Duty After School (2023) Episode 2

Duty After School episode 2 starts with the students inside wondering what the huge thud was. Meanwhile, Kwon Il-Ha and Chi-yeol watch horrified as Yeong-hoon is swallowed by the sphere. Chi-yeol tries to get close but Lieutenant Lee arrives just in time to stop him.

He takes them inside and has a meeting with Park Eun-Young who is saddened to hear of Yeong-hoon’s passing. She is worried that the school is no longer safe as the government had said. She also reminds Lieutenant Lee that Yeong-hoon was a student, not a soldier. She asks to send the kids back home.

However, Lieutenant Lee tells her that they can’t send the students home and he has orders to keep quiet about the truth. He assures her that countermeasures are being put in place and everything will be handled according to military laws. He asks her to convince the students not to say anything about  Yeong-hoon’s death.

Kwon Il-Ha and Chi-yeol agree to lie to the other students that Yeong-hoon severely injured himself and went home. Kwon Il-Ha is worried that he is to blame for Yeong-hoon’s death and threatens Chi-yeol to keep it a secret. The other students are curious to know more but they don’t question the validity of the story.

Elsewhere, Lieutenant Lee has a flashback about what happened to his division when they hit the sphere with a panzer. The sphere attacked them with a vengeance and most of them didn’t survive.

The next morning, Park Eun-Young reports to school as usual while listening to the warnings on the radio not to approach a sphere when it falls. The students wonder what happened to the gym, where a sphere fell. The rest of the students are oblivious but Kwon Il-Ha and Chi-yeol seem sad.

With the sphere falling out of the blue at the school, military commander Park Young-Il suggests they intensify training. He asks for the students to be quickly taught how to fire a gun and to protect themselves. Lieutenant Lee is hesitant but he is left with no choice.

In the meantime, the students carry on with their classes and are frustrated with the constant ambulance siren that keeps renting the air.

Later, they start their training and they obviously find it hard. Gun training is not easy for most but Lee Na-Ra manages to do it well. They carry on with the firearm training and keep recording messages for their parents. They also learn CPR and other life-saving skills. Things continue to be tense between Kwon Il-Ha and Chi-yeol.

Days pass by and the kids adjust to their new normal. One night, Chi-yeol has a nightmare and runs into  Lee Na-Ra in the classroom. She comforts him and they head back to their respective barracks. It is clear that  Chi-yeol has a crush on her.

The next day, Lieutenant Lee tests the class on how quickly they can disassemble and assemble a firearm. Most students fair well and Na-Ra once again proves to be a pro. Unfortunately, No Ae-Seol is unable to do the challenge causing her classmate to get frustrated with her.

Lieutenant Lee is disappointed by their attitude to blame her for them missing their food and staying late waiting for her to complete the challenge. He reminds them that they can only survive as a team.

Later during dinner, Bo-Ra tries to make her feel worse but another student steps in. The students enjoy their dinner while talking about using real bullets the following day.

Concurrently,  Lieutenant Lee checks on the sphere which fell on the school grounds. They covered it with a hollow dome and froze it but so far they don’t know much about the spheres. Soldier Kim Won-bin comes in and updates him about the itinerary for the next day.

The next morning the students prepare to leave the school premises to practice shooting with real bullets. They head out and are surprised to find the streets empty. At the shooting field, the students were scared by the sound of the guns but they soon adapted. Na-Ra does exceptionally well and is praised by Lieutenant Lee. They also meet students from other schools and finally, they set off to return to the school after their lessons.

On their way, Lieutenant Lee and Kim Won-bin stop the group to investigate a noise. They ask the teacher and the students to stay together and wait. Against Lieutenant Lee’s advice, Hee-Rak and Tae-man decide to visit a convenience store they passed on the way for snacks. They find no one in the store and grab a few snacks they had been craving.

Teacher Park Eun-young realizes the students are missing and informs Soldier Seo Ja-yoon who leaves with another soldier to look for the kids. Kook Young-soo informs the teacher that Hee-rak and Tae-man were talking about a convenience store and she leaves with Kim Yoo-jung to get the two boys.

Soon, Kim Yoo-jung spots a gun but upon closer inspection she sees that other body parts are missing. She screams, alerting the teacher and other students to the scene.

On the other hand, Lieutenant Lee and Kim Won-bin realize a sphere that dropped before is missing. Teacher Park Eun-young spots blood and goes to investigate even though Chi-Yeol asked to stay put. In desperation, Chi-Yeol reminds her how Yeong-hoon died and other students are shocked to learn he is dead.

Nevertheless, Teacher Park Eun-young proceeds to investigate what is happening. She sees the spheres and the dead bodies of the students from different schools and screams for the kids to run.

The spheres start attacking and the teacher picks up a gun and shoots as many as possible. Sadly, she runs out of bullets and is killed as the students watch.  Another soldier arrives and he is decapitated by the spheres. The students realize they need to start running and they break into small groups trying to escape.

Along the streets, they encounter more dead bodies and spheres. They are helped by the soldiers and they try to help one another fight the spheres too.  The soldiers ask them to get a hold of themselves and run. Each group worries about where the others might be and what the spheres are.

Some students like Ha-na get too scared, especially after seeing Soldier Seo Ja-yoon die right before their eyes. Ha-na locks herself in a car and refuses to open it for Bo-Ra and Soon-Yi. Soon, Soldier Kim Won-bin is able to reunite most of the kids.

Bo-Ra and Soon-Yi are able to hide in a safe zone as the spheres surround them trying to break the windows down. The window starts cracking slowly and more spheres come their way.

The Episode Review

I feel bad for the students, they had no idea about the reality they were about to face. The adults kept them in the dark in order to help them but things went haywire. They lost their teacher and watched two more soldiers die.

They also saw most of the students from other schools who were with them in the shooting field dead. It must be a lot to take in all at once. I wonder if they will make it back to school? Also, Hee-rak and Tae-man – what happened to these two?

This was quite an episode, the spheres are scary and ruthless. I want to learn more about them. Let us see who survives in the next episode!