English Dub Review: Liar Game “Secret Plan”

Overview (Spoilers Below):
Akiyama comes up with a plan to compensate for the Country of Day’s weaknesses, but Yokoya also makes a move.

Our Take:
Things are still not going well for the Day team, and this certain condition may have sealed the deal on how much worse it’s going to get.  It turns out that even though they’ll win the competition, they won’t have enough money left in the opposing team’s ATM to clear their debts.  That would mean the Night Team will be victorious, given how much money they took despite losing the round.  In a way, strategy and doubt aren’t the only roles in the Contraband game, as greed also comes into play for this surprisingly tense matchup.  Usually, a player or team wins by having the most money or points, but for this round, getting more results in losing more.
The Contraband game would’ve risked becoming repetitive, with players winning the most money, especially given the game’s length, which lasted for more than a couple of episodes.  Fortunately, this shocking revelation shakes things up by testing the characters’ mindsets and greed, allowing the show’s psychological aspect to appear front and center without growing too stale.  Of course, with Akiyama having an equally clever Yokoya as his rival, there’s no doubt that the Day team would be pushed to the limit as we’re getting closer to the end.  While it still suffers from the show’s overexpositions, as in previous episodes, “Secret Plan” continues to apply immense pressure to the characters’ difficult situation while revitalizing the show’s psychological aspect through the round’s conditions.