Duty After School (2023) Episode 10 (Final Episode)

Duty After School episode 10 starts with the students walking, as they are on their way to Seoul. They came across the dead bodies of the students from the Science High School whom they had met a few days earlier. Things are not looking great, they are exhausted and are running out of food and water.

Young-soo is still hung up on the cancellation of the CSATs and wants the team to go back. He thinks that the CSAT will still happen and he doesn’t want to lose his points for deserting the mission. The rest of the team asks him to get it together and deal with the reality that they won’t take the CSAT exams. They all feel like survival is the most pressing matter and couldn’t care less about the exams at the moment.

After walking for miles, they come across an amusement park and find some food. The students are still angry with Yoo-Jung, Soo-chul, Jang-soo and Kwon Il-Ha and refuse to let them eat. However, after discussing what happened to the students from the Science High School, they change their minds and make up. They all enjoy their food and reminisce about their memories before the war started. They regret not visiting an amusement park as a class and Deok-joong remembers that Soo-chul wanted to visit one.

As they talk, So-Yoon and Young-Shin fix the generator and turn on the lights and the rides. The students decide to have fun and go on the rides as long as they don’t scream and alert the spheres. They all have an amazing time, enjoying the rides, playing games and teasing each other. Some of them, like Chi-yeol and Kwon Il-ha, have heartfelt conversations.

Kwon Il-Ha admits that he fought with Soo-chul before his death. He feels guilty about losing his friends and his old bullying ways. Chi-yeol comforts him and assures him that it is not his fault his friends died. Bo-Ra and Ae-seol also get closer by sharing stories and smoking a cigarette

Jang-soo and So-Yeon stand watch while the others have the time of their life. On the other hand, Young-soo wanders away, feeling slighted that the others are having time in such a moment. Jang-soo spots him and asks him not to worry too much, they can take the exam the following year. This annoys Young-soo even more as he feels that Jang-soo doesn’t understand his plight since he comes from a well-off family.

The students take photos in the booth and decide to take a picture as a group. They notice that Young-soo, Jang-soo and So-yeon are absent but decide to find them later and take another picture. As they prepare to pose, Chi-yeol notices a video recorded by Soo-chul in his final moment.

Chi-yeol absentmindedly left the camera behind that day and Soo-chul found it. Soo-chul opted to make an apology video but was attacked by the spheres. He managed to kill them but accidentally fell out the window while shooting. The students are sad but glad that no one murdered him as they earlier suspected.

Meanwhile, Jang-soo and So-yeon spend some time together watching the beach. Jang-soo apologizes for the deceit they pulled and they talk about Lieutenant Lee and what it means to be an adult. So-yeon gives him the can of coke she got from Kwon Il-Ha. They fail to notice Young-soo watching them from afar.

Later, So-yeon walks alone when she spots Young-soo who is in the middle of a mental breakdown and has hallucinations about the call to suspend the CSATs being withdrawn. Unfortunately, So-yeon fails to see the signs that Young-soo is becoming erratic and dangerous. She asks him to forget about the CSATs and he gets angry, he accuses her of avoiding him and mentions he saw her kissing Jang-soo. He starts getting violent and So-yeon tries to pull away. Amidst the struggle, he pushes her and she hits a trash can hard and faints.

Young-soo realizes what he has done but his awareness is fleeting. He starts remembering the times when she used to call him a pervert for staring at her hips in class and when she was generally mean to him. He proceeds to start sexually harassing her but is spotted by Kwon Il-ha. Kwon Il-ha intervenes and tries to save So-yeon. He fails to realize that Young-soo is a bigger threat than he first pictured. Young-soo threatens to shoot him if he tells anyone what happened.

Kwon Il-Ha tries to pretend that he will not tell anyone but he overpowers Young-soo and beats him up. He turns to check on So-yeon and Young-soo uses that chance to grab a stone and hit him over the head. Another fight ensues and unfortunately, Young-soo shoots Kwon Il-Ha in cold blood and quickly throws his body into the sea. So-yeon is barely conscious during this traumatic event and lies there helplessly.

Once the sounds of gunshots rent the air, the kids quickly rush to grab their guns and assess the situation. They find So-yeon barely conscious and Young-soo wet. Young-soo spins a tale of how a sphere attacked and dragged Kwon Il-Ha into the sea. He pretends like he tried to save Kwon Il-Ha and failed.

Hee-rak is hit hard by this news, he was one of Kwon Il-Ha’s best friends. He tries to get into the water and find Kwon Il-Ha but Jang-soo sees that the detector is indicating danger and forces the group to evacuate.

On the way, they keep checking on So-yeon who is awake and capable of walking. It is also raining heavily and they are worried that So-yeon is concussed and needs rest. They try asking her what happened but So-yeon says she doesn’t remember. She, however, seems wary of Young-soo. Young-soo is also worried that she will remember and start talking about what really happened. They find a school and decide to take refuge there.

At the school, the students rest and treat So-yeon. Hee-rak is still in disbelief and the students agree they will return to find Kwon Il-Ha’s body so they can bury him. Young-soo starts getting scared but feels confident they won’t find the body because he weighed it down with stones. He leaves the room and the other students start talking about the things they want to do in the future.

They can’t wait to reunite with their families, be in their homes and have their favourite meals. The war has made them sentimental and has taught them a lot. They distract themselves from the pain of losing Kwon Il-ha by envisioning their future. So-yeon starts to remember and pulls Jang-soo aside to tell him her version of the story.

Jang-soo tells her to take time and rest before accusing Young-soo of the hideous crime. So-yeon is not exactly sure if her memories are real and is in denial. Young-soo secretly listens to their conversation and ponders what to do. His condition is getting worse and he is already seeing Kwon Il-ha’s ghost and hallucinating about the students finding out what he did. He is also seeing spheres when they are not there.

The other students are still in a classroom talking about the people they have lost and sharing memories. Deok-Joong tries to lighten the mood and starts wishing he had a time machine. As they talk, they realize that Young-soo is not with them. Jang-soo offers to go fetch him. As he opens the door, he is shot and Young-soo enters the classroom and starts firing and killing them one by one.

The students are too shocked to react in time. Most of them try to fire back but don’t even get a chance to pull the trigger. Hee-rak manages to shoot Young-soo in the leg. Bo-Ra and Ae-seol manage to get out of the classroom, and sadly Bo-Ra is gunned down in the hallway.  Chi-yeol and Na-ra also make it out of the classroom. Na-Ra manages to shoot Young-soo but it is not fatal. She also gets injured in the shooting spree. Chi-yeol tries to reason with Young-soo and begs him to stop.

Heartbreakingly, Young-soo says that he has no choice and apologizes, finally, Ae-seol shoots him down before he kills Chi-yeol and Na-ra. They go back to check if they are any survivors in the class but they only find a bloodbath and a book where they wrote their plans for the future. Only four students survived the massacre.

How Does Duty After School End?

Two years later, Chi-yeol narrates what happened after that fateful day. According to Chi-yeol, the military developed a new weapon a few weeks later after the school shooting. With the new weapon, the spheres were killed and the war came to an end. Chi-yeol felt as if what they had to endure during the war was done in vain. He questions why they were drafted into war if the government could have made a weapon from the beginning and spared so many lives.

As he sits in an exam room, about to take his CSATs (which have become controversial due to the extra points for those who were enlisted), he wonders what the point of it all was. He realizes that most of his friends didn’t get a chance to take the exams even though they fought so hard to survive. He decides to walk out of the exam room.  He wonders if he could turn back time, would he sign the consent forms?

The episode ends with him imagining what would have happened to the class if the war had not started. In his mind, they would all be alive, pulling their usual antics and being typical high school students.

The Episode Review

To say this episode came in like a wrecking ball would be an understatement, Nothing could have prepared us for the traumatic and haunting twist that came at the end there. It will take us a few minutes to digest everything that happened. Did you think it would end this way?

I feel sad for Chi-yeol and the other three students who made it alive. They went through something so life-altering and it is understandable why he walked out of the test. I am amazed that he even mustered the courage to enter a classroom again.