RECAP: ‘The Chair Company’ Episode 4 – “Bahld Harmon birthplace (disputed)”

Of all the television series HBO has released in 2025, The Chair Company is easily the most compelling. The Chair Company Episode 4, entitled “Bahld Harmon birthplace (disputed)” takes a break from the madness director Andrew DeYoung (Friendship) brought to do a bit more of a character study.

Nevertheless, the recruitment of A Different Man director Aaron Schimberg and writer Sarah Schneider results in an episode of Tim Robinson and Zach Kanin‘s ambitious series that helps add some necessary texture.

The Chair Company Episode 4 jumps back six years in time, where Ron (Tim Robinson) and Barb (Lake Bell) are at a corporate party for her work. Both bored with the proceedings, they skip out and head to a dive bar. Over drinks, Barb reveals that she’s unhappy at her job and wants to quit in order to start her own business —a stylish breast milk pump. Not only does Ron support her, but he also reveals he wants to start his own business.

Although he doesn’t outright say it, it’s clear he’s referring to his failed Jeep Tours company, which led him to eventually return to his company. This is an interesting table setting, as it highlights that Ron’s personal failure may motivate him to throw himself into this vast conspiracy.

The Chair Company Episode 4 embraces the ‘time jump’ to give insight into Ron’s past.

In the present day, Ron is up late at night putting together a spreadsheet to make sense of the maelstrom he’s found himself in. This of course, includes connections between Tecca and Red Ball Market Global.

He comes to the conclusion that, due to the intel he gained from the former Tecca employee he met in the previous episode, they could be hiding something in the chairs, given their strange disassembly and reassembly process. When he calls Mike Santini (Joseph Tudisco) with his findings, Mike is not watching, but listening to pornography in his car. Yet another peculiar, hyper-specific detail to add to the pile. 

The next morning, Ron receives a knock at the door. The knock comes from a man who claims he’s there to pick up a set of vintage The Beatles figures listed at this address on eBay. As the man cries about this transaction falling through, Ron goes to work. During a meeting, the staff inquires as to where Douglas (Jim Downey) is. While some feel that he could be embarrassed about his “Mistakes Party”, Ron worries that it’s his fault due to his using Douglas’ name to check out the records on the Tecca location. 

As The Chair Company Episode 4 demonstrates, the stress keeps piling up for Ron. He’s brought into a meeting with the HR representative, Diane (Moonie Fishburn) and the outside observer, where Diane claims that his case of him seeing up his co-worker’s skirt in the first episode has been complicated by them finding a picture of Ron with his arm around the co-worker, Amanda (Amelia Campbell), in high school.

As Ron stumbles his way through an explanation, claiming that hanging out with Amanda was “social suicide”- it’s too much fun to watch Ron dig himself into a deeper hole – Jamie (Glo Tavarez) interrupts and tells Ron that he’s got an important phone call.

The phone call turns out to be from a modeling agency that tells Ron they can’t accept him. Ron, obviously confused, knows now that someone is giving out his address and phone number. And thus, the tension ratchets up another notch. 

When Ron gets home, he looks at his old yearbook. As it turns out, the incriminating photo of him and Amanda is simply a curtain call from a high school play. This is somewhat of a relief, as it’s a lot funnier if Ron is a victim of circumstance and didn’t have an actual entanglement with Amanda.

The Chair Company Episode 4 then flashes back to five years ago. Barb asks him about a potential investor in the Jeep Tours. Ron then relays that he took the investor on a tour, only for the investor to seem unamused.

Trying to spice it up, Ron then speeds way up and hits a log, causing the man’s head to slam into the dashboard. As Ron describes it, the man then seemed confused and disoriented, so he dropped him off at his hotel to get some rest. This moment is hilariously dark, as anyone with medical knowledge would know that is the last thing you’d want to do in a concussion situation.

Unlike its predecessors, this episode takes on a darker edge, but it’s a slight departure.

As Barb expresses concern about the money he’s pouring into this project, Ron declares that he’d rather kill himself than return to Fisher Robay. In an episode that’s a bit light on the belly laughs of earlier ones, this moment is so bitter and dark that it almost makes up for it, tapping into director Aaron Schimberg’s bleak sensibility.

At work, Ron receives a call from yet another modeling agency. Incensed, he demands to know which email that submitted his headshots, only to find it wasn’t his email at all. Ducking into an empty office, he finds a Tecca charge and starts angrily taking it apart.

During his attempt to get to the bottom of the chair, literally, the outside observer from HR comes in and asks him why he’s doing this. Knowing that a large part of the HR case that’s forming is a notion that Ron could’ve altered the chair to see up Amanda’s skirt, things are not looking good for him.

Regardless, The Chair Company Episode 4 demonstrates Ron’s growing obsession with Tecca as he asks his wheelbarrow-loving custodian to try to sneak the chair out of the office while no one is looking and into his car. Unfortunately, the boss (Lou Diamond Phillips) pulled up a beignet truck, a bizarre offering for an office, so Ron is not able to retrieve the chair. 

Ron goes home, disappointed, only to notice that there are police cars outside. Freaking out, Ron discovers he’s once again being messed with. The cops were told that he was donating a giant green egg, a family heirloom, to the station.

Ridiculous as this detail may be, Ron doesn’t waste time and calls Mike to inform him about the situation. Mike sends over a fake exterminator who tells the family it’s not safe to be in the house, as Ron and his family go to stay with his daughter Natalie (Sophia Lillis) and her fiancé, Tara (Grace Reiter).

At work the next day, a series of bizarre things happen to Ron. First, he finds out that Douglas, as it turns out, was just stuck under his fridge for two days and that no other harm had come to him. Whew. Less relieving is that Ron’s boss comes in, incensed at an email Ron had apparently sent begging him for a raise.

Before Ron can reassure him, Ron leaves the office, only to receive a Tecca survey. The survey seems normal, except that the last question is, “Are we done, Ron?” It’s very clear at this point that Ron is not crazy and that Tecca, or whatever the true name of the company is, is out to get him. He clicks “Yes,” opting to end the misery. 

Ron honestly can’t catch a break, and yet it still remains fun.

That is, until Mike pulls up to the office, showing Ron that he had snatched a Tecca chair for him. We will absolutely come back to this later. For now, The Chair Company Episode 4 returns to Tara and Natalie’s home. Ron notices that Tara does not treat Natalie very well, disregarding her passions.

When Ron confronts her about this, she says that she’s just learning to take a backseat to Tara’s passions, as Ron did to Barb’s. This heartbreaking moment is cut short when Ron unveils that he has a new passion: uncovering a criminal conspiracy.

In an unhinged info dump, Ron reveals that he took apart the chair, only to find that a piece was missing, called the “chair appendix.” Stay with me (and Ron) here: apparently, the chair parts are made in Hungary, which is the manufacturer of a specific sort of opioid that would fit into the missing appendix piece.

Ron believes that Ken Tucker, a man who sits on the board of several different companies, including Red Ball Market Global and Tecca, is trafficking in drugs using the chairs. Natalie seems receptive, asking to see his phone to confirm, and then tells Ron she loves him and supports him. 

As Mike tells Ron he’s found Ken Tucker, Ron goes to meet him. It’s revealed that Natalie is watching his location. In a gut-punch of an ending, The Chair Company Episode 4 flashes back to five years ago. As Ron frustratingly tries to figure out his Jeep Tours business, a scared Natalie watches, while Barb tells her to tell him that she loves him and that everything will work out. 

The Chair Company Episode 4, due to its lack of belly laughs, would be easy to write off as the least impressive episode of the series thus far. Yet, I feel that it hits on something relevant right now, as many of us see our loved ones fall down conspiracy rabbit holes. There’s a chilling, uncomfortable nature to The Chair Company Episode 4 that I really appreciated, even if Ron ultimately proves to be correct about his big conspiracy.

If the previous episodes were all gas, The Chair Company Episode 4 gives us some time to consider how Ron appears to others. I’m interested to see how his unending quest collides with his duties to his family.

The Chair Company Episodes 1-4 are now streaming on HBO Max. New episodes air every Sunday.

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