To say that I was majorly disappointed with the first part of Duty After School would be an understatement. It was horrible. But since I had to find out how this series turned out, I had to finish the remaining four episodes, which were slightly better but only slightly less horrible.

Synopsis: In the aftermath of their successful but tragic clearing mission, the students find themselves running the show after their walkie talkie dies. They do fairly well on their own but a secret comes out and tests their trust for one another.

Duty After School Part 2 is a major improvement from the first part given that the students have matured somewhat and now take this war seriously. Even without the supervision of adults (it was never explained where Won Bin went after Part 1), they were able to run successful missions using teamwork and strategy. But of course, conflict had to be introduced, so apart from the alien invasion, the true nature of man had to be analyzed as well.

In the second half of Duty After School, the series tried to sort out the question about Bo Ra’s animosity towards Ae Sol, which was so awkward. She spent countless episodes bullying her for no reason and came to her rescue when she did the stupidest thing and endangered everyone on the team. Huh?

It was frustrating because just when audiences began to develop sympathy for the kids, they go ahead and something stupid again. The series took on The Walking Dead vibes in Episode 2 at the prison but quickly ended the tension with a half baked resolution.

Class bully Il Ha also suddenly transformed into a retrospective hero type and was given a free pass for all of his previous misdeeds because he felt bad about his classmate dying? With very little time left, the series also pulled the rug from underneath the viewers’ feet by throwing a complete 360 with the villains resulting in an unsatisfactory ending to the series.

The last episode should have been the culmination of everything that the kids have been working so hard for but as it turned out, the ending was a complete copout. Was the show, in its own way trying to spark a conversation about mental health and bullying, gun violence and whatnot? I wonder. It truly sucked big time and it seemed like the writers cheated the audience out of a reasonable resolution to the tale.

All in all, horrible. Loose ends that were tied up with a half arsed narration from the person who least deserved to survive (okay, he’s not the absolute worst but he’s like the top 3). In short, an ending that simply told viewers that they wasted 10 hours of their lives watching this drivel, and all for nothing.

PS. That what if? ending added nothing but more frustration.