The Chair Company<\/a><\/p>\nMinnie Mouse coming back wasn\u2019t on my bingo card.<\/p>\n
\n Season 1<\/p>\n
Episode 8\n <\/p>\n
\n Editor\u2019s Rating<\/p>\n
5 stars<\/p>\n
*****\n <\/p>\n
\n Photo: HBO\n <\/p>\n
What? Did you expect a normal finale of The Chair Company? In a way, the end of this season of TV is extremely predictable \u2014 predictable in just how unpredictable it is. We knew that questions would likely be answered, and that new ones would crop up, especially given the news of the season-two renewal. We knew that things wouldn\u2019t wrap up neatly, especially after a penultimate episode that cleared up a little too much. The story is not over. The show must go on.<\/p>\n
I\u2019m still thinking about what to take away from \u201cMinnie Mouse Coming Back Wasn\u2019t on My Bingo Card,\u201d what to make of it all. Everything ties together, sort of, but mysteries remain about how deep it all goes, how much is real and how much is fiction. It\u2019s much easier to imagine another season of this show now, given the lack of real resolution: Not only are there new layers to uncover with the actual Tecca conspiracy, but there are newly revealed threats, both new characters and people we already knew.<\/p>\n
Like Mike Santini. I want to take a second to praise one of the funniest and most terrifying supporting characters of the year, embodied by Joseph Tudisco in a performance imbued with both menace and a deep yearning. And those two modes are interconnected: Mike is gross and horny, but he\u2019s also a lonely man who desperately wants community and connection, which leads him to do horrifying things. We learn about some of those things at the same time as Ron in this episode, not long after he gets back in touch with Mike to renew their investigation.<\/p>\n
The truth comes out when Ron pays a visit to Mike\u2019s daughter, Lynette, and gets rebuffed by her aunt. But Lynette pays a visit later and reveals that she\u2019s not actually his daughter. Her real dad died in a car accident, and Mike received his heart. He became close to the family for a time, showing up at Lynette\u2019s wedding so a piece of her dad could be there, but he became obsessed with the idea of being Lynette\u2019s dad (and her mom\u2019s husband) and grew angry when they didn\u2019t return his affection. In his worst moment, he reacted to Lynette\u2019s gentle rejection by trying to kiss her and said, \u201cI\u2019m attracted to you even more than I was your mom, because you\u2019re younger.\u201d The family got a restraining order.<\/p>\n
And that\u2019s not even the end of it, because we see in the final montage of the season that Mike also has a guy zip-tied to the toilet in his bathroom! These Mike reveals are the most genuinely disturbing parts of the episode; there\u2019s very little humor in Lynette\u2019s story, just real fear and real pain. And yet Ron doesn\u2019t even have time to fully process this revelation or worry about his own family, because he receives that call finally asking him to meet.<\/p>\n
More on that soon. Like so much of this show, the bulk of this finale revolves around the question of whether Ron is truly a good person. He sacrificed glory for Barb, sure, and he\u2019s making an effort to be a good dad again: He calmly shuts Natalie down when she calls him up about charges against the mayor, and he says all the right things when Seth comes clean about preferring stop-motion animation to basketball, encouraging him to apply to RISD. (I thought Seth\u2019s new passion was going to be something really weird or specific, but it\u2019s actually nice, and we see him showing some of his work to Barb and Natalie during the montage.)<\/p>\n
Even early on, though, you can tell that Ron is second-guessing his choice. Seth isn\u2019t clever enough to get any sense of what his dad is referring to in his obfuscatory description of the \u201creally important\u201d investigation that has kept him busy, but Ron\u2019s language undermines Barb\u2019s role in her own success. In his vague telling, Barb only got the funding because of his snooping, making him the hero of this story. That\u2019s his only way of coping with this turn of events.<\/p>\n
We get another example of Ron\u2019s lingering ego when he takes Baby on a walk, only to fall and hit his head after losing her. He eventually tracks the dog to the home of some guy named Asher, her true owner. Asher\u2019s energy is off from the beginning, but he seems grateful for Ron, even acquiescing to his ridiculous request to post about him saving Baby (n\u00e9e Minnie Mouse) on Instagram. Then, in a darkly funny twist, it turns out Minnie Mouse went missing for a reason: Asher allegedly has a history of yelling at her, and people have discussed rescuing the poor dog for a long time. In Ron\u2019s effort to brag about heroically returning a dog, he exposes himself as an ally to a possible monster.<\/p>\n
Getting his job back at Fisher Robay won\u2019t really fill the void in Ron\u2019s life. It never could. Despite Douglas\u2019s smug suggestion of moving Ron down \u201cthree or four rungs \u2026 or five,\u201d he\u2019s right that the job was always too much for him, that he was heading for a breaking point. But Jeff actually dangles Ron a lifeline anyway, suggesting they hash out Push-Gate over a beer. Ron is noncommittal, though, and in the end someone else takes over as project lead. In a moment of weakness, he calls the Columbus Herald tipline and mentions his \u201ccorporate political fraud thriller story,\u201d backing out before he can name any names. The journalist calls back to ask more, aware thanks to caller ID that Ron Trosper was the \u201canonymous\u201d caller.<\/p>\n
But what really kickstarts Ron\u2019s detective brain again is the realization (thanks to some indignant words from a caller who otherwise limits himself to heavy breathing) that the conspiracy doesn\u2019t end with Alice Quintana. When he reluctantly joins Jeff and his intense friend Grego at a karaoke bar, he\u2019s in the perfect state of mind for one of his biggest, most goosebumps-inducing realizations yet: One of Jeff\u2019s songs has the exact same melody and vocal sound as that catchy-as-hell Red Ball Market Global jingle. Ron immediately leaves and goes to Jeff\u2019s office, where he finds some intriguing files and photos that show Jeff hanging out with movie star Danny Donovan (whom we saw at that Sedona getaway a few episodes back) and Stacy Crystals.<\/p>\n
Here\u2019s where the fascinating opening scene of the episode comes into play. At the time, we had no context for this new set of characters: a bride, her klutzy cigar-smoking father, and the friendly old man named Stacy Crystals who offered to introduce him to some studio musicians after hearing his poem at the wedding. And we didn\u2019t recognize the kid who popped up to cut those dreams short by shooting Crystals, accusing him of wrecking his dad\u2019s life. I wondered if this was some flashback, but later we see Jeff learning the news that his friend got shot and asking if Danny is okay. If Jeff is even more evil than we thought \u2014 if he\u2019s complicit in some cover-up, either in conjunction with Alice Quintana or separately \u2014 we\u2019ll have to wait until next season to find out.<\/p>\n
When Ron heads to his high school gymnasium to meet with the mystery figure who has been calling him, stalking him, and taunting him with a Jason mask, the finale returns to the inciting incident of the show: the broken chair that left Ron sprawled on the ground, unintentionally looking up Amanda\u2019s skirt. And what do you know, the subplot that just won\u2019t disappear comes rearing its head once again. Apparently, the stalker is Amanda\u2019s boyfriend, enacting revenge on her behalf after decades of resentment for some obscure slight from their high school days. (Ron once accidentally spit a gummy bear in her cleavage, a memory that drove her insane.) Now he claims Amanda broke Ron\u2019s chair with her mind, something she can apparently do when she feels strongly about something.<\/p>\n
I\u2019m not quite sure what Amanda\u2019s boyfriend wants with Ron now and why he\u2019s still so angry, but those final moments are unnerving and funny and inexplicable, down to the freeze frame of Ron\u2019s alarmed expression. The Chair Company can be appreciated as a character study about a man caught between genuine goodness and his darkest impulses, but it\u2019s also just a thrilling, batshit, sometimes deliriously funny way to experience 30 minutes every week. Did Amanda really break Ron\u2019s chair with her mind? I don\u2019t know. I\u2019ve seen crazier.<\/p>\n
\u2022 I\u2019m not totally clear on Natalie\u2019s deal. Was she getting sucked into the conspiracy with Ron for real? She and Tara are arguing in this episode after she spilled the beans about Wendy\u2019s Carvers, but there\u2019s no real resolution to that.<\/p>\n
\u2022 \u201cI\u2019ve just seen the Christmas ones, and they\u2019re always just, like, Santa can\u2019t do it.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u2022 \u201cI\u2019m home alone at a sleepover, and we\u2019re terribly behaved boys.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u2022 \u201cShe can get in a lot of trouble.\u201d \u201cI\u2019m not gonna tell anybody Wendy\u2019s is doing a nicer ham restaurant.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u2022 I have to stay, that whole shed sequence at Asher\u2019s stumped and terrified me. (Tim Robinson\u2019s over-the-top but deserved \u201cOh my god!!!\u201d defused the tension somewhat.) More nightmare logic, I guess, and Ron wakes up again on his couch a moment later.<\/p>\n
\u2022 It turns out Barb was actually kind of teasing Ron with her comments about his conspiracy theorizing relayed through George last week. Her condescension about his silly little hobby (running around like a \u201cdumb detective\u201d), combined with Jeff egging him on by emphasizing his \u201cnice, simple life,\u201d really plays on Ron\u2019s ego and pushes him toward selfishness again.<\/p>\n
\u2022 I love the physical comedy of Ron angrily leaning on the wall of Jeff\u2019s office.<\/p>\n
\u2022 I can\u2019t tell \u2014 do those files indicate that Jeff and Crystals are the CFO and CEO (respectively) of Red Ball Market Global and Tecca?<\/p>\n
\u2022 What a wild ride!<\/p>\n
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