Object
Ten-Foot Chain (Toby's Imagined Restraint)
A verbally invoked "ten-foot chain"—defined in dialogue only by its length and restraining function. The chain never appears on screen; material and finish remain unspecified in the exchange. Toby's snarling fantasy paints the image of a long, heavy restraint looped or bolted to a desk, and other characters react to that imagined weight and confinement with alarm, compulsion, and hurried intervention.
2 appearances
Purpose
To restrain or tether a person—explicitly imagined by Toby as a device to keep Sam from leaving his job or to physically prevent resignation.
Significance
Acts as a rhetorical and symbolic instrument: it crystallizes Toby's fierce loyalty, his desire for control, and the absurd lengths he imagines to prevent Sam's exit. The image escalates interpersonal stakes, converts private guilt into a public crisis, and highlights tensions in chain-of-command that lead to Leo's intervention.
Appearances in the Narrative
When this object appears and how it's used