In Chap­ter 8 of The Last One at the Wed­ding, the pro­tag­o­nist finds them­selves reflect­ing on the uncom­fort­able atmos­phere that per­vades the wed­ding camp. The bed­room, which is sup­posed to offer a com­fort­able retreat, lacks basic seat­ing and offers lit­tle solace dur­ing the unpack­ing process. As the pro­tag­o­nist goes through the motions, a grow­ing sense of iso­la­tion inten­si­fies. The antic­i­pa­tion of meet­ing their future in-laws, Errol and Cather­ine, is pal­pa­ble, but their absence leaves the pro­tag­o­nist feel­ing unwel­come and dis­con­nect­ed from the event. The sit­u­a­tion wors­ens when oth­er fam­i­ly mem­bers begin to leave—Aidan hur­ried­ly departs with a friend, and Mag­gie heads into town, inten­tion­al­ly or not exclud­ing the pro­tag­o­nist from her plans. These actions serve to empha­size the pro­tag­o­nist’s grow­ing real­iza­tion that they may not be ful­ly accept­ed into this fam­i­ly.

By mid-after­noon, as the pro­tag­o­nist waits for their daugh­ter, Abi­gail, to join them, they attempt a brief con­ver­sa­tion about games. Though Abi­gail is eager to play, the pro­tag­o­nist gen­tly per­suades her to stay behind, hop­ing to spend some qui­et, bond­ing time with Mag­gie. How­ev­er, just as the pro­tag­o­nist starts to feel some­what at ease, Mag­gie calls with dis­tress­ing news about the wed­ding. The florist has made mis­takes, and the video­g­ra­ph­er has test­ed pos­i­tive for COVID, esca­lat­ing Mag­gie’s stress. Instead of a relax­ing after­noon, the pro­tag­o­nist is con­front­ed with the mount­ing chaos of the event. They had envi­sioned fam­i­ly time and bond­ing, but instead find them­selves alone, try­ing to fig­ure out how to nav­i­gate the camp and all its activ­i­ties. The protagonist’s dis­ap­point­ment deep­ens as they strug­gle with the idea of walk­ing around the camp on their own, espe­cial­ly when they had hoped for a shared expe­ri­ence.

After the phone call, the pro­tag­o­nist feels a sense of dis­com­fort as they lie to Abi­gail, telling her that Mag­gie is busy, though in truth, Maggie’s stress is over­whelm­ing. The pro­tag­o­nist steps out­side, where they pass rows of emp­ty chairs set up for the upcom­ing din­ner, and notice a desert­ed beach. The still­ness feels eerie as cater­ers pre­pare for the evening event, their fran­tic ener­gy con­trast­ing with the calm that sur­rounds the pro­tag­o­nist. They are sur­prised to learn from a car­pen­ter that the din­ner prepa­ra­tions are actu­al­ly for that evening, not for the wed­ding on Sat­ur­day. This real­iza­tion shakes the pro­tag­o­nist, fur­ther height­en­ing their feel­ings of dis­ori­en­ta­tion. They had expect­ed the focus of the wed­ding to be on the upcom­ing cer­e­mo­ny, but the elab­o­rate din­ner instead seems to be the main attrac­tion. As the pro­tag­o­nist con­tin­ues to walk around, they encounter Aidan again, but this time he’s accom­pa­nied by a woman named Gwen­dolyn. Their brief inter­ac­tion rais­es more ques­tions, and when they dis­ap­pear into the woods, the protagonist’s curios­i­ty gets the best of them, prompt­ing them to fol­low.

The pro­tag­o­nist catch­es a glimpse of Aidan and Gwen­dolyn engaged in an intense con­ver­sa­tion. Gwen­dolyn appears frus­trat­ed, demand­ing that Aidan be truth­ful, while he tries to con­vince her to avoid inter­act­ing with Mar­garet. The con­ver­sa­tion is cryp­tic and filled with ten­sion, leav­ing the pro­tag­o­nist on edge as they strug­gle to make sense of the sit­u­a­tion. As they over­hear more, it becomes clear that Gwen­dolyn har­bors deep resent­ment toward Mar­garet, which com­pli­cates the already frag­ile fam­i­ly dynam­ics. Aidan lat­er attempts to explain Gwendolyn’s behav­ior, reveal­ing that she is crit­i­cal of the wed­ding camp and its envi­ron­ment. He offers a glimpse into Gwendolyn’s com­plex per­son­al­i­ty, one that is shaped by pre­vi­ous expe­ri­ences and a crit­i­cal view of the event. The atmos­phere is heavy, and the protagonist’s dis­com­fort only deep­ens as they reflect on the con­ver­sa­tions and the unspo­ken ten­sions sur­round­ing them.

The under­ly­ing themes of fam­i­ly, stress, and unspo­ken emo­tions take cen­ter stage in this chap­ter. As the pro­tag­o­nist nav­i­gates the social dynam­ics of the wed­ding, they begin to ques­tion their place with­in the fam­i­ly and what the future holds for their rela­tion­ships. The ten­sion between char­ac­ters is pal­pa­ble, and the pro­tag­o­nist is left to grap­ple with the unset­tling knowl­edge they’ve gained. What start­ed as an oppor­tu­ni­ty for con­nec­tion and bond­ing has quick­ly turned into a web of secrets, lies, and per­son­al con­flicts that the pro­tag­o­nist can nei­ther avoid nor ignore. As the chap­ter unfolds, it’s clear that the wed­ding, with all its promis­es and pit­falls, is only the begin­ning of deep­er emo­tion­al rev­e­la­tions. The pro­tag­o­nist finds them­selves at the heart of it all, left to process what they’ve over­heard and the impli­ca­tions it may have for the future of the fam­i­ly.