woman too late as she uses her mega parkour skills to another floor just as the taggers resumes shooting.
More rapid gunshots and Arisu tries to help Tatta which was so nice of him. He manages to escape. After he goes, they run into Aguni and Jin. Aguni takes the reins and barks orders at them. He doesn't exactly say it in a friendly way but not in a hostile way either. Just a matter-of-factly "not asking but telling you". He is going to try to take out the shooter with Karube while he commands Arisu to find the symbol himself needed to clear the game. In the midst of this mostly one sided conversation Usagi comes hopping to their level saying which levels she already searched and continues to check floors 1 and 2. And just like that they all split back up again.
5 minutes left in the game.
Arisu now alone is checking frantically for the doors meanwhile the "it" tagger is catching up to the trio. He tells Jin to lure him out there and then he'll take out the tagger. Except the asshole doesn't hold up his end of the bargin and allows him to be shot. He almost caught Karube but Aguni NOW wants to come to the rescue and they have their fight. Aguni and Karube against this horse ass mofo. With gun knocked out, a machete gets pulled and uses that go battle against the duo. No bueno.
Another mysterious player shows up. The white haired man named Chisiya meets Arisu to the door at the same time where they both realize they have finally found the door to the symbol but holy fuck, only 3 minutes left in the timer. The "it" tagger was also there lurking in the shadows but Chisiya and Arisu make it out unscathed but get split up in the process in different rooms. They locked the door behind them so luckily, none get gunned down.
Karube gets sliced in the process so now it's up to Aguni for the win. But this tagger is one heavy mofo to death with. Those two have a scuffle and the machete ends up getting a fresh slice out of Aguni's face but he stands tall and not giving up.
Arisu manages to find the actual room and to his utter discontent, there is 2 buttons with the instruction that they both need to be pressed at the same time in order to avert the bomb detonation in order to clear the game. He shouts to the people for help. Chisiya is being a fuck ass and doesn't help (just kidding, he's just trapped) but luckily Usagi hears the damsel in distress and makes it up in time. But they have to also battle against the tagger. With mere seconds left on the clock, Arisu and Usagi push the buttons just in the nick of time and clear the game.
If you are confused, there are actually 2 of the taggers aka "it".
Both "it"s are now dead because it is now clear that they were also players of the game and had collars around their necks that self detonated when the opposing group prevailed. They were unwilling. Well that definitely explains why they were so gosh darn hard to beat, huh?
Aguni inspects the dead tagger while Karube inspects dead Jin. He notices the radio on his dead body is going off and urgently demands them to head back to the beach. NANI?!?!?!?! Do I sense a new plot arc????
Episode 3 is next.