An Explosive Finish
Episode 11 of All of Us Are Dead starts with So-Ju catching up with his daughter. The pair are finally reunited while the other kids scramble to safety and manage to escape the horrors of the gymnasium. So-Ju encourages the group to head back the way he came, through the tennis courts and then to the construction site and beyond. Unfortunately when they get there, the zombie horde has already caught up and it has them surrounded. Using a signal flare, So-Ju manages to distract the zombies to let them all escape. So-Ju starts blowing his whistle and eventually sacrifices himself to make sure the kids make it to safety. Why? Well, it turns out he’s been bitten. After saying goodbye to his daughter, So-Ju is killed. The kids continue on, making it to the construction site and, after hiding from more zombies again, find themselves on the scaffolding outside. While this is going on, Gwi-Nam interrogates Min-jae for answers. As we saw last episode, he managed to escape the others with the bow and arrow, making it into the gym. Gwi-Nam bites him, which means he’s going to turn into a super zombie like Nam-Ra right?… right? Well no, he just turns into a mindless zombie instead. While Gwi-Nam goes on the hunt for the kids, Seon-moo and the others are briefed on what’s about to transpire. The officials are going to launch sound-emitting drones to target locations in a bid to lure all the zombies out into the open. Specifically to key areas where they can launch missiles to blow them up. These areas include downtown Hyosan and Hyosan High. They deduce that 50k infected will be wiped out…along with 10k who are asymptomatic or not infected. Up on the construction site, Nam-Ra uses her inexplicable super hearing to understand what’s going on from the helicopter flying overhead. With numerous drones released and sent across town, a recurring joke returns. Gwi-Nam shows up, he bites Cheong-San’s arm and then he’s thrown of to the groun below. Cheong-San refuses to let the others succumb to his horrible fate and decides to sacrifice himself. Hey, does everyone else remember when Nam-Ra was bitten and ended up absolutely fine? Anyway, moving on. Cheong-San hugs On-Jo one last time and confronts his bully in the building site below while the others hurry on to the mountain as planned. This time though, Gwi-Nam really does gouge Cheong-San’s eye out. It’s gruesome and pretty gnarly but it’s nothing compared to what happens next. The four main areas are blown up, including Hyosan High, the sports complex and the downtown area. The kids manage to get away, while Gwi-Nam and Cheong-San are both presumably killed in the ensuing inferno that follows. With the operation a success, Seon-Moo decides to get some rest. In the morning they’re going to send in troops to ground zero to check on what’s left and see if there are any survivors. For Seon-Moo though, the heavy cost of all those lives weighing on his conscience is just too much and he kills himself in his office. In fact, this comes off the back of watching the final video from Byeong-Chan, which includes him killing his wife and son as a last resort when he couldn’t find a vaccine. As the episode comes to a close, we pan across the devastation of the bomb blasts, including Cheong-San’s corpse which holds On-Jo’s nametag.
The Episode Review
So the army do eventually blow up the key hotspots across the town and in doing so, also drive Seon-Moo to commit suicide. This action is something that’s obviously killed a good number of people as a last resort to try and stop the spread of the infection. The whole deal with Gwi-Nam and the super zombie stuff has really been quite disappointing. There’s not been a lot of explanation for this beyond the whole “no fear/immunity” stuff and the inconsistency with biting people and giving them powers (or not) is another grey area that should have been expanded upon. I did say earlier in this season that like LUCA: The Beginning, that show started with a bang and ended with a whimper. While this one doesn’t quite follow suit and drop off quite so dramatically, All Of Us Are Dead does have enough contrivances and niggling little issues that it makes it difficult to fully get invested in the story, especially this late in the game. However, everything is set up for a big finish and after that shocking bomb blast and it’s fair to say things are about to simmer down and potentially see the survivors try to pick up the pieces of their fractured life in the aftermath of this.
