“Another week, another episode” is what we feel about High Desert. There is too much happening in Peggy’s life, yet the series based on her is so underwhelming to watch. At least, her jokes should have been better for us to look forward to the coming episodes. But moving on, here is a recap of Episode 4 of High Desert.
Spoiler Alert
What Does Denny Want With Peggy?
Peggy’s mother, in the 1980s, looked just like Peggy, except with red hair. That is making us think—how old is Peggy even? She looked like someone in her late teens when she was snatching the pearls out of her cheating father’s mistress’ neck. When that necklace broke and the pearls spilled onto the road, looking at the lack of grief on Roslyn’s face, we would say that the necklace did not really cost anything. Yet Peggy was petty enough to do what she did and that has invoked in us the first vestiges of respect for her character. Pettiness can accomplish great things like nothing else can.
In the present day, the timeline regarding Denny and Peggy’s relationship has become somewhat clear to us. We were under the impression that Denny had been in jail for the past 10 years when Peggy’s house was initially raided for drugs. It turns out that, though he did take the fall for the entire thing, then, in the current timeline, this is his third stint in jail. Peggy is extremely done with him, while Denny insists on taking it easy in Roslyn’s kimono and wants to drink some good coffee as he hasn’t had any since he landed in jail for the third time. Apparently, Denny did a semester in law school that he failed, but since then, every time he has been in jail, he blames the lawyers for not fighting his case properly. Right now, he smoothly talks his way into taking Peggy to dinner, even though she just had that with Guru Bob.
Honestly, both Peggy and Denny are Grade-A bullshitters (excuse the language). While they run the gamut with their exaggeration and lies that each of them sees through, we finally come to know something of importance. Denny has hidden some stolen silver at a place called the Alejo Road House. Apparently, Peggy was under the impression that he had sold that to cover his legal fees, but it was a big fat lie. Denny had kept the money to start a new future with Peggy once he got out, or so he says. A furious Peggy refuses to get involved with him in any capacity, owing to the new life, or a semblance of it, that she has started building for herself. But the silver is good money, something Peggy desperately needs since her employer doesn’t pay her. He himself has been deceived by his partner and needs to sell all of his stuff to make ends meet. Honestly, we might dislike Peggy for her meddling belligerence, but from the looks of it, what other choice does she have? She has to be optimistic, as that gives her something to do and a solution, no matter how vague, for her problems. If she doesn’t hold onto that, she will sink.
With the help of Carol, Peggy discovers that Guru Bob’s wife belonged to a mafia family, and only they can confirm whether the prize money for information on her is still active or not. That is where her mission takes her next.
Does Peggy Agree To Help Denny Find The Silver?
The problem with Peggy is that she is meddlesome. She gets involved with everything, and there ends up being a price to pay. Currently, she tracks down Dana’s family in Mexico and finds that things might be slightly more complicated than she had assumed. Bob’s wife, Dona, was the odd one out in her family due to her interest in art when the people around her were more business-obsessed. Though the prize money for information on her is still there, the family doesn’t suspect Bob in the least. They say that Dona hated him, and in fact, when she left, she wrote a note telling him to go to hell. But Peggy senses that there is more to the story. Peggy is there under the guise of a writer, Sylvia Plath, and she notices a particular painting in the tanning salon. She realizes that Dona must have made copies of famous paintings that Bob sells to people. She also thinks that Dona must not have disappeared from Bob’s life of her own accord since it is impossible that she would part with her parrot, which she had for some 30 years. It looks like an interesting mystery for Peggy, except that her boss tells her that he might have to declare bankruptcy due to his partner’s fraud. Peggy begs him for some time and takes Ginger to meet Guru Bob by pretending she is an art connoisseur. Peggy presents her as the rival of someone famous who is here to drive up the price for the painting. As we said before, Peggy is the better scammer of the two of them, and hence, she gets Bob to agree with what she wants. At the end of Episode 4 of High Desert, Peggy meets Denny and tells him that she will help him recover the silver for half the share. We don’t doubt that Peggy will get that soon, but Denny is looking shady and not the good kind of shady like Peggy. As they spend the night together, we can expect a few more bad decisions from our protagonist.
Final Thoughts
We don’t understand whether Peggy is someone we can rely on or whether we should run far away from her. She gets a new IT person for Bruce, but that happens when she is trying to bargain with the nurse for more drugs. On the other hand, she organizes a set-up for her sister to open up her heart to their dead mother through Ginger. Peggy says she does this so that Dianne can come out from under the thumb of Stewart, but doesn’t Peggy want that so that she can manipulate her sister for her own needs? Peggy is frustrating, and now we are waiting for the next week to see her pull off the heist with her husband.
