Is Ron's conspiracy theory about The Chair Company totally wrong? Here's what Episode 5 of the HBO comedy revealed 

In Episode 5 of The Chair Company titled 'I Won. Zoom In.,' Ron Trosper’s conspiracy theory is that Red Ball Global Market Group (RBMG) is using Tecca chairs to smuggle drugs. However, the theory is undermined by the evidence collected so far.

Ron and his partner Mike Santini trace down the CFO os the company, Ken Tucker, but eventually discover that he is an actor instead, named Oliver Probblo, and was hired for a fake corporate photo shoot once. Therefore, we can say that while Ron's theory specifically undercuts, his sense that something is off stands true.

Read on to know more about what episode 5 of The Chair Company revealed.

Is Ron's conspiracy theory about The Chair Company totally wrong?

Ron's original hypothesis states that Tecca chairs used by his employer are secretly rigged with hydraulic levers and empty cavities to smuggle drugs or money. This is taking place at the manufacturing chain of RBMG. This theory of Ron gave him a purpose to go beyond his mundane schedule as a project manager, and episode 5 portrays him travelling with Mike to meet Steven Droyco.

Droyco claims that he has seen Tucker at the Tecca warehouse. However, when they dived deeper, they ended up meeting Oliver Probblo, a regional actor who played Tucker in a "spot the difference" bar game. He informed them that those board photos of the company with him posing as the CFO were taken as part of their acting class. This breaks the theory that Ron had, as he believed that the company was legitimate with real executives working.

Ron then confides in Steven about the lack of a hydraulic lever in Tecca chairs, but Steven argues that the chairs do have levers, dismantling the smuggling narrative the way Ron had imagined.

However, even though what Ron thought is wrong but his gut feeling isn't. The fact that the company uses actors for fake identity roles, that people are aggressively hostile when questioned, and Ron is assaulted and wakes up in the hospital, all of these incidents point towards a danger or a hidden system that is at work, and that Tecca or RBMG is not just a benign office-supply manufacturer.

The conspiracy theory and the investigation also affected Ron's mental health at The Chair Company.

When Ron realized his theory was failing, he started to question whether he had lost his mind or the world had simply stopped making sense to him. We can say that Ron's conspiracy theory wasn't completely wrong, and for his investigation to succeed, he will need to discard the “chair-as-drug conduit” notion.

He will have to reframe the fact sheet with the new evidence about the fake board members and photo shoots happening using actors and anonymous operatives. He must avoid trying to prove his theory right, as this might take him away from reality. Therefore, episode 5 is about Ron confronting the truth that something is not right and also admitting that his assumptions were wrong.

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The Chair Company episode 6 is dropping on November 16, 2025.

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