Ron sitting in his car in The Chair Company
By
Ben Sherlock
Published 45 minutes ago
Ben Sherlock is a Tomatometer-approved film and TV critic who runs the massively underrated YouTube channel I Got Touched at the Cinema. Before working at Screen Rant, Ben wrote for Game Rant, Taste of Cinema, Comic Book Resources, and BabbleTop. He's also an indie filmmaker, a standup comedian, and an alumnus of the School of Rock.
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Warning! Spoilers ahead for The Chair Company’s season 1 finale.
The ending of The Chair Company season 1 provided some long-awaited answers, but it also opened up a whole lot of new questions. Created by Tim Robinson and Zach Kanin for HBO, The Chair Company is a wonderfully absurdist blend of cringe comedy and conspiracy thriller. It combines the looming threat of corporate crime and political corruption with a string of uncomfortable everyday situations.
The Chair Company has all the offbeat laughs of Robinson and Kanin’s previous show, I Think You Should Leave, but it’s all tied together by a genuinely compelling mystery plot. In fact, it almost plays like an I Think You Should Leave sketch that doesn’t have to end. The inciting incident feels like a classic sketch, but it sets up this eight-part thriller.
In the first episode, after being named project manager of a new mall at his property development firm, Fisher Robay, Ron Trosper suffers the very public humiliation of falling out of his chair in front of his entire staff. After that embarrassment, Ron becomes obsessed with tracking down the company that made the defective chair and unwittingly uncovers a far-reaching conspiracy.
Over the course of the series, Ron figured out that Tecca has been taking old chairs, replacing the parts, and selling them on as new chairs. But the money that Alice Quintana embezzled from this scam has been invested into his wife Barb’s company — so, if he goes public with his findings, he’ll kill Barb’s dream. Begrudgingly, he decides to keep his mouth shut.
Why Ron Decides To Reopen His Investigation Into Tecca
Ron listening to two phones in The Chair Company
In the first half of the season 1 finale, Ron sticks to his decision to shut down the investigation and keep Alice’s dirty secrets to himself. He focuses on salvaging his career at Fisher Robay and forgets about the chair company. He briefly tries to report it to a newspaper anonymously, but quickly changes his mind when he realizes it could still be traced back to him.
However, in the second half of the episode, he decides to reopen his investigation into Tecca when he accidentally stumbles upon some new evidence. After discovering his boss Jeff’s involvement and learning that the man who’s been calling him on the phone isn’t associated with Alice, he realizes the mystery is even bigger than he thought.
Who Is Stacy Crystals?
A kid with a gun confronts Stacy Crystals in The Chair Company season 1 finale
In the cold open of the finale episode, we see a father attending his daughter’s wedding. After having too much to drink and smoking too many cigars, the man nearly collapses during the father-daughter dance. When he’s cut off at the bar, a stranger joins him and offers him his own drink, and they get to talking.
The stranger’s name is Stacy Crystals, and he claims to be a big-time Hollywood producer. He convinces the father of the bride that he could be a pop star on par with Sabrina Carpenter, and encourages him to get in touch. As he walks away, Stacy calls an associate and insinuates that the whole thing is a scam (unsurprisingly), but then he gets shot dead.
A young boy approaches Stacy, tells him he ruined his father’s life, and kills him with a 3D-printed handgun. Initially, we have no idea who Stacy is, but Ron finds a picture of him with Jeff in Jeff’s office, and Jeff is devastated by the call informing him of Stacy’s death, so he seems to be Jeff’s business partner.
Presumably, Stacy pulled the same scam on this kid’s father that he was trying to pull on the father of the bride at the wedding. He poses as a record producer, convinces people they have the talent and star power to make it in the music business, and then fleeces them out of their money somehow — hence, ruining the boy’s father’s life.
Jeff Was The Big Bad All Along
Jeff on the phone in The Chair Company season 1 finale
A couple of episodes ago, Ron shoved Jeff in the heat of a confrontation with some toy car enthusiasts at the building site. He was suspended from work while the management at Fisher Robay figured out what to do with him. After Jeff’s ego takes a hit, he invites Ron to a karaoke bar to see if they can work it out over a drink.
While Jeff is showing Ron some songs he recorded, Ron is shocked to hear that one of them is identical to the Red Ball Market Global hold music he listened to for hours. Ron races over to Fisher Robay and finds Jeff’s office full of records linking him to Tecca and Stacy Crystals. As it turns out, Jeff was the big bad all along.
Mike's "Family" Explained
Mike talking to Ron in The Chair Company season 1 finale
Throughout the season, Mike has been talking about reconnecting with his family — specifically his daughter Lynette — and making up for past mistakes, and he’s always been very vague on the details. But the finale reveals that those people aren’t really his family; he’s been stalking and harassing the family of a deceased man whose heart he received in a transplant.
The family invited Mike to walk Lynette down the aisle at her wedding, so a part of her dad would be there, but he got weird. He hugged Lynette’s mother for too long, claiming to be her husband, and then he tried to kiss Lynette herself. The family eventually took out a restraining order against Mike. He’s not a disgraced family man; he’s just a lonely oddball.
Who Was The Masked Man On Ron's Security Camera?
A man in a Jason mask in The Chair Company
At the end of episode 3, after installing security cameras at his house, Ron was shocked to see a man in a Jason Voorhees mask sitting on an office chair in his backyard, staring at the camera. In the season 1 finale, we learn that this was Ron’s co-worker Amanda’s boyfriend. He was also the unknown caller who’s been harassing Ron.
Who Is The Man In Mike's Bathtub?
A man tied up in a bathtub in The Chair Company season 1 finale
One of the most disturbing moments in the finale is when we see Mike sitting in his apartment with a cold, emotionless expression. The camera pans over to reveal that he has a man tied up in his bathtub. It’s the guy who really wanted to use Mayor Braccon’s hot tub in the previous episode.
Ron had sent Mike to Braccon’s photo op at a local bar. He told Mike to keep the mayor at the bar, no matter what, until he could get away from Barb’s party and confront him, but Ron never showed up. In the finale, Mike tells Ron that, after he stopped answering his calls, he had to resort to drastic measures to keep Braccon at the bar.
This brief moment in Mike’s apartment shows us that Mike kidnapped the man who wanted to use Braccon’s hot tub, and that he’s still holding him hostage in his bathroom. It’s hilariously ironic that the man who kept insisting on using the mayor’s hot tub is now trapped in a bathtub indefinitely.
Did Amanda Really Break Ron's Chair With Telekinesis?
Amanda in The Chair Company
When Ron’s chair broke in the pilot episode, he fell onto the floor and his head landed between Amanda’s feet, so it seemed like he was looking up her skirt. Even though it was just a freak accident (or so it seemed), he’s spent the whole season dealing with HR to prove that it wasn’t premeditated.
The HR investigation revealed that Ron went to high school with Amanda and they were in a play together. In the final moments of season 1, Ron meets his mystery caller at that same high school and learns that he’s Amanda’s boyfriend. Amanda’s boyfriend tells Ron that Amanda has always resented him for an embarrassing moment in high school, and this has all been a revenge plot against him.
The Chair Company touches on the supernatural when Amanda’s boyfriend claims that Amanda broke Ron’s chair with her mind. He says he’s seen her move items telekinetically, and that when she’s fired up enough, she can even break things. But is that really what happened? Did Amanda actually break Ron’s chair using telekinesis?
That’s the only explanation the show provides, but it seems to come from a very unreliable source. It’s unclear if this guy even is Amanda’s boyfriend — we never actually see him with Amanda — and he seems unhinged. Then again, maybe The Chair Company is pulling a The Curse and going full paranormal in its season finale.
How The Chair Company's Finale Sets Up Season 2
Ron looking excited in The Chair Company
A couple of weeks ago, HBO prematurely renewed The Chair Company for a second season. So, you don’t have to worry about all the unanswered questions in the season 1 finale; the show will be back to answer them. The season 1 finale includes a few key setups for season 2 that hint at what form it’ll take.
Season 2 will surely explain who Stacy Crystals was, and his connection to Jeff, and it’ll have to continue this budding rivalry between Jeff and Ron. Now that Ron knows Jeff is wrapped up in a corporate conspiracy, he’ll finally have some leverage over him. He might use it to reinstate his job at Fisher Robay, or get another promotion.
Going into its second season, The Chair Company will have to decide whether to commit to the supernatural and confirm Amanda’s telekinetic powers, or find some other way to explain what her deranged boyfriend said. Either way, it should make for another round of gripping television.
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The Chair Company
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