Duty After School (2023) Episode 9

Apr 23, 2023

Duty After School episode 9 starts with the prisoners chasing the students. One of them is against the idea but is outnumbered and agrees to search for the kids. The other four prisoners want to kill the boys and rape the girls. They still have Ae-seol and have no intention of letting her go. They spilt up to search for the kids but they fail to realize that the danger is not the students but the spheres.

The students hide and wait for the spheres to attack the prisoners. This was part of their plan all along, as they lured the spheres and pretended to surrender. They also removed the bullets from their guns which the prisoners took. Young-Shin even managed to give Ae-seol a signal about their plan before they surrendered.

Once the spheres descend upon them, the prisoners are killed one by one except two. The last prisoner is killed by his fellow mate, in an effort to rescue the students. In the end, they let the prisoner who saved them go his own way.

The students are also able to rescue Ae-seol and Bo-Ra takes a huge risk to protect her. Bo-Ra may act indifferent when it comes to Ae-seol but she cares about her. The students also collect their guns and arm themselves, fighting off the spheres and head back to the base.

Meanwhile, the students at the hospital discuss what to do with Soo-chul’s body. They decide to bring his body to the base with them, Soon-Yi finds the ballot papers in Soo-chul’s pocket and they start to question why he had it. Soon-Yi is able to identify the vote as hers and everyone starts believing that Soo-chul rigged the elections. Kwon Il-Ha gets defensive and almost has a fight with Soon-Yi.

Yeon-Joo points out that Soo-chul has been acting weird lately and they start questioning if he committed suicide. Chi-yeol remembers his conversation with Soo-chul about Na-Ra and argues that is impossible. He wants to tell the others about the fight he heard but decides not to as he suspects everyone at the moment.

Elsewhere at the base, Ha-na, Joon-hee and Deok-joong have a hard time believing someone sabotaged their mission. The intruders bid them farewell and wish them well. Ha-na, Joon-hee and Deok-joong decide to keep the revelation to themselves so as to keep the peace among the group.

The first team to return to the base is the one from the penitentiary but they didn’t find a radio or any spare parts to fix the one they have. They are all tired and don’t want to talk about what happened. Ae-seol offers to give Bo-Ra first aid and apologizes for endangering the team. She explains that she got sentimental because she was abandoned by her parents after their divorce. Bo-Ra accepts her apology, Young-shin also checks on her and they flirt a bit.

The second team arrives in a solemn mood carrying Soo-chul’s body. The students are heartbroken by his death. They hold a funeral for him and grieve his death. After the burial, Chi-yeol brings up the issue of the rigged votes. He presents the votes that Soo-chul had with him at the time of his death and asks Yoo-Jung to explain.

All the students demand the truth and after a heated argument, it is discovered that Yoo-Jung, Soo-chul, Jang-soo and Kwon Il-Ha rigged the votes. It was also Soo-chul who sabotaged the radio after getting the call that the CSATs were cancelled. They thought it would be safer to stay at the base instead of leaving for Seoul. They decided to choose the fate of everyone without consulting them first. As expected, the other students are furious and Young-Soo has a meltdown.

Everyone feels betrayed and upset that they were forced to stay in a war they didn’t want to fight. Yoo-Jung, Soo-chul, Jang-soo and Kwon Il-Ha sincerely apologize for doing exactly what the adults did to them in the beginning. However, Yoo-Jung points out that it is still dangerous to travel to Seoul. The other students don’t care and want to go back home.

Na-Ra feels upset so Chi-yeol tries to comfort her and promises that they will look for their parents when they get to Seoul. He also brings up the question of Soo-chul’s death. Na-Ra advises him to stay still until they get evidence of what happened. At the same time, Young-soo tears his book as he comes to terms with the fact that the CSATs are cancelled.

The next morning, the students leave for Seoul. They are all in a solemn mood and one of them narrates that they have changed since the war began and wish they never made the choice to go to the capital.

The Episode Review

We still are not sure about what happened to Soo-chul and maybe we will never know. It is understandable why Chi-yeol is suspicious and feels like he can’t trust anyone.

Speaking of trust, Yoo-Jung, Soo-chul, Jang-soo and Kwon Il-Ha betrayed their friends’ trust and they had a valid reason but they should have let them make the decision themselves. They took away their options and forced them to continue to carry out missions to get extra points knowing very well the CSATs were cancelled.

I am curious to find out why the narrator in the last scene regrets going to Seoul… do they all die? Let us find out in the final episode!