If you ask me, Duty After School Part 1 was mid to begin with. It wasn't bad, but it wasn't nearly as good as people were making it out to be. A lot of things didn't make sense and were poorly written/executed. So what about its second part? Well, it’s more or less the same thing.

The direction they took is not surprising at all. The show was never truly about aliens more than it was about the people at the core of conflicts, who are dragged into them and pointlessly sacrificed in the name of wars. Wars they are fighting because they are told to, because of a so-called “duty”: a word that minimizes the fact that you’re exploited by people far higher than you, who could never understand what you went through, and also frankly don’t care. Duty After School is about what damages war —in all its aspects— inflicts on individuals, and indeed, there's absolutely nothing unexpected about a kid going absolutely crazy after being deceived over and over, realizing his entire life is ruined.

Now, was that done well? Not really. One of the kids killing another/everyone was foreshadowed a lot— and honestly, I was expecting something like that since the first part already— but it still felt rushed. We could honestly have done without the sexual assault and incel bits too. It would have been so much more impactful if Yeong Soo wasn't an awful and insufferable bitch to begin with, but only a decent guy becoming completely broken because of the lies and deception of the adults. If he simply was a person who had lost his last hope, the only thing that tied him back to his life as a regular student, then it would've actually meant something. It made sense for him to be the one to do it, and if he wasn't a total creep forcing himself on an unconscious girl, his descent into madness would've been interesting to analyze. But I don't want to analyze the psyche of a sexual assaulter, thank you very much.
A long time ago, I remember reading someone’s comment about how SA was impossible to forgive/understand compared to murder, and it's something that has stuck with me ever since. I think many things can push you to take someone's life, more or less valid reasons, but I don't think anything can excuse being a sexual abuser. So with those weird incel moments Yeong Soo had, I just think it took a lot away from the message without actually bringing anything worthwhile in return. We already had the prisoners trying to assault Ae Sol, did we really need more? Why?

To comment on a criticism that I’ve seen a lot: personally I don't mind the fact that the characters died "for nothing". Sometimes life is that way, and I think TV shows shouldn’t shy away from that. It hurts even more when a character dies pointlessly, but it usually always carries a message or builds up to something more later in the story. They had been hinting at something like that for a while, and in a way... it's just realistic. And reality usually isn’t all that pleasant. In this case, it’s the entire point of the show. Those kids didn't need to be drafted to begin with. EVERYTHING was pointless right off the bat, and we knew. What are the consequences of dumb decisions taken by the government? Ruined lives. Pointless deaths. From the first episode, many horrible events could’ve been prevented, yet they weren’t. It’s only fitting it ends like that. Even those who survived will never get back to a normal life, and there will be more useless deaths in the future. Many will lose their lives to all the trauma they got from this war.
The show itself tells you it was all meaningless. Two months after everything happened, they were able to get rid of the spheres with new weapons. They could’ve very well quarantined everyone while they tried to find a way to get rid of the aliens, but decided against it. Why? Because to the government, to the military, people are not really people. They are cannon fodder. And not treating people like human beings gets you there. Dropping weapons on random untrained and traumatized kids’ hands gets you there. Giving weapons to teenagers is never a solution. That’s all there is to it.

The way I see it, the first part of the show was more about kids fighting weird aliens, while the second part was about how it affected them as human beings. In my opinion, it’s an improvement and made that season more interesting.

There are still many flaws, obviously:
-Some people can just shoot way too many bullets with one magazine (e.g. that creepy prisoner, Yeong Soo at the end), which was already a problem in Part 1;
-How was Yeong Soo able to drag Il Ha to the sea, how did he have the time to weigh down his body with rocks, without getting blood all over himself, when the rest of the group arrived so shortly after having heard the gunshots? Il Ha is about his height and weight, it wouldn’t be easy at all;
-Some deaths were frustrating because, come on… Il Ha turns his back to the guy who just threatened to shoot him?;
-Then Na Ra prefers trying to wake up Chi Yeol rather than trying to stop the guy who’s shooting her remaining friends… uh. Not sure I understand the reasoning, especially when that could very well get both of them shot. I get you certainly don’t act completely rationally in such situations, but I would’ve been more convinced if she had simply been frozen in fear;
-Apparently Kim Won Bin disappeared without it being explained, but I honestly don’t remember exactly how Part 1 ended so yeah, I’ll let you check for yourself;
-The fact that the show kept bringing up the university extra points was honestly so annoying. I know, that’s the thing students are holding onto, hoping to get back to a normal life, but also who fucking cares? I mean, for it to matter to a few characters like Yeong Soo, sure yeah. But the fact that they treated it like most still cared after so long, and considered that learning they might not get them would be a “tipping point” for a lot of students was so weird to me. The lie in itself is awful, yes, but also… are you really thinking of going back to school after that? I think most people would have a “idgaf, I just want to see my family and take a long break” mentality. The fact that we had to wait until the very end of the show for them to explicitly say it didn’t matter at all, when Chi Yeol left the exam room? That was pushing it. They did say that some weren’t fighting for the points anymore (around ep 8/9 maybe?), but I still think it was made too important throughout the whole series. Every time I heard about those fucking points, I wanted to slam my head on my desk;
-There’s another message in the show that kinda got lost on the way. So I believe there is some criticism made about the university system and elitism in South Korea but also… I’m not sure an alien invasion and war trauma are the best ways to denounce that? It also felt a bit cheesy, in a bad way. It makes sense for Chi Yeol to think the only things that mattered were his friendships, caring for and supporting each other. In his situation, it’s a logical conclusion. But what is the lesson that you are trying to teach your viewers there? That university isn’t all that important? That it doesn’t define your worth? That friends matter the most? Not to say I disagree with that, but it’s also not that easy in real life so it just falls flat. Plus, I just watched a kid decimate all his classmates, I’m not really in the right headspace to care about your criticism of university, how it pits students against one another etc. I don’t think the parallel they’re trying to draw works very well here.

Overall, Duty After School Part 2 wasn’t great, but it wasn’t worse than Part 1 (which I gave a 6/10). It's just different. I’d even argue it was a tad bit better. I know the ending won’t suit everyone’s tastes, and in fact most will dislike it, but I can’t say it’s an awful ending. It could’ve been improved by being less rushed, but it was fitting with the tone and the message of the show.