The Chairman

**The Chairman** is a recurring character in *Rewritten* and *Justice.*

In terms of the series narrative, the Chairman is the leader of all four sects of Cogs.

## Appearances

### *Rewritten*

The Chairman made his first appearance in "Irenic" when he informed the Bossbot CEO that the Toons had returned from their three-year exile. He reappeared at the end of "Sack of the Sellbots" after the first defeat of the Sellbot Vice President. Though upset at the loss, he instantly found a replacement and ordered the Sellbots to continue Operation Sever. He appeared briefly in "Darkness on the Edge of Town" when Flim Flam sent him a memo informing him that the Togs had been unmasked.

In the season finale, "Heaven Found," the Chairman learned of the imprisonment of the twenty-seven Togs. He ordered the Sellbot Vice President to officially enact Operation Sever in a last-ditch effort to convert Toontown into Cog Nation. The Cogs, including the Chairman, take residence in a Cog building close to Toontown Central's Playground in "Hell Bound" where the conversion machine is housed. After Toons storm and defeat the building, shutting down the machine permanently, and sending an enormous blackout reverberating through the Cog headquarters, the Chairman reveals himself. He angrily flees the building with four newly-converted Togs and declares it is his turn to strike back. His words are the last thing heard before the season ends.

### *Justice*

The Chairman returned in "Aftershock" as he fled to Bossbot Headquarters with his four Togs (Doctor, Lucy Tires, Silly Sal, and Smokey Joe). He realized the extent of the blackout and destroyed his chambers in rage, vowing to destroy the Toons and leave the Cogs as the sole species in the region. The full extent of the coordinated strike is revealed to him in "Out in the Darkness," much to his anger.

In "Edicts of War," the Chairman was informed the Toons were close to discovering the location of Bossbot HQ. He ordered for the release of the Edict.

The Chairman appeared in a flashback in "The Last Cow" to the day right after the defeat of the Sellbot Vice President ("Sack of the Sellbots"). He had visited Clarabelle Cow in her studio and offered her the opportunity to have cow children of her own, an impossibility for her. Her selfish desire for children overweighed her loyalty to Toontown, and she willingly betrayed her own kind by planting bugs in all of the vases she sold en masse across Toontown, enabling the Cogs to spy on the Toons.

The Chairman returned in "In the Sanctum of Hell" when he was informed that the Toons had discovered Bossbot Headquarters and had defeated the Cashbot CFO. The Chairman calmly ordered for a new plan to destroy the Toons.

Clarabelle Cow became overcome with guilt in "Castle on the Cliff" at her betrayal of Toontown and informed the Chairman of her intent to withdraw her not guilty plea and switch to guilty. The Chairman ignored this request and instead told her that she had been preselected to journey north to the Kingdom of Bovo and established diplomatic trade. This restored her confidance in the Cogs and she agreed to maintain her not guilty plea.

Bossbot Headquarters was first attacked in "Brawl of the Bossbots" and the Chairman was unsurprised. He was shocked however when one of his Togs, Silly Sal, combusted and died. Realizing that the other three will suffer a similar fate, he ordered the Cogs to stop any treatment of them. Lucy Tires would die in "By a Preponderance."

Knowing a Bossbot invasion was imminent, the Chairman ordered in "By a Preponderance" for all Cogs to strike back. He then joined a Bossbot banquet in which the Toon question was to be discussed. But at the end of the episode, the Chairman was revealed to be **Ash Ingalls**.

The Chairman had a major role in the finale ("Hearts Ablaze," "Banners High"). In the past, Ash Ingalls was strapped into the Chairman's suit, which was originally supposed to hold Dr. Adam Molecule. Ash was the only Toon who could fit inside, and thus he was ostensibly killed. The Chairman used both his Toon and Cog knowledge to exact control over Cog Nation and see its rise. In the present, he hosted a banquet in the Bossbot Clubhouse along with the Bossbot CEO and attended by top-level Bossbots. The purpose of the meeting was to devise a new way of defeating the Toons, but the event was interrupted by a party of Toons who promptly defeated most of the Bossbots. The Chairman fled and ordered a Big Cheese to destroy the Togs, but that very Cog turned out to be a former Toon who killed the CEO. The Chairman went out to the courtyard with his remaining Cogs, but those too were defeated. The Chairman attempted to kill the Toons himself, but Pete Ingalls empowered his son to overcome his possession and tear off the mask of the Chairman. The act disconnected the brain chip that powered the Cog, and the Chairman ceased to exist.

## Trivia

* In Toontown Online and Toontown Rewritten, there are numerous references to the Chairman, but he has never appeared in the game. He is believed to reside in the Executive Office building in Bossbot HQ.
* The Chairman's identity as Ash Ingalls was planned since the beginning of the season. Though the reveal was originally meant to occur in the first season, it was pushed back in anticipation of the Chairman's larger role in the second season.
* Though Ash Ingalls and the Chairman are the same person, they have separate pages on the wiki because of their drastically different personalities and roles.