Mastermind or myth: Alice in Borderland Season 3's final card and the Joker, explained

The Joker has rolled the final dice in Alice in Borderland Season 3, the final season of Netflix's hit Japanese science fiction thriller series, based on Haro Aso's eponymous manga series.

While the previous two seasons were a faithful adaptation of Aso's source material, Arisu and Usagi's Borderland adventure will continue through an original narrative in the show's final season.

The recently released trailer for Alice in Borderland Season 3 teased how Usagi will be lured back into their purgatory for the final card, ie, the Joker game, and Arisu will soon follow her suit. The Joker, previously teased in the Season 2 finale, is a shadowy figure who appears at the end of Aso's manga, but was skipped from the Netflix show.

Since the Joker is not traditionally a part of the deck and is an additional card, his presence and final game hints at unpredictability and danger for the lead couple. Additionally, since he did not appear in the previous season, there is secrecy behind the identity of the Joker, or will he show up in the final season at all?

His connection to the Borderland suggests that he could be one of the masterminds running the place, and the ultimate opponent Arisu and Usagi will face in the final season.

More on the Joker card in Alice in Borderland Season 3 in our story.

Decoding the Joker from Aso's manga series

While Alice in Borderland Season 2 was pretty faithful in its adaptation of Aso's manga series, it deliberately left out an important detail in the final moments.

In the manga series, after Arisu, Usagi, and a majority of the Borderland characters choose to return to their real world, Arisu crosses paths with the Joker, who is the equivalent of Charon, the ferryman of the dead in Greek Mythology. The Joker is a mysterious figure who exists in the liminal space between life and death itself and is responsible for taking people back to the real world.

While Season 2 omitted the Joker altogether, this creative decision was an elaborate setup for Alice in Borderland Season 3. Season 2's final moments teased a Joker card, ie, the Final card at the hospital where Arisu and Usagi are recovering from their injuries, following the meteorite strike in Tokyo.

This Joker tease eventually materialized when Alice in Borderland Season 3 was announced, and the final season will feature an original narrative, expanding Arisu and Usagi's adventure in the Borderland beyond Aso's manga series.

Alice in Borderland Season 3's Joker is Arisu and Usagi's final opponent

Much intrigue surrounding Alice in Borderland Season 3 is about the real masterminds who operate the Borderlands.

Mira Kanō, one of the beach executives, was eventually revealed to be the Queen of Hearts in Season 2 and was also the last standing enemy Arisu and Usagi encountered in Borderland. While the Queen of Hearts' game was certainly one of the most challenging mind games for the couple, she too shockingly died after the final round of croquet, suggesting that Mira was another pawn, and the real mastermind is somebody else.

This makes the Joker reveal for Alice in Borderland Season 3 hint that he might be the real Mastermind behind the sick and twisted games. The final season's synopsis also teases that Usagi will be abducted by a scholar obsessed with the afterlife, which could be a version of the Joker. Considering his role as the ferryman, he could return to exact revenge on all the players who chose to leave his Borderland for the real world.

Additionally, since no actor was confirmed for the role of Joker in Season 3, this mysterious entity could be a shadowy figure (like Aso's manga), a supernatural entity, or a myth, which never materializes on-screen.

However, his looming presence in the final season suggests that Arisu and Usagi's final adventure will be filled with even deadlier games and unpredictable quests of survival, made even more challenging by the real masterminds of Borderland.

The Joker card will be unmasked in Alice in Borderland Season 3 on Netflix on September 25, 2025.

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