In the sixth episode of “Duty After School,” the platoon had decided to lure the spheres into the school building and blow them up in one swoop. They had minimal time on their hands as they had set about setting up the dynamites stuck together with D.U. ammo to obliterate the spheres. However, their time had been cut short, and with a lot of dynamite to set up, Choon-Ho had stayed back and sent the students ahead. Eventually, he was stuck inside the building because he had been too injured to escape. Choon-Ho had stayed as bait and asked the students to detonate the bombs. He had lost his life in the explosion and had left the students in Won-Bin’s care.
Spoilers Ahead
Did The Students Coordinate Their Attacks On The Sphere?
It seems to me that “Duty After School” Season break was not just for us but also for the students to get more training. They have become quite the professionals, and their platoon leader, Lee Choon-Ho, would be proud. The personal interview-like videos were a nice touch to talk about how much they had trained and how much better they were now. They coordinated their attacks and lured spheres out to a place where they could shoot all at once. They used the D.U. ammo to wipe out even the slightly larger sphere along with the other spheres, and they returned victorious to their base camp. Meanwhile, the platoon had been divided into two halves: the ones who went in search of the spheres and the other half that acted as a search team for supplies, while some of the search team members stayed back at the base camp to guard it. The first half, who had actively gone hunting for the spheres, returned before the search team and were assigned work, which they most conveniently forgot. The platoon found happiness and enjoyment in their own way as they somehow disassociated from their reality while they associated it with a battle royale shooter game called PUBG.
Did The Students Find A Way To Survive?
They discussed their strategies while also rationing their food so as to account for the days they would be there. Ae-Seol takes up journaling while Jang-Soo strategizes their next move. Kim Deok-Joong demonstrates his skills to become a professional hairstylist as he cuts and styles Chi-Yeol’s hair. Bo-Ra is an exceptional artist, so she had taken the time to sketch out their fallen members as they paid homage to them later. Looking up from her recent sketch, Bo-Ra takes an interest, and she asks Deok-Joong to cut her hair short as well. Na-Ra volunteers next, but the pressure from Deok-Joong’s friends, Chi-Yeol and Soo-Chul, stops him from shortening Na-Ra’s hair.
I sense the beginning of a couple on screen. Both Soo-Chul and Chi-Yeol had been dropping hints from the very beginning; however, in “Duty After School” Episode 7, one of them does find the courage to confess. Meanwhile, So-Yoon and Young-Shin try to figure out why the radio stopped working, while Tae-Man casually mentions that he saw a prison on his way back from their exterminating mission. This makes them think of looking for parts for the radio in the prison the next day. Later, they all get together to cast a vote to decide if they venture out to go back to their homes or stay.
The students seem to harbor a delusion that all will be well once they return home; however, their dreams are always trashed because, somehow, the majority’s decision is always to stay. They decide to wait until their radio is fixed. Soo-Chul decides to confess to Na-Ra that night; he asks her to go out with him after the war ends, while Dook-Jeong and Chi-Yeol spy on his conversation. However, Na-Ra tries to tell him that she has somebody she likes; however, it seems to be a premonition because Soo-Chul seems to be determined to get the confession off his chest instead of waiting for an answer. The very next day, the platoon is yet again divided into two halves, excluding the ones guarding the base. Joon-Hee stays back because she had contracted frostbite; meanwhile, Ha-Na pretends to be sick, and Deok-Joong is on guard duty. The first half of the platoon goes toward the nearby hospital to search for supplies, while the other half makes their way toward the prison.
Did They Find Survivors?
The half that went on to search the prison started hearing suspicious noises. It seemed to be the code for SOS, not a sphere sneaking up on them. As they investigate the noise, they find felons locked in their prisons. The group is scared and suspicious of the prisoners, who were left to fend for themselves in their locked cubicles. Out of their guilty conscience, they still offered the prisoners food; however, they were not very keen on letting the prisoners out. One of the prisoners emotionally manipulated Ae-Seol while she was handing him the food. The prisoners had no idea what had been going on outside the prison gates. The students stall for time to deal with them by telling them that they will report the situation to the higher-ups and they will deal accordingly.
Meanwhile, more survivors from the Science Tech High School show up at their base camp while Ha-Na, Dook-Jeong, and Joon-Hee goof off a little. They get to conversing as they find out that the CSAT, the exam the government had been holding over the students to get them to join the military, was canceled. They had earlier thought that it had merely been postponed. Due to their radio being busted, they had not been in contact with anybody else and thus had no way of knowing about this. The survivors’ group also told them that they had separated from their platoon and were making their way toward Seoul because their team’s opinions had not matched. One of the guys from their group was tech-savvy and knew how radios worked. He took a look at the radio and told them that somebody had intentionally taken parts out of it so that they would not be able to communicate.
Did They Find Ammunition And Food In The Hospitals?
The half in the hospital seemed to find a lot of useful things. Chi-Yeol even found batteries for his video camera and chocolate in the drawers. He had earlier tried to gather the courage to confess to Na-Ra but had miserably failed. He tried recording himself on video but failed there too. He heard a noise, so he kept the video camera on the table and went on to check it out. He found Soo-Chul there, and although Chi-Yeol believed Soo-Chul, he seemed to be talking to somebody there. Soo-Chul deflected the situation by talking about Na-Ra because he knew that Chi-Yeol liked her as well. Meanwhile, the other students found a lot of medication, and they also came across D.U. ammo. There was even a working truck outside of the hospital where they loaded whatever they found important. They even found medication to treat frostbite and dry shampoo as well. However, once they were all set to leave the hospital, Soo-Chul was thrown out of the building and landed on the ground, presumably dead.
‘Duty After School’ Episode 8 Ending Explained: Did They Save Ae-Seol?
Out of the goodness of her heart, while the others were distracted, Ae-Seol opened the gate for the prisoner she thought looked sick. She was tricked and held hostage by the prisoners, who demanded that the students set them free in exchange for Ae-Seol. The team tensed up and had no idea what to do; they at first stood their ground, guns trained at the prisoners, who, however, were locked up for a reason. They had not hesitated to threaten sexual assault if they did not open the gates. They stood down after the prisoners offered 10 minutes to the students to discuss their decisions. While they thought about it, they received a warning signal from the sphere locating device and found out that four of the spheres were heading toward the prison camp. Two of them immediately set out to handle the spheres, while the other four decided to handle the situation. They listened to the demands of the prisoners and demanded that Ae-Seol be handed to them. However, their time was running out, and as soon as the prisoners misbehaved, they left the situation immediately, leaving the door open for the prisoners to escape. Ae-Seol was left there as the prisoners left to enjoy their newfound freedom.
Final Thoughts: Death Count
Soo-Chul is the only person to die in both “Duty After School” episodes 7 and 8, but his death seems suspicious. And if the ending scene is to be considered, he seems to know that he might die and has been embarking on a dangerous decision. My guess is that he could be the one voting to stay and also the one who got rid of those parts on the radio; however, I might be proven wrong in the next episode. After the break, there was one person missing throughout both of the episodes, and that is Won-Bin. Choon-Ho had specifically asked him to take care of the students; however, he was nowhere to be found. I hope they answer the question about his whereabouts because he is clearly not dead; if he were and the platoon had an inkling about it, his picture would also have been there among the others. “Duty After School” Episode 9 could cast some major suspicion on all of the members because of the radio, and they might just start accusing each other.
