The Walking Dead 'One More' Ending Explained
Contains spoilers for The Walking Dead season 10, episode 19 — "One More"
After the intense Maggie-centric (Lauren Cohan) premiere and a heart-wrenching trip into Daryl's (Norman Reedus) past, The Walking Dead season 10C seemed poised to give fans a bit of a lighter outing with "One More." But the 19th episode of season 10, streaming now on AMC+, wound up being much darker than that.
The episode begins with Father Gabriel (Seth Gilliam) and Aaron (Ross Marquand) on a scavenging mission that has them following a map of possible supply-rich locations Maggie provided them. For the first half of "One More," viewers are treated to some slapstick humor and drunken chats over a shared bottle of $2,000 whiskey. However, in the episode's second half, things take a grim turn.
The episode's title gets a mention early on. After a few weeks of scavenging with little to show for it, Gabriel tries to persuade an obviously agitated Aaron to keep going, as they only have one more location to hit. On the way there, though, Gabriel has an encounter with a walker in some mud that leaves the map ruined. Gabriel is sure they can find the last stop without directions, as he remembers that it was near a water tower. But Aaron is too eager to get back to his daughter and doesn't see the point in trying another spot, as the others have been a bust. So, they begin their return trip to Alexandria.
Of course, in The Walking Dead universe, there's rarely such a thing as a simple trip home. The pair end up stumbling into a situation that forces them to confront their own feelings about their faith in the idea of family.
Gabriel and Aaron find supplies and an opportunity to do some bonding
As they head home, Gabriel and Aaron discover a seemingly abandoned warehouse that wasn't on Maggie's map. It appears as though they've hit the jackpot. The warehouse is walker-free, but does contain a live wild boar locked away in one of the offices, as well as a bottle of expensive whiskey hidden in a drawer. Although both men began the day in sour moods, they loosen up during their night of BBQ boar meat and booze.
After Gabriel and Aaron play a few rounds of poker, their conversation turns philosophical. Gabriel talks about one of his mentors from seminary, who taught him an important lesson about priestly communication: "Real ministering isn't preaching from a pulpit. It's talking to people one-on-one, on their own terms." Meanwhile, Aaron wistfully remembers his former calling as a recruiter for Alexandria. He shares with Gabriel that he wants them to start focusing on helping people again by bringing them together under the common bond of building a better world.
However, like Carol (Melissa McBride) in last week's episode, Gabriel's faith in Alexandria and what it represents has been seriously shaken by the Whisperer War. He's no longer convinced that the ideal of Alexandria as a community of light in a world of darkness is achievable. When Aaron tries to tell him to not let the Whisperers cloud his worldview, Gabriel responds, "Evil people aren't the exception to the rule. They are the rule."
A hangover to remember
The next morning, Gabriel wakes up to a gnarly hangover. Meanwhile, Aaron, who got up for a bathroom break in the middle of the night, is missing in action. Worse still is the discovery that the two of them aren't alone in the warehouse.
While searching for Aaron, Gabriel meets Mays (Robert Patrick), who's brandishing an AK-47 and is very unhappy about the two trespassing in his hideout. He's also been eavesdropping on their conversation all night. Gabriel tries to claim ignorance about knowing that they were in someone's home, but Mays retorts with an excellent point: "So, you figured that boar got into that room by itself?"
Mays holds Gabriel at gunpoint and reveals that Aaron is alive, but tied to a chair. To make everyone's hangover exponentially worse, Mays also announces that they are going to play a game. He puts a revolver with one bullet in the chamber on the table between the two men: Gabriel and Aaron are going to take turns playing Russian roulette until the bullet is fired. The twist is that each man will have the option to either pull the trigger with the barrel either pointed to their own head, or to their friend's.
Earlier in their conversation, Gabriel tries to convince Mays that his statement about evil people from the night before was just his drunken ramblings. Mays now seems determined to prove that Gabriel was being more honest than he cares to admit.
Mays puts Gabriel and Aaron's beliefs to the ultimate test
They begin to play, with each man opting to point the gun only at themselves. The intense scene gives Gabriel and Aaron the opportunity to put their respective ministering skills to the test as they extol the virtues of their community in Alexandria, saying, "We're not thieves and murderers. We don't kill each other, we protect each other. Like family."
Mays isn't hearing any of it. He tells Gabriel and Aaron that once upon a time, he was living with his brother and his brother's family, but that came to an end when his brother tried to kill him for the last of their food. After that incident, Mays has come to see humanity as blighted by greed and evil. While Gabriel and Aaron try to convince him to have faith in the idea of family, he tells them that no such concept exists.
Gabriel and Aaron don't give in, though. They continue to express that they not only refuse to turn on each other, but that they also want to give Mays the opportunity to see the light by joining them in Alexandria. Eventually, Mays begins to soften. He stops the game and frees Aaron from his restraints. It seems like he might be ready to join them after all. That is, right up until Gabriel bashes his head in.
Aaron is clearly upset by Gabriel's cynical action. For Gabriel, though, Mays admitted one crucial piece of information that made him incompatible with the mission of Alexandria: He killed his own family. And what they discover next only proves Gabriel's point.
Gabriel and Aaron take one more opportunity to provide for their family
With Mays dead, Gabriel and Aaron decide to loot his hiding spot. They locate his lair and make a horrifying discovery: The brother he spoke about earlier is still alive and chained up to some pipes in the corner. Worse still, the long-dead bodies of his brother's wife and child are on the ground in front of him. Gabriel and Aaron try to convince him to come with them, but it's no use. As soon as they free his hands, he steals the revolver from Gabriel and shoots himself in the head.
The dead bodies of the brother's wife and child are a callback to the beginning of this episode. On their scouting trip, Gabriel and Aaron stumble upon the corpses of several families who had died in each other's arms. The sight of these deceased families clearly fuel the cynicism each man is feeling.
Both Gabriel and Aaron struggle with their relationship to their family — the community of Alexandria — throughout this episode. Gabriel's faith in the possibility of maintaining a safe home for them wavers, while Aaron occasionally loses sight of what it takes to keep their family alive and well. But in surviving their ordeal with Mays, it appears that each man gains a bit more resolve to refocus and keep pushing forward.
After leaving the warehouse, Gabriel and Aaron spot the water tower that signals they are close to the final scavenging location that they abandoned the search for at the beginning of the episode. Gabriel asks, "What do you think?" This time, Aaron nods in affirmation and says, "One more."