last recap<\/a> by speculating that Ron could be right about the conspiracy \u2014 but nobody could guess exactly how it would all tie together.<\/p>\nEven early in the episode, Ron is feeling good, though we have little reason to believe his hopefulness is justified. After all, the guy just got \u201ca little suspended\u201d from work (possibly fired) for pushing his boss, then brought a dog home without talking to Barb. She\u2019s right to be furious and to point out how much she has carried this family recently.<\/p>\n
Left without his usual Fisher Robay obligations, Ron is free to devote most of his time to investigating. That means checking out the other government buildings where the mysterious Eastern European bugs showed up. In a particularly desperate move, he stops by a porn store just to ask the owner about the old photos he found printed at the abandoned Tecca office. There\u2019s no connection there, really, but he thinks it\u2019s possible the guy could somehow connect those photos to corporate fraud. In the end, though, he\u2019s only interested in stealing the photos off Ron\u2019s phone \u2014 and Ron has to replace it after it ends up in a running soap stream. Life is very hard and very weird for Ron Trosper.<\/p>\n
He does have some solid leads here, though, including the Tecca chairs being loaded into trucks at one of the Delaware government buildings. And an innocuous text from his muted Tamblay member group chat makes something click in his brain. Much like the store adding long sleeves and brown diamond patches to a returned short-sleeved shirt and charging double, Tecca is swapping and reselling parts.<\/p>\n
Ron opens up about this to Natalie, who is unusually involved in the investigation these days \u2014 I wonder if she\u2019s getting a little carried away, too, based on her scheme to get in contact with Delaware city hall purchasing director Teresa Bonaventura. (It involves pretending she was delivering a ham. In one of the episode\u2019s best asides, Natalie explains that Wendy\u2019s is opening a new, nicer offshoot called Carvers with ham on the menu.) She happily passes along Teresa\u2019s address to Ron, who enters Teresa\u2019s home without knocking.<\/p>\n
Meeting Teresa clarifies the situation for Ron: She\u2019s old and sick and not totally there mentally, meaning someone in the Delaware city government is using her as a puppet to fake oversight. The likely culprit: Mayor Greg Braccon, who has already had multiple minor scandals. Mike agrees to help Ron out and tail Braccon at a pub crawl that evening, while Ron is putting in some husband work at a dinner party to get out of the doghouse with Barb.<\/p>\n
But Braccon isn\u2019t behind all this, as far as we know. Everything really comes to light where you wouldn\u2019t expect it: at the party for Barb\u2019s investor, Alice Quintana, who happens to be the assistant purchasing director. (It\u2019s amateur work that Ron didn\u2019t know this already, but he can\u2019t see the forest for the trees.) Several pieces fall into place at once here: Ron happens to spot a photo of Alice with Teresa, then immediately gets a call from Oliver Probblo to follow up on the identity of the mysterious woman who photographed the models for Red Ball Market Global. It turns out her name isn\u2019t Maggie S. That was someone else whose sunglasses Oliver stole. The real photographer was named \u2026 yep, Alice Quintana.<\/p>\n
The reveals don\u2019t stop there, because this is when a familiar face shows up to unsuccessfully cram a pill in Ron\u2019s mouth. It\u2019s the guy who bolted away from him at the \u201clife of the party\u201d class, and it turns out he\u2019s Alice\u2019s nephew, in addition to being the designer of both the RBMG and the Delaware city website. He\u2019d reported to Aunt Alice that Ron was getting close after their run-in.<\/p>\n
Does all this rely on serendipity? For sure, and that\u2019s part of the point. Oliver\u2019s phone call in particular is ridiculously timed, calculated for maximum shock value. But The Chair Company has always been surreal, so I don\u2019t mind that type of contrivance. And it\u2019s not like Ron is right about everything. That would just be unrealistic, and a pretty surface-level joke twist. This is ultimately a somewhat small-scale story of local corruption. Teresa wasn\u2019t getting poisoned; she was already sick, and Alice took advantage. And now that she has invested embezzled money in Barb\u2019s business, Ron is faced with a serious moral conundrum. Can he really sabotage his wife by exposing this conspiracy in the name of justice after Barb had his back throughout his Jeep tours flop era?<\/p>\n
No, he cannot. Because, in a final brain-bender before he plans to make a move, Ron learns that Barb already knows about the conspiracy he\u2019s looking into. In fact, she\u2019s sharing it with her therapist, who claims she was gushing about how much of a \u201csuperhero\u201d Ron is. It\u2019s hard to read this revelation: It makes sense that Natalie would tell her mom about Ron\u2019s latest obsession, but did Barb okay George revealing this information to help gently guide Ron out of this tailspin? Does Barb know exactly what Alice is tied up in? Barb knowingly taking money from an embezzler would reshape our understanding of her as a character.<\/p>\n
I\u2019m sure there\u2019s more to reveal in the finale; we know the basics now, but not the full contours of this conspiracy and just how much has been stolen from Ohio taxpayers, or how international this really goes. But I appreciate how much this penultimate episode clears up some of the show\u2019s biggest mysteries, revealing its central protagonist (antihero?) to be a flawed, obsessive man, but also sometimes observant, intelligent, and ultimately good. After all, he chooses to keep quiet so Barb will be happy. As she says, his heart is in the right place.<\/p>\n
And with that, The Chair Company finally goes full character study, shifting the finale\u2019s stakes from mystery-centered (\u201cIs any of the conspiracy real?\u201d) to character-centered (\u201cHow will Ron cope with the secret knowledge of a conspiracy, and how far will he go to protect his family?\u201d). I\u2019m still skeptical of this becoming a multi-season story, but an episode like this makes me think following these people longer might not be such a bad thing.<\/p>\n
\u2022 \u201cHe grabbed my shoulder, and my hand pushed him. He was being mean to everybody, especially the women, and some of the weaker men.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u2022 The exterminator\u2019s friend says the bugs are attracted to hot areas like \u201ca phone that has too many tabs open\u201d (a funny line on its own), so that explains the bug crawling into his charging port four episodes back. I appreciate the show\u2019s dedication to tying up every loose end.<\/p>\n
\u2022 Were those kids all yelling \u201cstone\u201d while throwing, well, stones at Ron? And is that kid\u2019s nose okay?<\/p>\n
\u2022 Some guy at the dinner party keeps sneaking \u201cpepper patty balls\u201d because he doesn\u2019t like the meal.<\/p>\n
\u2022 Mayor Braccon\u2019s friend really, really wants to use his hot tub.<\/p>\n
\u2022 The website designer explains that each of the colors in his tattoo (and the design) represents a woman he slept with. Okay.<\/p>\n
\u2022 The shot of Ron watching himself cry in the mirror over the credits is a pretty perfect ending.<\/p>\n
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