Diksha Sundriyal
The eighth episode of HBO’s ‘The Chair Company’ continues to build upon the mystery that started with Ron Trosper looking into a conspiracy related to Tecca, while also making things even weirder than they were already. The final episode of the season takes the audience through numerous unexpected twists and turns, setting up a new set of questions while barely answering the ones that have been lingering for the past seven episodes. Interestingly, it begins with a wedding. A woman walks down the aisle with her father, but later that evening, her father gets so high on smoking too many cigars that he is unable to dance with her. Later, he sits by the bar asking for a drink, and when the bartender refuses to serve him anymore, another man orders a drink for himself and offers it to the man.
The two discuss how the father delivered a moving speech for the bride, with the second man expressing shock and awe when the father reveals that he wrote the poem in the speech himself. The conversation ends with the strange man encouraging the father to explore his future in music and songwriting, revealing that he works in the music industry. As he leaves the venue, he talks to someone on the phone about how the father seemed too dumb to understand what they were talking about. And then a boy walks up to him, asks if he is Stacy Crystals, says that Stacy ruined his father’s life, shoots him in the chest, and runs away. SPOILERS AHEAD.
Ron Tries to Move On From the Conspiracy
Ron wakes up next to Barb in a happier mood than the night before, having made up his mind to keep his mouth shut about the conspiracy to protect Alice’s investment in Barb’s business. When he tells her that he will try to get his job back and not make things any more complicated for her, she tells him to do what makes him happy. At the office, everyone watches the video where Ron pushed Jeff. The meeting is intended to determine whether what he did was an isolated incident or part of a larger pattern. Douglas shares his thoughts on how they should have seen this coming and advises demoting Ron. However, the others believe that he could have killed Jeff, who doesn’t seem too convinced about firing Ron. Meanwhile, Ron gets a call from Natalie, who is excited to explore the conspiracy further and is shocked when he tells her that he is dropping the whole thing.
He thanks her for her help and points out that the ham move was excellent. She tells him she couldn’t have done it if she didn’t know about Wendy’s Carvers. At the same time, Tara walks in and is shocked to discover that Natalie told her father about Wendy’s Carvers. At home, Ron talks to Seth, who immediately breaks down and reveals he doesn’t want to play basketball anymore. He is now interested in stop-motion animation and has found a different college for himself. While Ron is a little concerned, he encourages his son to do what he loves, also discussing how he himself uncovered a conspiracy that he cannot talk about. At the office, when Jeff is asked about considering Ron’s replacement, he calls Ron and tells him to return and complete the project. He is ready to forget all his previous trespasses, but when Ron says he’ll think about it, Jeff loses his cool.
Meanwhile, Ron thinks about the conspiracy and all that he uncovered. He tries to share it via an anonymous tip to the Columbus Herald, but then changes his mind. They call him back, and now they know his name from the caller ID, so he is not so anonymous anymore. However, he still decides not to share anything with them. Later, while walking Baby, he is confronted by Mike, who chides him about not picking up his calls. When Ron tells him that he is dropping the case, Mike lashes out at him. He reveals that he doesn’t want to die like Scrooge and have the world celebrate his death. He thinks that exposing a big corporation will ensure that, but when Ron tells him to go back to his family, he is infuriated and leaves. When Ron goes to his daughter’s house in an attempt to make amends for Mike, he is not received well and is told to leave.
Another Weird Experience Puts Ron on Edge
When Ron returns home, he discovers that Natalie and Tara have had a massive fight about the former telling her father about Wendy’s Carvers because of the NDA Tara had to sign for it. And then, Baby eats chocolate, and to sweat it out of her, Ron takes her on a walk. In the woods, Baby tugs at her leash and runs away, and when Ron tries to run after her, he trips on a branch and falls unconscious. When he comes to, he finds his way to a nearby house, where he meets a man who reveals that Baby, whose real name is Minnie Mouse, is actually his dog, which was stolen sometime back. Ron is embarrassed and clarifies the situation, and the man invites him to his shed to show him something. That something turns out to be a “brand new shape,” and after admiring it for a minute, when Ron turns back to look at the man, he sees him as a monster and falls unconscious again.
On waking up, Ron finds himself inside the man’s house, who seems normal and talks about how Ron hit his head way too hard. Ron asks him to take a picture with Baby and post it on social media. As he leaves the man’s house, he gets a call from an unknown person, the same one who has been hounding him with weird noises over the phone. When Ron mentions that he is no longer investigating the conspiracy and advises talking to Alice about it, the caller asks who Alice is, which shocks Ron. When he returns home, he starts to reconsider his decision to stop following Tecca’s trail. He gets a notification about the dog owner’s Instagram post, but the comments reveal that the dog was stolen because she’d been living in an abusive household. Her return to her owner is seen as a terrible thing by everyone. As if that wasn’t enough, Ron discovers that the college that Seth wants to go to is terribly expensive.
At the same time, he gets an email about the change in leadership at Fisher Robay, so he calls Jeff for a meet-up. As he’s leaving, Barb apologises to him about what she said to George, because apparently, she wasn’t praising him for his detective work. It was the other way around, and either George misinterpreted her words or he straight-up lied to Ron. This makes Ron even more anxious, so he leaves to meet Jeff at a karaoke bar, where he has bought his friend, Grego. They drink a little, and Jeff talks about how Ron is content with his simple life. This prompts Ron to almost spill the secret about his investigation into Tecca, but he is stopped when Jeff is called to sing. As he starts to sing, he realises that it’s the wrong version, which leads him to sign up for another song. As they wait for his second term, Jeff tells Ron about his singing, which leads to another shocking discovery.
Ron Makes a Shocking Discovery About a Close Friend
As Ron listens to Jeff’s songs, he realizes that his boss is a good singer. He also discovers that one of his songs is the same one that plays when he calls the Red Ball Market Global. This prompts him to leave the bar and head straight to the office, and look through Jeff’s office. He remembers how Jeff once told him not to lean on the wall, so he does exactly that, because he is angry. This leads him to accidentally open a secret compartment, where he finds all the documents that prove that Jeff is connected to Tecca. It turns out that he is Red Ball’s Chief Financial Officer, along with someone named Stacy Crystals, whose name appears everywhere on the documents.
Ron also finds Jeff’s picture with Stacy (though he doesn’t yet know it’s Stacy), an unknown woman, and movie star Danny Donovan. Interestingly, there is no mention of Alice. Since this is a huge development, and one that could allow him to investigate again without the fear of Barb losing her investment, he immediately calls Mike, telling him that he doesn’t have to worry about anyone dancing on his grave anymore. Mike doesn’t pick up, but when Ron comes home, he finds Mike’s daughter, Lynette, waiting for him at the door. It turns out that Lynette is not Mike’s daughter. Her father died in a car accident. He was a donor, and Mike received his heart. When Lynette was to get married, she was sad that her father couldn’t be with her. So, her mother came up with an idea.
Lynette’s mother reached out to Mike to walk her down the aisle, which would, in a way, allow Lynette’s father to be there. Initially, things went well, but then Mike started talking about how he is Lynette’s father and the husband of her mother. When Lynette tried to let him down easy, he misread her intentions and started talking about how the heart didn’t matter and that they could still date. He tried to kiss her, leading Lynette to file for a restraining order. She warns Ron that Mike is a scary man and advises Ron not to allow him anywhere near his family. When Lynette leaves, Ron starts thinking about all his interactions with Mike, where the latter tried to insinuate himself with his family.
Who Has Been Calling Ron? Who Broke His Chair?
As Lynette leaves, Ron receives another call from an unknown number. As his patience is tested, he asks who the person is, who tells him that he didn’t fall from his chair by accident. He asks Ron if he is ready to meet him. Of course, Ron has been waiting for this for a long time, and interestingly, the man calls him to his old school. On reaching there, Ron finds the masked man, whom he’d last seen in the CCTV footage outside his house. Meanwhile, Jeff gets a call about Stacy Crystals getting shot, while it is revealed that Mike has Mayor Braccon tied up in his bathtub. Seth shares his stop-motion video with his mother and sister, who appreciate his talent and encourage him. In the assembly hall, Ron comes face to face with the masked man, who removes his mask to reveal a face so heavily marked by plastic surgery that he looks like a doll.
The man reveals that Amanda broke Ron’s chair because of what he did in high school. When they were children, Ron tried to make his friends laugh by spitting gum into the air and then catching it with his mouth. But when he spat the gum, it landed inside Amanda’s cleavage by mistake. While Ron forgot about it, Amanda remembered and was made deeply uncomfortable because of it. This is why she broke Ron’s chair, with, and here’s the shocking part, her mind. The man reveals that he knew Amanda could move things with her mind, like a bottle cap or a pen. But it turns out that if she puts her mind to it, she can break things too, and that’s what she did with Ron’s chair. This was her way of embarrassing him and getting revenge. While Ron is still processing this, the man reveals that he is Amanda’s boyfriend. He blames Ron, saying you did all this, without actually explaining what he did.
The last shot is of him jumping towards Ron, and Ron’s shocked and worried face frozen in the frame. Given how weird everything has been so far, it remains to be seen if the show is going to add a supernatural twist to Ron’s story. The episode achieves this through the dog owner, who briefly turns demonic, and the revelation about Amanda’s ability to move things with her mind. Still, the second part could be wrong, since we know nothing about the plastic-faced man. Who’s to say he isn’t lying and trying to protect Tecca? Perhaps Amanda has no idea her name is being used in vain, and all of this is just a tactic to throw Rob off the investigation. All of this remains to be seen, but whatever happens next wouldn’t be any less weird. Now that we know Jeff is somehow involved with Tecca, Ron will become even more determined to solve the case, and it will pull him further into the whirlpool of secrets, conspiracies, and shocking revelations.
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