If You Can Dodge A Wrench, You Can Dodge A Zombie
Episode 10 of All of Us Are Dead picks up with Cheong-San entranced and wanting to save his Mum. Thankfully, Dae-Su thinks fast and bashes her in the head with a pipe. Cheong-San loses control though and stops the other students from beating his infected mother. It’s utterly mindless and it almost sends the entire plan awry. Thankfully the kids pull Cheong-San away, despite him shouting “Mom” back at her. So much for the thunder numbing the zombie senses; the zombies track Cheong-San and the others and begin chasing them. As the group race away, Joon-yeong and the others aren’t far behind. Ji-Min sacrifices Na-Yeon to the zombies but thankfully Ha-Ri is there with her group and they save the girl from a tragic fate. It also allows Cheong-San to be reunited with his sister too. Altogether the group make it into the gymnasium. Only, the entire place is completely full of the infected and despite thunder rumbling outside, the zombies are every bit as alert and bloodthirsty as they were before. Joon-Seong is unfortunately killed for his efforts while the others all hide inside the storage cupboard for the night. One person left outside is Ji-Min who ends up infected. She calls out for her mum but as she turns, more narration from Byeong-Chan confirms that this Jonas virus is ever-changing and that means a vaccine is almost impossible to create. After recreating the virus for themselves, the scientists with Seon-Moo confirm that everything in Byeong-Chan’s notes are correct. They’re not sure they’ll be able to stop the outbreak. And even worse, it’s now starting to spread across to Yangdong. This also mans that Seon-moo and his superiors may well have to give up on Hyosan completely and leave it to be completely destroyed. In doing so, this also means the Assemblyman is forced to resign. She doesn’t want to give up on the town but the party leaders want to preserve her career and give Kim a way out. Back in the storage cupboard, the two groups meet properly and exchange pleasantries by checks notes making a ridiculous amount of noise. Great work. Anyway, all of this comes about because Dae-Su actually really likes Ha-Ri and has even been calling Cheong-Sin brother-in-law all this time. All this commotion eventually leads to a democratic vote about the next step forward. They all decide to armour up after sharing a chocolate bar, although Dae-Su greedily takes more than his fair share before Wu-Jin can have a bit. Their plan here involves layering up and then using a trolley of gym equipment to fend off the zombies and make it to the door across the other side of the gym. With the group finally ready to move out, they try to stave off the zombies. It’s a pretty bad plan, especially when they end up surrounded. Slowly but surely they move the makeshift train. Elsewhere, Seon-Moo and the others are briefed by the NIS. They deduce that in one week the infection will spread to a lot of the neighbouring towns and then eventually Seoul. When it hits the capital, this virus is going to cause an unprecedented level of damage. So the only solution they come up with is bombing the entire city of Hyosan to stop this from spreading. One guy who has remained unaccounted for so far is So-Ju. H’s still on the move, but he’s cornered at a construction site. He manages to break free as Cheong-San and the rest of the group make it across to the door in the gymnasium. With the door locked and chained from the other side, So-Ju shows up just in time to rescue his daughter and the other kids.
The Episode Review
The two groups finally reconvene with the brother and sister teaming up… and making one hell of a racket in the morning. I get that this whole scene was supposed to be a bit of comedic levity but the amount of noise they make is just ridiculous, especially as we’ve already established that these zombies are prone to sound. The fact that it didn’t arouse any of the zombies in the gymnasium over to the door is a bit contrived too, although their unconventional plan to move the gym equipment to form a circular barricade actually worked pretty well. Ending things with So-Ju and his daughter reunited is a nice way to tie everything together for the big finale, which is looking like it may end with an almighty bang – quite literally. The plan to blow up the city looks to be given the green-light and that poses a particularly big problem for our various different characters, especially if they’re still stuck in the school. Despite the contrivances and a few illogical plot holes, there’s a decent amount of zombie action in this episode to keep things ticking away. It’s definitely not as good as Kingdom or Happiness, but this is a solid Korean zombie series all the same.
