5 Burning Questions for Season 2

[Warning: The below contains MAJOR spoilers for The Chair Company Season 1 Episode 8, “Minnie Mouse Coming Back Wasn’t On My Bingo Card.”]

HBO’s The Chair Company‘s finale has arrived, and despite some twist reveals, even more questions were raised in the last episode, “Minnie Mouse Coming Back Wasn’t On My Bingo Card.”

As Ron (Tim Robinson) kicked off the episode with a fresh start, eager to put his conspiracy digging behind him, a gnawing feeling forced him to confront the mystery. After his conversation with Alice (Kathryn Meisle) in the previous episode, Ron believed he’d uncovered the mastermind of the chair company conspiracy, in which he believed government bigwigs were involved in selling faulty chairs at a raised price.

But as Fisher Robay considered whether or not they’d allow Ron back to work, his boss, Jeff (Lou Diamond Phillips), attempted to give the project manager an opening for just that. Ron needed time to consider the offer, though, as he couldn’t let the conspiracy go. He even called a reporter and almost shared information about it, but decided against it, taking his dog Baby on a walk.

Meanwhile, Ron continued to get calls from an unknown individual, and a strange encounter in the woods left him dogless. When he goes to meet Jeff to talk through work stuff, Ron realizes that the music recorded by his boss is the same as the music that greets callers seeking out Tecca, the company that sells the seemingly faulty chairs.

HBO

Ditching Jeff at the karaoke bar where they met, Ron snoops around his boss’s office to find a hidden drawer containing files linking the man to Tecca and its related companies. The thing that confuses Ron, though, is that Alice’s name isn’t in the files. After he returns home, Ron is greeted by a young woman named Lynette (Amy Zubieta), whom he thought was Mike’s (Joseph Tudisco) daughter. It turns out that she isn’t, leaving a loose thread for Season 2 to pick up.

But after Lynette leaves, Ron receives a call from the unknown individual again, and he asks to meet. While Ron believes he has everything figured out, he’s met at his old high school by a man wearing a hockey mask who says that his chair didn’t break on accident and that it was set in motion years prior.

The mystery man, who reveals his plastic surgery-heavy face, tells Ron that it was his former classmate and colleague, Amanda (Amelia Campbell), who did it, claiming she can move things with her mind, and it was an attack after Ron’s treatment of her in high school. When Ron asks how this man knows everything, he reveals that he’s Amanda’s boyfriend. Yes, boyfriend. Needless to say, viewers are both closer and further from unraveling the conspiracy behind the chair company and Ron’s onstage chair collapse.

Below, we’re breaking down five major questions we need answered after that Season 1 finale when the show eventually returns:

Who is Mike really?

HBO

After connecting with the woman Ron believed was Mike’s daughter, she revealed that he was the recipient of her father’s heart after the man died in an accident. When Mike met Lynette and her family, he acted as if he were her father and made strange advances toward her to the point that the whole family put a restraining order against the man. This made Ron think back to moments when Mike referred to their friendship as being like family. In the episode’s final moments, the camera pans to find that Mike has taken a hostage to seemingly further his and Ron’s investigation. Who is this man really? We’re dying to know.

Why was Stacy Crystals targeted?

In the episode’s opening minutes, a white-haired man attempts to recruit a businessman for some work, but as he takes a phone call in the building lobby, a kid approaches him and asks if he’s Stacy Crystals. When the man confirms his identity, the boy pulls out what appears to be a homemade gun and shoots him, saying he ruined his life. The files found in Jeff’s office reveal they’re associates, but what kind of schemes could lead to such a result as being shot? Only time will tell.

Can Amanda control things with her mind?

Amanda’s supposed boyfriend alleges that Amanda can move things with her mind. While this sounds wild, an earlier event in the episode makes us wonder if this is so far-fetched. After Ron fell in the premiere episode, the ordeal even led to a lengthy HR investigation when he accidentally saw up Amanda’s skirt. Is she the mastermind we’ve been looking for, or is it all a mere coincidence?

What happened with Ron in the woods?

When Ron’s dog Baby gets into some chocolate, he takes the pup for a walk to “sweat it out,” but he takes a tumble, and when he awakens in the woods, he follows the path to a house where he can see the dog inside. A man greets him and says that the dog belongs to him and is named Minnie Mouse. Ron apologizes and notes that he bought the dog, unaware that it had been stolen. The man then leads Ron to his backyard shed and insists that he go inside. When Ron turns to look back at the man, though, his face changes into something terrifying before Ron awakens in the man’s home. It’s unclear if what Ron saw was real or merely imaginary, but if it was real, it would support the Amanda theory above.

Who is the mastermind of the conspiracy?

Now that Jeff, Amanda, and this new man, Stacy Crystals, have all been implicated in the Tecca chair conspiracy, will someone emerge as a frontrunner for the mastermind? Unfortunately, it feels like we’re no closer to uncovering the individual responsible, but thankfully, Season 2 is on the way to hopefully provide some answers.

What do you want to see from The Chair Company when it returns for Season 2? Let us know in the comments section below, and stay tuned for any updates on the series in the months ahead.

The Chair Company, Streaming now, HBO Max