So far, each of the extra Walking Dead episodes have focused in on a couple of characters or conflicts. “Home Sweet Home” welcomed back Maggie and explained what she was up to during her time away. “Find Me” gave Daryl his first-ever love story. Now, “One More” follows Aaron (Ross Marquand) and Gabriel (Seth Gilliam) as they go on a supply run. They need to rebuild Alexandria after the Whisperers destroyed nearly everything. However, things get complicated when they come across a stranger who puts them in a life-or-death situation.
So far, these additional episodes have proven divisive among fans. On the one hand, they’ve been important in bringing us back up to speed as we approach the final season; we’e gotten a lot of answers to burning questions. But while it’s been fun to learn more about the characters, some fans think the show has sacrificed action. Thankfully, “One More” brings us a bit of everything to become the best extra episode yet!
There are SPOILERS for the new episode below!
The realities of scavenging
The Walking Dead often skips over the grueling work our survivors must do when they are sent out of the safe zone to gather supplies. If the show were to cover every supply run, things would get very monotonous very quickly, but every once in a while we get to tide alongside them. The opening scenes of “One More” follow Aaron and Gabriel as they traverse the zombie-infested lands in search of supplies marked on a map provided to them by Maggie.
Considering how these episodes were filmed during the pandemic, certain things are just not possible. Despite the hurdles, I thought this episode pulled out all the stops. Some of the walker kills as they search for supplies in abandoned buildings are just brilliant. Kudos to the special effects team.
There are also some great lighter moments, like when Gabe falls over and gets caked in mud from top to bottom.
After a long day of hunting, Gabe and Aaron decide to spend the night in a strange, seemingly abandoned building. It’s odd because it doesn’t show up on Maggie’s map. Nevertheless, it appears perfect.
There are even some goodies for them. Aaron freaks out over a living boar, and Gabriel laughs hysterically. This is a fine source of food. Gabriel also discovers a rare bottle of whiskey. All in all, things are looking up.
The duo spends the night getting drunk and sharing some never-before-heard tales about each other. I enjoyed Gabriel’s story about being a priest and why he still wears the collar.
Your head or his
This being The Walking Dead, nothing good ever lasts for too long. In the morning, perhaps a little hungover, Gabe finds Aaron is missing. That’s when he meets Mays.
Mays (played by Robert Patrick, aka T-1000 from Terminator 2) is a daunting, haggard man out to make our survivors pay. After all, Gabe and Aaron cooked Mays’ boar and drank his whiskey.
He essentially starts a game of Russian Roulette. The game is simple: he puts a bullet in the cylinder of a revolver, spins it, and makes each pull the trigger until one of them kills themselves. There are six slots in the cylinder, so the tension is tight. The way the show presents it, we really fear for their lives.
And that’s all the more painful with these two because we really get a sense of family from them, and this on a show where betrayal is very common. Aaron and Gabriel are both willing to risk their lives for each other. On top of that, Aaron worries for his daughter and Gabriel for his adoptive daughter Coco. Mays — who likely listened to their earlier discussions — brings their children up to get into their heads.
While the game plays out, Mays slowly opens up about killing his brother. Small fragments of his past begin to come out. Apparently, after spending so long helping his family survive, his bother repays him by stealing from him, hence the murder. They have a talk about good and evil, which is almost a Walking Dead cliché. Eventually, Gabriel manages to convince Mays that they are good people and that they can show him a better path. Surprisingly, Mays comes around to the idea.
In the moment Mays lets his guard down, Gabriel grabs hold of Aaron’s metal arm — which was previously unattached — and strikes Mays over the head with it. Mays dies instantly. I found it rather strange that Gabe would kill Mays so quickly and without hesitation. After his speech, we believe he’s down to take Mays to Alexandria and help him start a new life. Evidently, that is not the case.
The final twist in this dark, disturbing tale comes when the two find Mays’ brother, alive and chained up against the wall, his wife and daughter dead beside him. Mays didn’t kill him after all. But when Gabe releases him, the brother shoots himself.
It’s a dark ending to an already dark episode. It’s hard to believe that, in the opening scenes, I was actually laughing at how light-hearted the whole thing was.
Verdict
It was a stroke of brilliance to team Gabriel and Aaron together for an entire episode. Their chemistry was terrific. Between all the blood and gore there were some funny quips, all of which landed. And when things needed to get serious, they did.
I was particularly impressed at the intensity of Ross Marquand’s performance when Aaron was forced to pull the gun to his head and pull the trigger. The acting was stellar across the board, but Marquand was the MVP for me.
So far, “One More” has been the best of these extra season 10 episodes. Hopefully, the final three episodes, which include a much-anticipated Negan origin story, are just as good!
Grade A
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