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Completed
Duty after School: Part 2
40 people found this review helpful
by mmsv
Apr 22, 2023
4 of 4 episodes seen
Completed 8
Overall 9.0
Story 9.5
Acting/Cast 10
Music 8.0
Rewatch Value 8.5
This review may contain spoilers

The perfect ending

I see so many people angry with the ending and i get it is not the cup of tea for everybody, but to be honest i don't agree. I agree with the fact that a few more episodes would have been great for a better build up of the finale, but i get why they chose to end it like that: as the criminal said, the spheres are not the real villains, humanity is.

All the episodes have been pointing out how children should not have to worry about adults problems. About how adults put excesive presure on them, helding them responsible for things they are not. In the first season it was quite clear it was the war or getting into college because that it's what they are told to do, not because they want. In season two they are also held responsible about family situations being geting out of poverty one of the main themes. The thing is that even if the social and political narrative is that if you work hard enough you'll be able to get out of there and acomplish what you want, the truth is that there are many obstacles that are out of your hands and you won't be able to go though them by yourself.

With the ending we see the consecuences of that. We see how society makes kids compete with each other for a grade, makes them believe they have to be the best among their peers so they can have a bright future. They make them sabotage each other to the point where school violence is a norm in nowadays society as we reinforce it by valuing someone because of their results and not because of the process. All that because society says that you should get into college if you want to be valued later on, if you don't want to be an outcast. As youngsoo starts to deviate and do whatever it is in his hands to acumulate benefits and not die, even if that means betrying his friends, he strats to feel that the loss of letting go that goal that society asigned to him is too much to handle. That's why he can't put up with the fact that they have cancelled the CSAT, he has already done so much so it can't be true. That's why in a world were violence between peers has been normalized he chooses it as a way to get rid of those between him and his precious goal.

Despite the social narrative the truth is that after a few years, the college entrance exam becomes insignificant, maybe you study someting and end up working on something totally unrelated because even if you are a top student society can't secure you the job you want not even a job wit the minimum requires. That means that the people who suffered because of those years, including the ones who end up with mental health problems, those who killed themeselves, the victims of school violence or the perpetrators become insignificant. The same thing happens with war, at first people get engaged, but as it gets longer people forget about it. They only remember the result, the winners and the losers , while they forget all those from both parties that have lost their lifes. With time, even if those lost lifes are crucial to history's course and to modern civilication as we konow it, they become insignificant and are quickly forgoten.

Therefore the ending is cruel but the consecuences of how the modern world works are cruel and raw too. When you put too much presure into someone and even after all their hard work they fail the mental damage is devastating. That's why they said that they should have enjoyed their time together, go to the amusement park with all the class, not to participate in war because of the benefits and not to worry that much about the CSAT. We saw in a few scenes that when you go through something difficult to overcome it you can not solely rely on the results because they might not meet with your expectations, you have to see the things you earn in the process. I think that's why in this season we see so many scenes between them, hanging out and goofing around despite the gravity of the situation. As they said if it was not because of the war some of them would have not even talked to each other, they would not have felt the confort of telling somebody about their personal difficulties and feel the warmth of feeling that somebody understands them as in the current world we only know superficial things about each other believing that everybody is doing amazing and you're the only one that's in a bad place.

So I think the ending is the cherry on the top of the cake, closing the social critique they have developed all throught the series. Even after all they have sacrificed, even after all their damage and loss, the thing is that nobody will remember it, nobody will value it, it will just be as if nothing ever happened as society will move on. Only those to whom we are really close to will be the ones that remember, that's why the writer said that the hole class where the main characters because at the end, the thing we should value above all are the people around us, because when things get hard they will be the only ones that won't give us their back.

At the end, they just sign a paper where it says only 4 of the unit class have survived, that's all society cares, a paper with a few lines and a signature, they move on and that's it. Even after their esencial contribution, the kids only remain as memories to their friends but to nobody else.

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