The Tainted Tissue
Episode 3 of All of Us Are Dead returns to the police station, where Byeong-Chan admits to starting this viral outbreak. While he talks to Jae-Ik, we cut across to Hee-Su who has problems of her own. After leaving the school with an upset stomach, we saw her last episode with water dribbling down her legs. Now, it turns out she was actually pregnant and gives birth in a public bathroom on her own. Cheong-San however, survives his tumble off the balcony. He clings on for dear life to the hosepipe, but one of the infected grips his leg. Su-Hyeok manages to come over and help though, acrobatically diving and managing to grab the hose. It’s miraculous that this thing hasn’t broken and it’s a pretty ludicrous moment in truth. The infection soon begins to spread across town though, with Hee-Su forced to evade the zombies while holding onto her babe. She also narrowly misses being hit with a police car too, which is filmed by bystanders. The same bystanders who upload it onto FaceBook and allow our kids in the broadcasting room to see take place. It’s a neat way of moving the action back to the broadcasting room. Eventually all the kids reconvene, where tensions break out between Na-Yeon and Gyeong-Su. After thwarting an infected, Su-Hyeok accidentally knocks Gyeong-Su in the nose. The thing is, this causes the others to believe he’s infected. Na-Yeon is the ringleader in this, but she refuses to apologize when it turns out he’s okay. Na-Yeon presses on, believing the scratch on his hand was a result of the infected. In order to get to the bottom of this, Sun-Hwa makes a big decision and decides he should stay in the recording room. At least for 30 minutes anyway to see if anything changes. Gwi-Nam is still alive too, and uses every resource he can to make it to safety. While this is happening, Cheong-San’s mother notices the news about Hyosan and grabs the nearby bike and races to the school. On-Jo’s father meanwhile, sees the infection first-hand after being called to the office building where one of the infected is tied to a chair. As the infection grows worse, police mobilize in the streets and prepare to fight back the hordes. This also means Cheon-San’s mum is forced to take a risky path through the back alleys. And out of all the people she could run into, it’s Hee-Sun. She’s still cradling her baby and rushes away, leaving the woman alone to face a rabble of zombies chasing after her. Hee-Sun takes a turn for the worst. She’s infected and wanting to protect her child, she ties knots on the door to herself to try and stop the zombies from getting to the baby and to stop herself from doing something awful. Back in school, Gyeong-Su ends up sulking and refuses to come out from the recording room. In order to solve matters, Sun-Hwa and the kids suggest Na-Yeon be the one to go in and speak to him. Only, this just makes matters worse. Gyeong-Su soon begins bleeding from the nose when he’s let out and it seems like Na-Yeon was right after all. With a shaky voice, Gyeong-Su decides to leave on his own accord and do the right thing. Just before he turns, Gyeong-Su experiences some frightening visions. Cheong-San manages to distract him by whistling their favourite tune together, which sees him dive out the window and join the rest of the horde. The thing is, Na-Yeon actually wiped infected blood from the broom used earlier on to fend off the infected. She then used that to infect Gyeong-Su’s wound. Nam-Ri saw the whole thing and the group turn on her. It doesn’t take long for Na-Yeon to admit to everything. Na-Yeon eventually leaves, sobbing, claiming she has no friends. In her absence, Sun-Hwa sternly tells the other kids not to take another life. In doing so, that makes life itself meaningless. After her speech, she heads outside to try and save Na-Yeon. Grabbing her hand, they hurry away from the horde, leaving the kids on their own. But not for long – a helicopter shows up which could prove to be their salvation.
The Episode Review
The infection is spreading, and with it so too is the reach of this zombie series. More characters have come to the foreground now, including On-Joo’s father and Cheong-San’s mother. Seeing these different parts of the infection are a nice way of fleshing out the wider world and showing how devastating this infection actually has been. Unfortunately, All of Us Are Dead also slips into Black Summer territory too, with numerous characters killed off before properly expanding on them. Eun-Ji for example, is killed without much aplomb and that almost makes her screen-time redundant by the end. However, this also makes the show very unpredictable and knowing that anyone could die does help to raise the stakes too. The tension is still rife here too and the ending with the helicopter is a nice way to end things on a big cliffhanger. Is rescue coming?
