Netflix’s Bet ends with Yumeko being successful(ish) in her revenge plan, but it’s only the start, because she’s still got a lot left to do. The live-action English-language version of the anime Kakegurui tells the story of Yumeko, a transfer student at St. Dominic’s, an elite residential school. But of course, if there’s power, there’s hierarchy, and the students of this school gamble for a position at the council, the elite group of 10 students who call all the shots. To be fair, the council majorly consists of legacy students, but the “ordinary” kids are hoping to avoid “pet” status, the lowest of the lot, which forces you into becoming slaves to those who have defeated you. The show begins with Yumeko showing up at the school and disrupting the system by pushing Mary, a member of the council, all the way down to the bottom into becoming a pet, reversing the roles between her and her pet, Ryan. She also begins a side bet system, which initially isn’t part of the official leaderboard but becomes so when Queen Kira notices what’s going on and figures that’s the only way to keep everything under control. But while it seems Yumeko is just there to have fun, because she doesn’t cheat in her games, simply enjoying the high stakes, she’s actually there to avenge her parents’ deaths. Will she be successful, or will she end up more lonely than ever before? Let’s dive into Bet’s ending and find out.
Spoiler Alert
How Did Blake Die?
Yumeko grows up orphaned, knowing only one thing about her parents’ killer. That he was a man named Ray. Yumeko’s spent her whole life after age 6 mapping out a revenge plan. Her parents were a part of the Kakegurui club, i.e., the “Compulsive Gambler Club.” Yumeko’s roommate, Blake, happens to be the stepdaughter of a man named Raymond Rowe. Raymond was a part of the Kakegurui club, so of course, her immediate thought is that he is the Ray responsible for ruining her life. Yumeko befriends a boy named Michael soon after she joins the school, who doesn’t really care about the gambling but holds some secrets of his own. While he appears to be aloof to everybody else, he suddenly wants to help Yumeko as soon as she joins the school. Yumeko decides to make a bomb to kill Raymond while he’s there for the school recital, but Michael stops her, leaving her furious. However, Raymond does end up dead because his car ends up being bombed anyway, but unfortunately, Blake dies with him too. This is Kira’s dad’s doing, but Yumeko is glad that “Ray” is dead until she realizes he was not Ray.
Who Is Ray?
The big reveal in the second half of the series is that Michael is also a legacy student. The son of Gabriel. R. Adams, i.e., Ray. This is why he’s been trying to sabotage Yumeko’s plans, because despite his dislike of his father, who has actual ties to the mafia, Michael wants to keep him alive. To be fair, Gabriel thinks Michael’s a useless son who doesn’t take after him and is an embarrassment, so I’m not sure why Michael really cares, but I guess blood is thicker than water. Yumeko’s plan is messed up when she falls to pet status, but she still has a chance to become a part of the student council if she gambles right.
Yumeko and her friends find the hidden Kakegurui club thanks to Wendy and invite everybody to play there without Kira’s knowledge. By this time, Dori, one of the council kids, is quite close to Michael, and she was with him when they found the picture of her mom and Michael’s dad. Dori finds a group picture of the parents in the Kakegurui club, and when Michael doesn’t give her any attention, she says his father is in the picture, but really loudly, for everyone to hear. So finally, Yumeko knows that the real Ray is Michael’s dad and that he was never helping her, but his father.
How Does Yumeko Get On the Student Council?
Yumeko gets council status at the end of the series by playing a fair game. She gets help from Ryan, who returns the amount she gave him at the beginning of the show so she can get higher up on the leaderboard. But the thing that really pushes her up the ranks is the bet she placed on Mary getting on the student council before the end of the term. When Mary wins the last game she plays with Yumeko, they both win. This allows Yumeko to go to the special meeting that the student council and the school board attend together. This is Yumeko’s chance to meet the perpetrator of Yumeko’s parents’ accident.
Why Does Kira Partner With Yumeko?
Near the end of the series, Yumeko’s friends end up leaving her alone almost accidentally. Michael and Ryan come to the special soiree, but to stop her, not to help her. Whereas Mary ends up super drunk because she’s there to network, but nobody’s interested in listening to her because she’s not elite like the rest of the students there. Seems she wasn’t able to overcome her “poorness” despite making it onto the student council. I know for a fact that Mary’s a good person, and even though she ends up with Riri at the end of the show, she will continue to be friends with Yumeko. The only thing is, they might end up on opposite sides. Anyway, seeing as Yumeko is basically left alone because Ryan is trying hard to keep Michael away from her, she teams up with an unexpected friend.
Kira forces Yumeko to drink the poison that Yumeko had planned to give Ray. Yumeko drinks it, but she kisses Kira and therefore poisons her in the process, too. They decide to play a game, and the winner gets the antidote, so it’s basically a game of life and death. The girls both have an equal chance of winning, but it’s Mary who saves both of them by playing the dealer’s game, allowing them both to live and also stay at the school because Kira’s father suggested the loser leave the school. In her almost drunken state, thanks to the poison, Kira nearly strangles her half-sister Riri to death because their dad chose her as the next council head. But of course, she loves her sister and knows the real villain here is her dad. All Kira ever wanted was her father’s approval, and interestingly, she doesn’t cheat her way into winning, which makes her and Yuemko soul sisters.
Yumeko and Kira partner up, and Kira offers to help Yumeko kill Ray because she knows Yumeko is Yumeko Jambi and that Ray killed her parents. But she’s also told Yumeko that her parents were thieves who created bitcoin and then stole all of the Kakegurui club members’ money. Since Kira’s at her lowest at this point in the show, the only thing on her mind is revenge. Kira worked so hard for the approval of her father, but she could never compete, because she didn’t go so far as to kill someone, even though it’s implied. It was Riri who did the killing, making her their dad’s favorite. Kira’s partnership signifies a new era for St. Dominic’s.
How Did Yumeko Kill Ray?
Ultimately, Kira gives Yumeko a drink with a poisoned swizzle sword. Yumeko sticks this in Ray’s heart but also destroys the remaining antidote. I suppose this was an immature move because Ray has some secrets about Yumeko’s parents that she didn’t know about. It seems Yumeko’s parents have left her a key to unlock the 30 billion dollars that they stole from the Kakegurui club. Of course, it’s not a physical key; it’s a blockchain code for crypto. But just before the light leaves Ray’s eyes forever, he tells Yumeko that her mother survived the fire, is still alive and went underground, and only he knows where (this definitely feels sus, but okay). At this moment, Yumeko is hurt by the thought of her mum being alive, but this pain turns into anger pretty soon after, so we’ll have to wait and see what she chooses to do with this information.
Is Yumeko’s Mother Still Alive?
It appears from what Ray said that Yumeko’s mother might be alive, especially because Ray knew he would end up dead anyway, so there was no reason for him to lie. If Keiko is still alive, why’s she been hiding all this time? And what made her keep this secret from her daughter, whose mind is clouded with revenge? Was it to make her a stronger person? To make her a fighter? Or because it was her way back into the Kakegurui club? Guess we’ll have to wait and find out.
Does Ryan save Yumeko?
During Bet’s ending, Kira makes it look like her father, Arkadi Timurov, is responsible for Ray’s death, and Yumeko escapes with Ryan. But while Yumeko has made some good friends at St. Dominic’s, including the queen bee herself, she’s now made an enemy of Michael, which I suppose means war. When Ryan and Michael were driving to the party, Ryan imagined this exact scenario of driving away with Yumeko because he fantasizes about being with her. This drive away probably makes him feel like he has a savior complex, but the thing is, Yumeko doesn’t need saving. Well, not in the sense he thinks. She needs saving from herself, but I think only therapy can do that for her, not the doe-eyed lover boy that is Ryan. So, no, Yumeko essentially saves herself by keeping Ryan at arm’s distance, but now she’s got a strong team on her side with Kira. However, this isn’t the end; things have only just begun.
What Can We Expect From Season 2?
Now I know we’re all thinking it, so let me just put it down: the poker chip that Yumeko’s mom left her probably has the crypto code hidden inside. Now, Ray told Yumeko that her mom is still alive, which means that she’s probably keeping an eye on Yumeko without her realizing it. So, of course, we will get a reunion of mum and daughter in season 2, but I’m not sure it will be a happy one after everything that’s gone down. While Ray said that Keiko and Jo stole the money of the Kakegurui club, which makes them con artists and not gamblers, it’s obvious that nobody in the club is “pure” or “good.” This means that Keiko and Jo’s theft could be justified, which is probably what’s going to happen after this reunion, making the whole thing worth the distance. But, it’s possible that Yumeko made the wrong decision killing Ray, because he might’ve led her to her mom. Plus he could’ve possibly been working with her to set things straight?
Michael will begin to gamble. At the beginning of the show, Michael was just a mystery boy who read his books and minded his own business. But now that his dad is dead and he knows Yumeko did it, he’s going to go after her in every way possible, and the first way is obviously the leaderboard. This isn’t just a game of life and death. Bet is all about psychological warfare. If Michael or Yumeko is able to mess with the other’s moral standing, it messes them up more than death itself. But this will leave the entire school split. Dori is obviously going to side with Michael because she’s madly in love with him, but I also think he’s the only person who is willing to understand her, so he can manipulate her into doing whatever he wants from her. Meanwhile, there’s Riri and Mary, and this is the bit that I’m most confused about. While Riri still likes Kira very much, and Mary helped the two girls against the oppressor, aka, Timurov, I’m not sure what they’ll choose to do. For the most part, I do believe they’ll side with Yumeko, but Mary has always been eager to rise to the top, and now that she has it by being with Riri romantically, this could be her chance to take it all for herself as a non-legacy student.
The ultimate battle will probably be one between the Kakegurui club and the students. A battle against authority and against the power of opulence. It is, after all, a Japanese manga-based show, so for obvious reasons, it will probably make it a game of power play between the rich, i.e., the parents, and the poor, i.e., the students who only ever wanted love and pride. Of course, the big antagonist will be Arkadi Timurov. What are your theories for season 2 of Bet? Do you think Keiko really survived?
