3 Times Alice in Borderland Season 3 Made Absolutely No Sense

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Netflix’s Alice in Borderland came back for a third season in late Summer 2025, which surprised many viewers. The story of Arisu and Usagi felt finished after the first two seasons, making a third season seem a bit extra. However, the new season presented a fresh idea that was actually quite effective-some would even say it was better than Squid Game and its upcoming American adaptation, which is already generating excitement.

However, this season isn’t perfect, and several parts feel confusing or disappointing to viewers. These issues range from people questioning the show’s core ideas to feeling like certain scenes just don’t add anything valuable. Here, we’ll point out three specific instances that reveal weaknesses in what was otherwise a bold and ambitious season. These moments don’t quite land and detract from the overall experience. More details are available below.

3) The Train Game

Throughout all the deadly challenges in Alice in Borderland, there was always a path to success, even if only one person survived or the whole group made it through. But the train game, involving poison gas, felt different – it didn’t make logical sense. It seemed to rely purely on chance, with no clear way to win. The game involved Ryuji, Usagi, and their companions, including someone knowledgeable about trains, but it was later revealed that the poison was released randomly in the train cars, with absolutely no pattern or reasoning behind it.

This is particularly disappointing because the show is based on a manga. The original manga featured four train cars, with poison located in only the final car. The core idea revolved around confronting death directly in the first three cars as a way to overcome it. However, the series’ adaptation felt disjointed and lacked a clear flow, leaving viewers wondering how Arisu and his team managed to survive. Sadly, we won’t ever get an explanation.

2) Usagi’s Unborn Baby Suddenly Counted as a Player

Wow, I was really surprised when Usagi finds out she’s pregnant in the final game of Alice in Borderland! And then to learn that her unborn baby is *also* considered a player? It felt a little out of the blue, honestly. Throughout the whole series, there wasn’t a single clue that her child would be part of the games. I kept thinking, the Train Game would have been the *ideal* moment to drop a hint – maybe an extra gas mask or something subtle like that. It just would have made that reveal feel so much more natural and connected to everything else.

Honestly, seeing it suddenly appear at the end felt really out of place and didn’t quite fit with how the games usually unfold – those games are really what Borderlands is all about. Thinking about it now, Usagi’s story also didn’t feel fully fleshed out. Her quest to find her father and learn the truth was never really resolved, which made her reasons for even being in the Borderland seem a bit unclear and unsatisfying. It left her motivations feeling unresolved and a little misplaced.

1) Boundary Between the Living and the Dead

The conclusion of season 2 of Alice in Borderland explained that the characters’ experiences in the ruined world happened because they were all close to dying. The Borderland, where they were trapped, was essentially a space between life and death, and this provided the strongest explanation yet for the bizarre events. After Arisu and Usagi went back to their normal lives, forgetting everything, it became clear that the Borderland existed separately and wasn’t connected to the real world.

However, Season 3 changes things up. Banda is now portrayed as a resident of the Borderland who can bring people into the game. Ann, a major character from the first two seasons, surprisingly remembers everything and even talks to Banda. The season also suggests that Arisu and Usagi now recall their experiences too. This really weakens the clear separation between life and death that was so important in the earlier seasons. The arrival of the Joker and the Watchman blurs the lines between the two worlds even more, and without any explanation, this becomes Alice in Borderland‘s biggest problem – it just doesn’t make logical sense.

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2025-10-04 14:10