Despite All Of Us Are Dead being filled to the brim with Gorn, horrifying images, with the occasional funny moment, there are a surprisingly amount of saddening moments in the show. If you expected just the scares, gore, and laughter, you're sorely mistaken.
As with all moments pages, Spoilers Off!
General
- Reality Subtext: The show reminded many Koreans about the 2014 Sewol Ferry Disaster and how the high school students on the ship were failed and abandoned by the adults in charge. Specifically the scene where one of the teachers said to tell the students to go back to their classrooms as the outbreak raged, much like how the students aboard the ferry were told to stay in their rooms as the ship sank. The American audience may find uncomfortable parallels with school mass shootings as well.
- And recently, the Itaewon crowd crush incident on Halloween 2022 with at least 158 dead and 196 injured, mainly youngsters in their 20s (and several of them might even be survivors of the Sewol incident above). The carelessness of adults in constructing the area plus the government (obviously consisted of adults) deflecting the blame on Halloween and foreigners are eerily reminiscent of the main theme of this show: the failures of adults and the youngsters having to deal with the resulting trauma for life, AGAIN!
- Hee-su's side-plot. Unplanned pregnancy must be one of the scariest things for a teenager to go through alone but poor Hee-su has to manage a delivery on her own then try to survive a zombie apocalypse.
- She intends to abandon her baby in the bathroom for someone to find, but after having a near-death experience and witnessing the beginnings of the zombie outbreak, she hurries back, picks up her baby, and tries to keep it safe.
- In her last moments, she realizes that she is going to die soon, as she was bitten in the arm. After she reaches Cheong-san Restaurant and shuts herself in with the baby, she leaves it in a safe spot and ties herself up to the door so she won't be able to harm it after she turns.
- When Detective Jae-ik and Ho-cheol arrive at the restaurant and find the baby, it only takes a glance at the teenage girl tied up to the door and the baby to figure out the situation, and his face is clearly appalled at the story behind it. He quickly hurries Ho-cheol to find milk for the baby.
Episode 1
The bullying Jin-su faces.Episode 2
- On-jo remembering I-sak's friendship as the latter turns.
- Gwi-nam cruelly killing another student by pushing her to the zombies. Even the kid hiding with him winces in horror.
Episode 3
- Gyeong-su dying, doing his best to stay as himself until the very end despite how terrified he is.
- Made even worse by the fact that he was fine until Na-yeon infected him so she wouldn't have to apologize for falsely accusing him of being infected.
- Everyone except Na-yeon is crying, even Nam-ra of all people.
- This act is compounded by infected Gyeong-Su biting Cheong-San's mother shortly after.
- Gwi-nam kills the other student hiding with him and then a cafeteria lady by using her as bait after she offers to help him.
Episode 4
- Cheong-san's mom getting infected.
Episode 5
- While the group is using a drone to survey the area around the school, Ji-Min recognizes her family's truck. The others try to calm her, bringing up the possibility of not being them, but they are immediately proven wrong when both her parents are already zombified inside the vehicle. Ji-Min has a big breakdown after learning that both her parents are dead and she is completely alone in the world.
- During the intro, we can see that Ji-Min arrives to school in the same truck, while both her parents send her off happily and give her her lunch. They just died that very same day when they tried to return to the school as soon as they heard about the outbreak.
Episode 6
- Se-bin being rescued while running from the zombies after her mother turned.
- Ji-min attempting suicide.
- Nam-ra gets bit trying to protect Su-hyeok from Gwi-nam and the group begins to fear her:
- Su-hyeok tries tooth and nail to protect Nam-ra from the group's growing fear, even tying their hands together and standing near the window to protect the rest in the worst case scenario.
- Cheong-san immediately tries to go for the kill with the panel stick, not wanting to lose another friend (Su-hyeok from protecting Nam-ra) like Gyeong-su.
- Which sadly (or not?) preventing Na-yeon who is hiding in the locker room with food and drinks from coming out.
- Nam-ra quietly wipes her tears from all of the unfairness she is receiving from her classmates. Even On-jo (who is a bit jealous of her for getting Su-hyeok's attention) cannot help but cast a sad look.
- Fueled by the loss of her parents, Ji-min cynically wants to remove Nam-ra from the group in fear of her zombie instincts. On-jo tries to reason with her but it does not work.
- And yet, Nam-ra does not blame anyone getting offensive on her, only apologizing to herself.
- On-jo quietly accepting that Su-hyeok only likes Nam-ra.
Episode 7
- The soldier in the opening and his call with his mom, promising her to stay safe and come home to her, and that scene being intercut with his death and turning.
Episode 8
- In the rooftop, Ji-min tells the group that she had the opportunity to transfer to a school in Seoul, but she wasn't sure about abandoning her friends, so she took On-Jo's advice to skip school for five days so she wouldn't get the recommendation to transfer anymore. Just when On-Jo was going to happily take credit for it, Ji-Min keeps telling that if she had transferred to the capital, she and her parents would be fine away from Hyosan, and On-Jo feels bad about it.
- Despite her horrible behavior earlier in the series, it's hard not to feel bad when Na-yeon is attacked by Gwi-nam as it happens right after she feels remorse for causing Gyeong-su's death and decides to bring food to the other surviving students.
Episode 9
- The kids being left behind by the soldiers. Even some of the soldiers can't seem to believe what they've done, repeatedly questioning their orders, looking at the students in shock, and only firing a warning shot in the air once they're told told to open fire on the students. When they're back in the helicopter, one throws his helmet in a burst of anguish, clearly disgusted by himself and their actions.
- On-jo's dad leaving behind a couple to get to the school.
Episode 10
- Cheong-san seeing his zombified mother. The flashbacks of her being nothing but loving to him are like a punch to the gut.
- During the previous episode, when Cheong-san is recording his part of the Apocalyptic Log video. He's talking to his mother about her naming the chicken restaurant after him, while we're shown his zombified mother and focusing on the Cheong-san Restaurant logo.
- Dae-su, Joon-Young and Wu-Jin, naturally, try to take out the zombie that was about to attack Cheong-san, and it's not until Cheong-san calls her "Mom", that they stop and look equally as sad as Cheong-san and On-Jo. Dae-su later takes his time to apologize to Cheong-san for not knowing that was his mother.
- When Cheong-san sees his zombified mother and attacks his friends in rage for them beating her, even punching Dae-su repeatedly. It's not until he yells "Mom!" that Joon-yeong and Wu-jin clue in and stop.
- When the group reaches the gym and Dae-su apologizes for what he did, Cheong-san gives no response and instead collapses and cries while On-jo gently holds and comforts him.
- Joon-Young's death. Before they venture outside the gym supplies closet, he has a heated argument about whether to build a taller wall for their mobile barricade or follow Mi-Jin's suggestion to have a rooftop and have everyone crowl under itnote . Joon-Young says that he would take responsibility if the plan fails. Later, he gets bitten trying to defend Mi-jin, and realizing that he is indeed going to take responsibility, he gets out of the barrier to distract as many zombies away from his friends before he also turns.
- Just a few minutes ago, Joon-Young and Mi-Jin were arguing loudly over which plan to use to escape the zombie-filled gym. However, the moment Joon-Young sacrifices himself for her and steps out of the barrier, Mi-Jin along with the rest of the survivors are forced to watch and scream in horror as Joon-Young is swarmed and bitten by zombies while helped them escape faster from the gym.
- Before they charge out of the gym, they find a candy bar stashed in the supply closet, given that nobody had any food in the span of two days. Most of them gets a tiny bite of the candy (with some skipping their share to give it to the others), but when it's Dae-su's turn, he eats the remaining chocolate before realizing that Joon-Young didn't have any yet. When they get to the quarantine camp, Dae-su leaves the candy wrap in the snack offerings for the deceased, since he still feels guilty that he unintentionally denied Joon-Young of his last meal.
Episode 11
- On-jo's father sacrificing himself to save his daughter and the other kids. This is compounded by Cheong-san being bitten by Gwi-nam almost immediately after, having one first and last kiss with On-jo, and sacrificing himself to give everyone else a chance.
- Gwi-nam briefly cries before his last fight with Cheong-san.
- Moments prior to the bombing, we see close ups of the characters we've followed but are now zombies, knowing full well their struggle for survival only to end up among the horde.
- The General's suicide. It's incredibly clear that he is grief-stricken at what he has done despite his professionalism. His wife's text about apologizing about being cranky with him and asking when he's coming home is an extra gut-punch.
- The little girl Jae-ik and Ho-cheol saved crying for her mother with no one there to comfort her.
Episode 12
- The death of Jang Wu-Jin, Ha-Ri's younger brother, is another a sad moment. The students were about to reach the place where the soldiers and survivors are when they are attacked by surprise by the zombies and he is killed when he was trying to save his older sister from being killed. Dae-su, Wu-Jin's best friend, is the first one who breaks down crying on Su-hyeok's shoulder.
- During his last moments, Wu-Jin once again asks if she really qualified to the National Team, and she keeps her story. Wu-Jin tells her that he immediately knew she was lying, since she returned to school the same day of the outbreak. Even though, he still understands why she lied and encourages her to move on.
Wu-Jin: Keep doing archery. Okay? Don't give up. Okay?~- Ha-ri's reaction counts as well, for the first time one of the series' most stoic characters breaks down in tears as her brother is being turned into a zombie right in front of her as his blood falls on her tear-stained face.
- Mi-Jin is unable to kill newly-zombied Wu-Jin after Ha-ri's pleas and Nam-ra appears from behind to snap the zombie's neck with a face full of indifference. Mi-Jin's words to Nam-ra say it all.Mi-Jin: I know I've killed a lot of zombies myself, but a human being would apologize for killing her brother right in front of her.
- And the reason Nam-ra does not apologize? The zombie virus trying to take control of her, she has to try her hardest not to bite anyone standing there.
- As the students are making their way to Yangdong, they believe they are lost until Ha-Ri sees the yellow ribbons On-jo's father tied to trees to mark the trail. As they follow the ribbons, On-jo finds her father's flashlight and breaks down in grief and knowledge that it was him still managing to guide her and her friends to safety even after his death.
- When the surviving students reach the quarantine camp and are questioned by the military about what happened. On-jo is so bitter and jaded by her losses due to the failure of the adults that she point-blank tells them that she will not cooperate and will never trust another adult for anything. Su-hyeok tearfully asks why did the military abandon them. Hyo-ryung just silently stares at the questioning officer with tears falling down her cheeks, too traumatized to speak.
- As On-jo walks to her assigned room when she first comes to the quarantine camp, she's stopped by U-sin, her father's colleague. He asks her if she saw her father because he went to go rescue her. On-jo just silently looks down at the container of supplies she's holding, her father's flashlight on top. U-sin immediately understands and just looks so sad and dejected.
