Season 2 takes a psychological turn compared to the gritty, gut-wrenching violence we're introduced to in season 1. The violence is still very much there, but we get a focus on the more important things--the meaning of life vs. death.

Everything that takes place in the borderlands is an amazing analogy to your "fighting chance" when faced in a near-death experience. Arisu and his crew survive because they fought for it. Even when words like "My life was trash" or "I was a terrible person" almost made them give up, each game was a test of whether they were willing to take that chance. The seeming plot armor of being able to take all these bullets and knife stabs is analogous to their will to live.

In the final Queen of Hearts game, Arisu could've accepted his death. He was close to giving in to his weakness and losing that reason to live, not knowing what to believe in anymore. It's amazing how much we got to see his character grow, as well as everyone else. I love how Season 2 delved into our main characters' backstories (Usagi, Niragi, Chishiya, Ann, Kuina, Aguni, and even Tatta). We saw the raw intentions and their resolve, and the reason they kept pushing—that's why we see most of them survive the meteor at the end. I especially loved Chishiya’s backstory in the King of Diamonds game with Kuzuryu, who decided he did not want to live an unfair and unequal life. As Arisu said, it's not just about surviving anymore. It's about hope and believing that they could restart, even with the survivor's guilt.

The ending was a perfect masterpiece, but bittersweet because clearly none of them remember anything that happened in the "limbo" during their brief moment of cardiac arrest. But they seem to have a deja vu, and a lot of them carried the values they learned back into the real world. They strived to become a better person in this second chance of the aftermath. It's such a beautiful parallel to our own lives.

Binging this series was supposed to be our source of escapism from reality, but the ending hits us with reality instead. Value your existence, it says. Life is really what you make of it--you can choose to stay miserable, or take control and embrace the flaws of it too. We're just living, after all. We learn, we fail, we learn, we try again. All in all, season 2 was a great transition from season 1’s thrill and impending death to finally finding that systemic purpose. I think it even outperformed it as we explored the reason behind the games (and life).