In a show as bloody as Netflix’s Alice in Borderland, it can be hard keeping up with who lives and who dies. After all, between murder games and just plain, regular murders, Alice in Borderland has a body count that can give even serial killer Oki Yaba (Katsuya Maiguma) a run for his money. And, in Season 2, a surprise twist left viewers unsure of what exactly life and death actually looks like in the world of Alice in Borderland. In case you are one of the many people left befuddled by what exactly went on in that finale, or in case you just can’t remember who died at the Beach and who made it back to Shibuya, here’s a list of all the characters who died in Alice in Borderland and what cost them their lives. Well, the main ones, anyway. I’m sorry, but we really can’t account for every poor extra that kicked it during a game of tag.
Karube, Chota, and Shibuki
Arisu’s (Kento Yamazaki) best friends, Karube (Keita Machida) and Chota (Yuki Morinaga), lose their lives right in Episode 3 of Alice in Borderland, alongside Saori Shibuki (Ayame Misaki). The trio meet Shibuki during their first game, Dead or Alive, and form an uneasy alliance with her that lasts up until their first game of Hearts. Also known as Hide and Seek, the Seven of Hearts game depicted in Episode 3 has Arisu, Karube, Chota, and Shibuki as its only players. Each one is forced to put on a headset that states their role in the game: wolf or lamb. The goal is to finish the game as the wolf, sentencing all lambs to death. To become the wolf, the player must look the current wolf in the eyes. Though Karube starts the game as the wolf, Shibuki quickly steals the position by tricking everyone into looking at her. Eventually, however, Karube manages to take back the role. Still, he doesn’t remain the wolf for long, as Arisu takes it from him and hides in an attempt to figure out a solution to a game design to kill all players but one. Realizing that time is running out and that Arisu won’t be able to logic their way out of that situation, Karube and Chota decide to sacrifice themselves so that their friend can live. Chota also holds Shibuki down so that she isn’t able to chase down Arisu. The three of them die together when the game ends and their headsets explode.
Hatter
The leader of the Beach is taken down by his friend and right-hand man during a game in Episode 6 of Alice in Borderland. Though, at first, it looks like Aguni (Sho Aoyagi) killed Hatter (Nobuaki Kaneko) as part of a long planned coup d’etat, in Episode 8, we learn that things are a little more complicated than that. It turns out that Hatter had gone full Mad Hatter, ruling the Beach with an iron fist under its utopian facade. Aguni was shocked by the murders Hatter was committing regularly under the pretense of punishing traitors and was having a hard time controlling his more bloodthirsty militant minions. He tried to convince Hatter to put an end to the Beach, but it was to no avail: Hatter not only refused, he also pulled his gun out on Aguni and tried to kill him. Due to his previous military training, however, Aguni was faster, killing Hatter before he even had a chance to shoot.
Momoka
Momoka (Kina Yazaki) herself isn’t exactly what you would call an important character in Alice in Borderland. Her death, on the other hand, is a hell of a relevant plot point. The discovery of Momoka’s body with a knife sticking out of her chest sets into motion the final numbered game of the series, the Ten of Hearts Witch Hunt, in which the denizens of the Beach must figure out who killed Momoka and throw them into a fire. Aguni uses the opportunity to unleash all his rage and self-loathing for killing Hatter, and orders his militants to kill everyone until the killer is revealed. But it turns out that the killer was already dead: Momoka was, in fact, no regular player, but a dealer working for the people who organize the games. She stabbed herself in the heart to kick off the game. In Season 2 of Alice in Borderland, in one of Kuzuryu’s (Tsuyoshi Abe) flashbacks, we learn that she chose to kill herself in order to prove her theory that the people of the Beach would stick together in face of a threat. Well, Momoka, it looks like you were wrong…
Tatta
Tatta (Yutaro Watanabe) makes his first appearance in Season 1, Episode 2 of Alice in Borderland, in the Five of Spades game of tag. Arisu and Usagi (Tao Tsuchiya) later meet him again at the Beach, and then again when he and Ann (Ayaka Miyoshi) rescue them from the King of Spades, early on in Season 2. As Ann sets off on her quest to find out what’s outside of Tokyo, Tatta stays behind and plays the King of Clubs game with Arisu, Usagi, Kuina (Aya Asahina), and Niragi (Dori Sakurada). Dubbed Osmosis, the game is a complex battle of point stealing between two teams. Initially, Tatta is asked to stay behind and guard the team’s base, a task that he promptly agrees to out of fear of fighting the King of Clubs and his minions. However, when the base is attacked, Tatta fails to protect it, costing the team a huge number of points. Feeling guilty, he decides to chop off his own arm so that Arisu can use his game-issued bracelet to steal points from the King of Clubs. The plan works, and Arisu’s team wins the game, but Tatta bleeds to death in the arena.
King of Clubs
Ginji Kyuma (Tomohisa Yamashita), a.k.a. the nudist King of Clubs, was transported to Borderland alongside his four bandmates. After beating all the numbered and face card games, Kyuma and his friends chose to stay behind, and became responsible for the King of Clubs game. Kyuma and the three surviving members of his band meet their fate after Arisu manages to steal all of Kyuma’s points with the help of Tatta’s bracelet. After Arisu and his team are declared winners, four laser beams are shot from the sky, taking out Kyuma, Kanzaki (Eita Okuno), Kisaragi (Alisa Urahama), and Maki (Eishin).
Jack of Hearts
Held inside a maximum security prison, the Jack of Hearts game had players trying to correctly guess the card suit at the back of their collars. It’s a game of trust and deceit that ends only after the Jack himself makes an incorrect guess and is subsequently shot. Presenting himself as nothing but a cowardly outcast, Enji Matsushita (Kai Inowaki) manages to keep his identity hidden for quite some time, but he is eventually found out by Chishiya (Nijirō Murakami), Yaba, and Banda (Hayato Isomura). A proud serial killer and a psychopath dying to get his first taste of blood, respectively, Yaba and Banda torture Enji until he gives up and kills himself by purposefully getting his suit wrong.
Queen of Spades
Much like Enji and Kyuma, Lisa (Chihiro Yamamoto), the Queen of Spades, is killed by laser after losing in her own game, a 16-round-long game of tag between teams. Though she initially manages to convert most of the opposing players to her team, Arisu and Usagi turn the game around at the last minute by convincing all of Lisa’s allies to switch sides, leaving the Queen to die alone.
King of Diamonds
Season 2 of Alice in Borderland reveals to us that Mira (Riisa Naka) wasn’t the only citizen of Borderland posing as a regular player in Hatter’s executive board. A former lawyer distraught with the lack of ethics in his field, Kuzuryu was also pretending to be someone else. As Chishiya soon finds out, Kuzuryu was actually the King of Diamonds, who hosts a particularly vicious game called Beauty Contest, in which players must guess at numbers from 0 to 100 to make points. The losers are killed with an acid bath. Kuzuryu eventually meets his fate himself in the last round of the game, in which he faces off against Chishiya one on one. Instead of keeping his choice of number hidden, Chishiya chooses to tell Kuzuryu so that he can make an informed decision. Feeling his faith in humanity restored, Kuzuryu sacrifices himself, allowing Chishiya to go on.
King of Spades
The most feared face card of all, the King of Spades (Ayumi Tanida) has a seemingly infinite arsenal at his disposal and uses all of Tokyo as his game arena. Arisu and his companions spend most of the second season of Alice in Borderland trying to either escape or defeat him. In the end, Arisu, Usagi, Kuina, Ann, Akane (Yuri Tsunematsu), and Aguni all come together to ambush the King of Spades, but he still manages to fight almost everyone off, leaving most of our heroes at the brink of death. The only person who still manages to stand after the fight is Aguni. He walks to the wounded King, who proceeds to hand him a gun, implying that he wishes to be killed. Before drawing his last breath, though, the King of Spades remembers a moment of his past as a soldier in which he had to kill someone dear to him and apologizes. Seeing himself in the King of Spades, Aguni puts the gun to his own head after killing the King, but a vision of Hatter stops him from pulling the trigger.
Queen of Hearts
As expected from the Queen of Hearts, Mira receives Arisu and Usagi atop a building for a game of croquet. However, the real game has nothing to do with hitting balls with sticks. After the first round of the game, Mira invites her opponents for some tea and repeatedly tries to convince them that they are living an illusion. She almost breaks Arisu by telling him that he lost his memory after Karube and Chota were killed in a hit-and-run in Shibuya, and that he and Usagi are actually patients at a psychiatric hospital. However, Usagi manages to get Arisu to snap out of it by cutting her own wrist. Touched by how deeply Arisu and Usagi care for one another, Mira allows them to win the game and is killed by a laser beam.
Do Yaba and Banda Die in 'Alice in Borderland'?
After Arisu and Usagi’s victory against the Queen of Hearts, all surviving players are given a choice between returning to their original world or staying behind as citizens of Borderland. Almost all of them choose to return, the sole exceptions being psycho buddies Yaba and Banda. After the games end, we learn that Alice in Borderland's characters were actually in limbo, unconscious and waiting to be rescued following a freak meteor strike on the Shibuya region of Tokyo. Those who died in the games didn’t resist their injuries. But where does that leave Yaba and Banda? Well, since they chose to stay behind, it is pretty clear that they didn’t exactly survive the meteor. However, it is unclear whether they are dead or in a perpetual coma. And since the sudden appearance of a Joker card at the end of the finale indicates that the games might not be over, it is unclear whether there’s any truth to this talk of limbo. If the games are still going, Yaba and Banda are, indeed, very much alive.