‘The Chair Company’ Ending Explained – What Did We Just Watch!?

If you ever wanted concrete proof that The Chair Company is not like other shows, then look no further than its ending — if you can call it that, obviously. Most people associate endings with answers, with closure, but Episode 8 isn’t interested in any of that. Just when it seemed like Ron had figured out what was going on and the show had morphed into a drama about withholding the truth for the greater good rather than one about trying to determine what the truth is, the finale throws the rulebook out of the window and starts building whole new layered conspiracies out of throwaway lines from previous episodes. I was sceptical about HBO renewing this show for Season 2, but that feeling rapidly went away throughout this closing half-hour.

You can’t point a questing finger at the precise turn that upends what we thought we knew about The Chair Company. The details don’t matter, really, since the spirit of the show lives in how deranged Ron is. We don’t need to believe anything about The Chair Company except for one key detail: That if Ron feels wronged by something, he will hold onto it so violently that he’s liable to detonate his entire life if it means getting his own back. And he’s not the only one.

Jeff and Stacy Crystals

Anyone sensible would keep quiet. So what if Tecca chairs were being used to embezzle money from Delaware citizens? With everything that’s at stake, Ron should find it easy to let go. He doesn’t want to destroy Barb’s business by implicating her biggest investor in the conspiracy (even though I’m sure he’s tempted when she reveals that her being “supportive” of his investigation was her privately wondering why he was running around like a “dumb detective”). He doesn’t want to invalidate all the investigatory legwork that Natalie did, especially since her involvement has now imperilled her relationship on account of her revealing that Wendy’s is opening a nicer restaurant that serves ham. And he needs to be present for Seth, who continues to spiral in his absence.

Ron spends this finale trying to weigh up what the best approach would be, even as it continuously throws him for even more bizarre loops. Take Jeff, for instance. Ever since Ron embarrassed him by shoving him over, he has been simmering with resentment over his shattered masculinity. But his efforts to schmooze Ron end up revealing another key piece of the puzzle, which connects to a cold open that, initially, doesn’t seem to have anything to do with Ron (or anyone else).

In simple terms, Jeff seems to be pretty high up in the Tecca conspiracy. He and a guy named – rather brilliantly – Stacy Crystals are the CEOs of Red Ball Market Global, and the trail of evidence links them to Alice. We first met Stacy in that cold open, being shot by a kid at a wedding on account of ruining his father’s life. At the very same wedding, Tracy was trying to profit from some random dude’s songwriting abilities. At the restaurant with Ron, Jeff is showing off about his own musical aptitude, and Ron recognises the tune as Red Ball Market Global’s hold music. These two seem to have been ripping people off for a long time.

Mike’s A Liability

While the above confirms, more or less, that there is a corporeal explanation for what happened to Ron in the premiere, the rest of the finale bends over backwards to imply that this is the very least of his problems. One of the bigger ones, ironically, might be the only person who has consistently believed in his delusions throughout the season – Mike.

In a chance encounter with Mike’s “daughter”, it’s revealed that Mike isn’t really her father, but instead the recipient of her real father’s heart. She has since had to take out a restraining order against him since he has become too obsessed with the idea that they’re related, much like how he became adamant that he was a part of Ron’s family, and was deeply wounded that he wasn’t invited to Seth’s birthday party, on the back of a random throwaway remark.

Mike is nuts, then. This is confirmed – as though it needed any confirmation – when we see that he’s currently holding Delaware City Mayor Greg Braccon hostage in his bathroom, again based on a random throwaway remark from Ron. He’s a liability, more likely to get Ron arrested than he is to help him get to the bottom of anything.

It Was All A Dream?

In what seems like a throwback to the quasi-Halloween episode, the ending of The Chair Company includes a snapshot of horror for no real reason other than to introduce the possibility that Ron might be imagining everything. At this point, I wouldn’t be surprised.

His visit to Baby’s owner is framed as if he has just discovered yet another horrifying conspiracy, but then he wakes up, and the encounter is explained away as a consequence of him having earlier bumped his head. Someone conspiracy-minded will, I’m sure, comb back through the season and see how much deliberate mirroring has occurred with Ron having suddenly woken up right after either he or we have witnessed something weird and otherwise unexplainable.

Was it all a dream? At the very least, The Chair Company wants us to suspect that it might be. This is how it can get away with the final reveal, which is even weirder.

Amanda and Telekinesis

At the very end of Episode 8, Ron comes face-to-face with the mystery caller, the creepy man in the Jason Voorhees mask, who reveals himself as the boyfriend of Fisher Robay’s Amanda. Amanda is the colleague with whom Ron had that seemingly pointless HR dispute. You thought all that was just a way to emphasise how much stress Ron is under? Well, think again.

“Jason” reveals that Amanda was responsible for breaking Ron’s chair – with her mind. And it was supposedly as revenge for a forgotten-about high school incident in which Ron accidentally spat a sweet down her cleavage. Nothing about this should work. But the fact that The Chair Company has wrong-footed us so many times in this finale alone, consistently peeling back more and more layers and revealing more and more offhand jokes and remarks as key building blocks in other mysteries, means it’s possible. At this point, everything is.

It looks like we need that second season after all.