‘The Chair Company’ Finale Recap, Episode 8

What? Did you expect? General termination of chair company, In a way, the ending to this season of TV is extremely predictable — one can guess just how unexpected it is. We knew that questions would likely be answered and new questions would arise, especially given the news of a season-two renewal. We knew things weren’t going to end well, especially after the final episode left a bit of a Very excess. The story is not over. The program should continue.

I’m still thinking about what to take away from “Minnie Mouse Coming Back Wasn’t on My Bingo Card.” Everything is interconnected, but how deep it all goes, how much is real and how much is imaginary, remains a mystery. Given the lack of real resolution, it’s now very easy to imagine another season of this show: not only are there new layers to uncover with the actual Tekka plot, but there are also newly revealed threats, both new characters and ones we already knew.

Like Mike Santini. I want to take a second to praise one of the funniest and scariest supporting characters of the year, delivered by Joseph Tudisco in a performance filled with both menace and deep longing. And those two ways are interconnected: Mike is disgusting and sexist, but he’s also a lonely man who craves community and connection, which drives him to do terrible things. We learn more about some of those things in this episode as Ron contacts Mike to renew his investigation.

The truth comes out when Ron visits Mike’s daughter Lynette and is rebuffed by her aunt. But Lynette later visits him and reveals that she is not really his daughter. His real father died in a car accident and Mike got his heart. He became close to the family for a while, showing up to Lynette’s wedding so that a piece of his father could be there, but he became obsessed with the idea of ​​being Lynette’s father (and her mother’s husband) and became angry when they did not return his affection. At his worst moment, he reacts to Lynette’s gentle rejection by trying to kiss her and saying, “I’m even more attracted to you than your mother, because you’re younger.” The family got a restraining order.

And that’s not even the end of it, because we see in the season finale montage that there’s also a man zip-tied to the toilet in Mike’s bathroom! These revelations from Mike are the most genuinely disturbing parts of the episode; There is very little humor in Lynette’s story, just real fear and real pain. And yet Ron doesn’t even have time to fully process this revelation or worry about his family, because eventually he gets the call to visit.

More on that soon. Like much of this show, much of this finale revolves around the question of whether Ron is actually a good person. He sacrificed pride for Barb, sure, and he’s trying to be a good dad again: When Natalie called him about the allegations against the mayor he calmly shut her up, and when Seth came clean about preferring stop-motion animation to basketball, he said all the right things, encouraging her to apply to RISD. (I thought Seth’s new obsession was going to be something really weird or specific, but it’s actually cool, and we see him show some of his work to Barb and Natalie during the montage.)

However, early on, you can tell that Ron is second-guessing his choices. Seth is not smart enough to understand what his father is saying in his vague description of the “really important” investigation that has kept him busy, but Ron’s language downplays Barb’s role in his success. In his vague narration, Barb only got the money because of her spying, making her the hero of the story. This is their only way to deal with this turn of events.

We get another example of Ron’s lingering ego when he takes Baby on a walk, but after losing her he falls and hits his head. He eventually tracks the dog to the home of its real owner, a man named Asher. Asher’s energy is bad from the start, but he seems grateful to Ron, even accepting his ridiculous request to post about saving Baby (née Minnie Mouse) on Instagram. Then, in a strangely strange twist, it turns out that Minnie Mouse went missing for a reason: Asher reportedly has a history of yelling at her, and the guys have long discussed rescuing the poor dog. In Ron’s attempt to brag about heroically returning a dog, he exposes himself as a potential demon ally.

Getting his job back at Fisher Robe won’t really fill the void in Ron’s life. This could never happen. Despite Douglas’s smug suggestion of taking Ron down “three or four notches… or five”, he is right that the work was always too much for him, that he was approaching a breaking point. But Jeff actually throws Ron a lifeline anyway, suggesting they hash out the push-gate for a beer. However, Ron is not committed, and someone else eventually takes over as project lead. In a moment of weakness, he calls the Columbus Herald tipline and mentions his “corporate political fraud thriller story”, before saying any names but backing off. The reporter calls back to ask more, thanks to caller ID that Ron Trosper was the “anonymous” caller.

But what really re-energizes Ron’s detective brain is the realization (thanks to some angry words from a caller who otherwise confined himself to heavy breathing) that the conspiracy doesn’t end with Alice Quintana. When he reluctantly joins Jeff and his best friend Greggo at a karaoke bar, he’s in the mood for one of his biggest, most hair-raising realizations: one of Jeff’s songs has the exact same tune and pitch as that catchy Red Ball Market Global jingle. Ron immediately leaves and goes to Jeff’s office, where he finds some interesting files and photos, showing Jeff hanging out with movie stars Danny Donovan (whom we saw in the Sedona getaway a few episodes ago) and Stacey Crystals.

This is where the episode’s charming opening scene comes into play. At the time, we had no context for this new set of characters: a bride, her sleazy cigar-smoking father, and a friendly old man named Stacey Crystals who offered to introduce her to some studio musicians after hearing her poetry at the wedding. And we didn’t recognize the kid who came to cut those dreams short by shooting Crystals, and accused him of ruining his father’s life. I wondered if this was a flashback, but later we saw Jeff learning the news that his friend had been shot and asking if Danny was okay. If Jeff is even more evil than we think – if he’s involved in some cover-up, either together or separately from Alice Quintana – we’ll have to wait until next season to find out.

When Ron goes to his high school gymnasium to meet the mystery man who has been calling him, stalking him, and taunting him with the Jason mask, the finale returns to the show’s inciting incident: the broken chair that left Ron sprawled on the ground, inadvertently looking up Amanda’s skirt. And what do you know, the subplot that won’t disappear is rearing its head once again. Apparently, the stalker is Amanda’s boyfriend, seeking revenge on her behalf after decades of resentment over some obscure incident from their high school days. (Ron once accidentally spit a gummy bear in his cleavage, a memory that drove him crazy.) Now he claims Amanda broke Ron’s chair with her mind, something she can apparently do when she feels strongly about something.

I’m not quite sure what Amanda’s boyfriend wants with Ron now and why he’s still so angry, but those final moments, down to the freeze frame of Ron’s worried expression, are disturbing and funny and inexplicable. chair company It can be appreciated as a character study of a man torn between genuine goodness and his dark impulses, but it’s also a thrilling, corny, sometimes funny way to experience 30 minutes every week. Did Amanda really break Ron’s chair with her mind? I don’t know. I’ve seen more madness.

• I’m not completely clear on Natalie’s deal. Was she really getting caught up in the plot with Ron? She and Tara argue in this episode after she tells them all about Wendy’s Carvers, but there’s no real resolution.

• “I’ve just watched Christmas, and they’re always like, Santa can’t do it.”

• “I’m sleeping alone at home, and we have a lot of misbehaving boys.”

• “She could be in a lot of trouble.” “I won’t tell anyone that Wendy’s is making a good ham restaurant.”

• I have to stop, that whole shade sequence with Asher left me shocked and horrified. (Tim Robinson’s over-the-top but worthy “Oh My God!!!” eases the tension somewhat.) More nightmare logic, I guess, and Ron wakes up again on his couch a moment later.

• It turns out that Barb was actually teasing Ron with her comments about the conspiracy theory circulated through George last week. Her condescendingness about his silly little hobby (running around like a “dumb detective”), combined with his insistence on his “good, simple life” with Jeff, actually plays on Ron’s ego and pushes him towards selfishness again.

• I love the physical comedy of Ron angrily leaning against the wall in Jeff’s office.

• I can’t tell – do those files indicate that Jeff and Crystals are the CFO and CEO (respectively) of Red Ball Markets Global and Tekka?

• What a wild ride!