Alice in Borderland S1E5

Previously on Alice in Borderland

Now: Episode 5

Two men are staring at the feris wheel is the location of their next game. They are talking amongst themselves WTF could thing game possibly be expressing their hesitation on top of the fact this is their last day on their visas. Arisu appears behind them and immediately asks them if they have ever heard of The Beach. This spooks them for some reason which is that push they needed and they haul ass towards registration to avoid answering the question. Arisu is like....bruh couldn't you just answer the question???

The following hours is Usagi and Arisu camping out. They both have like 3 days left on their visas but she says just get some damn sleep and they'll hunt tomorrow. That apparently is not enough for Arisu because he didn't fulfill his whiny baby quota yet. His friends died believing in him and he doesn't want to waste what little time he got. Regardless, he ends his corny existential crisis staring at the stars thinking it's a perfect conclusion to this "profounding" scene but ehhh mosquitoes be like NOT ON MY WATCH, BITCH!

Remember when Usagi said they will  hunt? She didn't mean for the beach but like literal hunting. Irrelevant scene but metaphorically relevant. Arisu is connecting the parallels between Usagi's wise words of deductive hunting observations into his favorite online game, Battleland. Usagi is like wut?? Battle...land? On....line? Cute scene.

Skipping a few hours later it is back to night fall and they are both commicating through walkie talkies trying to spy on suspected individuals who may lead them to The Beach. Arisu remembers that the people suspected of being affiliated with The Beach are marked as wearing wristbands...like a fitness tracker or something. 

They continue their surveillance when the wristband guys clear their game and hop in a car and zoom zooms TF out of there. With the general direction, they deduced the location of The Beach and long last so yay!

Glee with their discovery gets short lived because that was not the only surveilance going on. 

After getting captured, they are taken to just that: The Beach.

Upon lifting the bags from their heads they are interrogated by these individuals who seem to hold a high level of authority. In walks the main leader who introduces himself as Hatter. Arisu thinks The Beach has answers he's looking for, eh? Well, Hatter will explain it to him, then. 

The Beach is a collective where everyone works together and any games get cleared the card gets thrown in the vault. According to Hatter, once all the cards are collected only 1 person will go back to the world they knew? How did he know this specific info? No clue but Hatter says so so it must be true. He says that they don't have a choice in the matter, they are forcibly a part of The Beach now. Kinda communist there, bro.

Welp, Arisu got what he wanted and he got it hardcore. Now he is forced to be all happy to be a part of this cool kids club where it's 24/7 beach partying (aside from doing your games to extend your visa, that is). Hatter is happy as that that Arisu's card is actually one of their coveted missing pieces so he treats him extra bueno. Now go join the beach, psychos.

Off in the distance, he sees 2 girls sitting on chairs making the same mean mugging face as them. Usagi theorizes that those girls are their watchers since they are noobies. So beware.

Meanwhile, Arisu and especially Usagi have a hard time blending in with the crowd but eh, they partake in the ceremony anyway when Hatter takes his place in front of everyone to give them their pep talks. Standing behind them are high ranking members also known as the Executives.

Usagi and Arisu notice that they will be separated in the upcoming games but whatever, right? They can't be joined at the hip the entire time. Unbeknownst to them, 2 OTHER other people also have their eye on them. These 2 cats. Chisiya and Kuina.

Meanwhile games get to cracking and there is now a montage of various games players of the beach have gone through. Games such as "Jungle Beast Hunter" and "Borrowed Time". There's a diabolical one called "Human Elavator" where they have to hang out to an outdoor scraper moving high as fuck. "Bingo Night at the Match Factory" is one Usagi had to play. She was like the one of 2 players that survived that one. 

Beach bois are strategically placed in each game and it's clear who the dominate players are. Enter Aguni. This hunky man right here. Remember that face because you are about to see a lot of him.

At the conclusion of this glamorous montage Arisu now starts the game teamed up with Kuina along with one of the Executives, Ann. When the registration is currently in motion, Arisu runs into Tatta whom you might remember from Episode 2 when they played "Tag".  Happy to reunite Ann says to cut to the shit and talk later, they gots a game to do! Just before starting the game Ann cautions Arisu that this is a test to see how good he is for a potential Executive spot. Interesting.

Game is officially on. This one is called "Light Bulb" with a difficult of 4 of Diamonds. The object of this game is to determine which of the 3 provided switches turns on a simple light bulb. Of course, this is one of those BIG BRAIN exercises like those math teasers they told you not to worry about but you hella should because it's such a mindfuckery. One of those.

Not to mention that all 7 players are currently in a room that is rapidly filling with water as it is a timed gamed and the game is over when the water level reaches the exposed electrical thingies hanging from the ceiling. So what does one girl do? She touches the the thing and she goes ZZZZAAAAAPPP! So now there is 6 players left. RIP lady.

So Tatta takes immediate lead and is letting the concern of the rapidly rising water level charge his thinking process into who pulls what switch and to what door. Sorry Tatta but he is not being a whole lot productive. Him panicking is making me panic just watching the dang show.

While Tatta, Kuina and Ann are brainstorming amongst themselves, one girl is in silent panic and Arisu is just staring at the switches for a bit and trying to decipher it for himself before he speaks his mind to everyone else to pick their brains. 

The water is now at their waists so they better hurry the fuck up meow.

Ann claims to know what to do but refuses to help because afterall, this is a test on our main guy here. So she is like trying to prove a point and put more pressure on him? Yeah ok. Kuina and Tatta are like "WTF Ann?!"

Arisu is thinking long and hard...but not too long. After a little thinking and reflecting on the rules, he decides to use his one shot to close a door to flip a switch but he tells Kuina to stay at the door.

The water is now at their shoulders and that is when they open the door and tells Kuina to touch the light bulb. Holy fuck it worked. That son of a biznatch did it. Just in the knick of time too because the water just mere inches from electrocuting everyone in the room. Phew!

Rejoice motherafuckas because it is now night time and the survivors are back to partying at the Beach. Usagi reunites with Arisu relieved that they both survived to live to play another game. Kuina invites herself to sit with them and teases them a bit that they should hook up. Both are like NOOOOOooooooooo. But that's not what she originally came here to chat with them about. She says that her motivation to survive is because of her mother as she is currently stuck in the hospital. I guess she wanted to share that piece of info with them. Ya know, in case they were wondering.

Party comes to a tense halt when Aguni and his goons crash the party. Kuina explains to them that they are absolutely not a group to fuck around with as they are the military corps of the Beach. Aguni himself was an ex-Special Forces Officer which is why he is the one who controls all the weapons on said Beach. That stud muffin right there.

Guess who Aguni stops at the feet of? Instead of a friendly HELLO THERE NOOB he asks where Karube be at? It seems to be that he has a smidgen of respect for him during the "Tag" game. Arisu's wordless expression told him all he needed to know while insulting that a person like HIM gets to live? Ouch, yo. 

Usagi bats her pretty eyes and makes eye contact with Aguni and he is swooned so he tells his goon, Niragi, to grab her for some...fun. Arisu protests and Kuina is like STFU!

It sucks when bad guys are like totally hot because Niragi is just 😍 he has a staredown with him but Hatter approaches and is asking what all the hubbubb is about. In fact, he commands Aguni to leave the noobs alone since he is the top of the food chain. Hey, it turns out they Hatter and Aguni are BFFs! Strained apparently but BFFs nonetheless. Hatter and Hatter alone is the only guy to be able to successfully talk this dude down. 

Hatter retreats but not without commanding an emergency meeting with all of the executives. And Arisu too I guess.

As they are walking away, Chisiya ninjas from the shadows to materialize next to Kuina to inquire on how the game went with Arisu. She's like "He was great."

At the meeting, are the executives which are: Chisiya, Aguni, Niragi, Ann, Mira, Kuzuryu and Samura. Mira starts is off by chatting off the attained cards. Currently? They have an elusive 10 of Hearts card anyone has yet to be claimed. And for some off reason, no one has came across any face cards too.

Hatter s not phased at all about and is confident they will find the card soon enough.  In fact, he is formally announcing that he will participate in the next game so cope.

After the meeting is adjourned, or whatever, Arisu is invited to watch...Hatter make out with girls? Lol no but I guess this is more of a "getting to know you" hang out. Hatter tells him to relaxxxx but all he can do is just stare at the cup of alcohol before him. Hatter is like "Boi, I am not gonna poison ya." and he takes a drink from his cup to prove it.

This seems to lower his guard and opens his mouth finally. Hatters also opens up to him and says that he used to run a nightclub called Beach, thus is why he calls this place BEACH. He then has some nam flashbacks and says some disturbing stuff. just a point to say that he has seen some dark shit in his life and doesn't want to let that dictate he rest of his life. JUST YOLO IT AWAY for the time being anyway. 

And they drink to that. 

Episode 6 is next.