Summary

• Queen of Hearts Mira Kano is revealed as the true mastermind behind the deadly games in Alice in Borderland Season 2.
• Mira manipulated everyone with sadistic games but showed human qualities in her redemption.
• Mira's potential return in Season 3 as a deceptive "immortal" final boss raises anticipation and speculation.

One of the biggest mysteries of Netflix's Alice in Borderland was the identity of the true mastermind behind the show's post-apocalyptic Tokyo death games. Arisu and his friends wondered whether it was aliens or some mystical being that brought them into a terrifying alternate reality that required their participation in a series of sadistic death games to survive. With the 2022 release of Season 2, the master pulling the strings was finally revealed to be Mira, who Arisu once trusted as an ally.

While the Queen of Hearts was initially introduced as a typical player wreaking havoc in the games and the world, the reveal the Mira was the one responsible for everyone's pain and suffering was a devastating blow to Arisu. He viewed Mira as an ally after encountering her at the beach, only to realize she had been the one playing them all along. With Mira's unmasking as Alice in Borderland's true mastermind, her manipulations were nearly ended Team Arisu. Fortunately, they managed to defeat her, but how did she rise to that position, and what happened to the Queen of Hearts after her downfall?

Updated by Timothy Blake Donohoo on April 24, 2024: Alice in Borderland is one of several live-action shows on Netflix based on a manga series, and it's also been a major battle Royale success. The previous season of the show had several mysteries, namely the identity of the Alice in Borderland game master. Said character ended up being massively changed from the manga source material, giving fans a far different look at the Alice in Borderland villain. With a third season of the show confirmed by Netflix in September 2023, more info on the series and the game master may be revealed than what was already known.

Netflix's Live-Action Adaptation of Alice in Borderland Altered The Queen of Hearts from the Manga

In both Haro Aso's manga and the live-action Netflix adaptation of Alice in Borderland, Mira toyed with the heroes at the mansion. She was joined as a spy by Kuzuryu -- AKA the King of Diamonds -- but preferred more sadistic tests. Kuzuryu was the opposite; he wanted something fair, which resulted in him losing to Chishiya. In Mira's game of croquet, she was all about cheating. To that end, in the manga, she drugged Arisu and tried to break him mentally. In the live-action Netflix series, The Queen of Hearts used gaslighting to trick Arisu, making him question his reality. She tried to convince him that everyone around him were robots, digital constructs, or even alien pawns pulling the strings.

She wanted him to give up hope and lose the game. Luckily, Arisu persevered thanks to Usagi's love, which in turn inspired Mira. She saw them finish the croquet game as winners. Interestingly, Mira was depicted as having more human qualities in the Netflix series. She accepted her fate and was happy Arisu and Usagi didn't sacrifice their kindness along the way. This resulted in a laser killing Mira and Team Arisu accepting the option of returning to the real world from the purgatory version of Tokyo, having all been left comatose after a meteor strike.

Mira Kano Could Be the Joker In Alice in Borderland

While it's endearing how Mira redeemed herself in Alice in Borderland by wishing Arisu and Usagi well, it could still be a ruse. After all, she's the one who engineered the Seven of Hearts game that caused Arisu, Karube and Chota to fight each other in Season 1. The latter two died, which devastated Arisu since they were his childhood friends. If Arisu hadn't found love with Usagi, he might have died soon after.

Reconciling Mira's character with the tease of the Joker card, it's possible that the Queen of Hearts could once again be deceiving players by making them believe they're back in reality. She has some kind of mysterious power, after all, since her words did coax Arisu into thinking he was in a mental health facility. In a sense, Mira has the powers of a god. She set up the chess board all season long, using the likes of Kuzuryu, the Jack of Hearts and even the brutal King of Spades to cull players, allowing her to find only the best for the final game.

Under these circumstances, Mira's "death" could be a deception in the same way she fooled audiences into thinking she was an average game master. When Alice in Borderland Season 3 happens, Mira may be an 'immortal' final boss, with a potential future face-off against a new version of Team Arisu. The fact the characters' minds were altered makes this a strong possibility. This development would make sense with her being shown as a devilish overlord who loves utilizing lies and misdirection. She thrives on playing with people's emotions, which makes her the perfect mastermind and end boss.

Everything To Know About Netflix's Alice In Borderland Season 3

Debuting in December 2020, Netflix's Alice in Borderland is a live-action adaptation of the manga of the same name by Haro Aso. It's one of many such shows to find their way onto the Netflix streaming service, and its success as a battle royale series on the streamer predated the success of the South Korean series Squid Game. Almost as soon as the series hit Netflix, it was renewed for a second season. This next season of Alice in Borderland came out two years later, in December 2022, with the third season of the show officially announced by Netflix in September 2023. While no official release date has been released, said announcement changes a lot about the series.

Many viewers felt Season 2 ended the story perfectly and didn't leave much room for further exploration, which begs the question: where will the series go, given its handling of the source material. Alice in Borderland adapted all of the manga's story in its first two seasons. This includes most of the numerous Death Games featured in the manga, which are already covered in the show's previous episodes. In fact, the series already utilized completely original games that weren't present in the manga, with these original ideas being somewhat criticized by fans as weaker examples of the concept. Having inventive traps and games will be more important than ever, as Alice in Borderland will definitely be compared to the first season of Squid Game at this point (despite preceding it).

It will also be judged by the successes and failures of Netflix's other anime and manga adaptations, but there's a major difference between them. In terms of the story, there are a few sources that Alice in Borderland Season 3 might pull from. There's the spinoff series, Alice on Border Road, which featured a completely original set of characters. The same might happen in the show's third season, or it might at least be a mix of old and new characters. Conversely, Alice in Borderland Retry was a direct sequel to the main series, so adapting it in some way might be the best way to continue the franchise in the third season of its live-action incarnation. Whether this will build upon what was revealed about Mira Kano in Alice in Borderland is unknown, and with nothing revealed about the season's story direction, fans will have to wait and see.

The first two seasons of Alice in Borderland are available to stream on Netflix.