Peggy has been strangely likable for an episode or two. In fact, we are feeling bad for how much we have criticized her manipulative and pushy talk. There is an angle to it that we hadn’t considered before that she needed that skill to cope with her life that was falling apart because she simply did not have the headspace to fix it. We are not making an excuse for her, but addiction manifests in one’s life in multiple ways, and unless one starts addressing the problem at the root, it remains a lost cause. Let’s see a part of that in the High Desert recap of Episode 6.
Spoilers Ahead
Does Peggy Find Out Who The Finger Belongs To?
Peggy has finally found a clue that can get her the $70000 that she so desperately wants. She has the finger that Judy swallowed in a place near Guru Bob’s house. Peggy wants confirmation regarding whether it is Dona’s finger or not; therefore, when Bruce Harvey takes it to the lab for a DNA test, Peggy takes the nail from the finger to the salon near Dona’s family’s business. The salon owner is instantly suspicious, but Peggy tries to pretend as if that nail belongs to her husband’s mistress. She also needs a DNA sample from Dona’s family. She had previously met them under the guise of Sylvia Plath, a writer, but not the one who wrote “The Bell Jar.” In her usual style, Peggy has the listener caught up in her words and takes the chance to swap a piece of candy he was eating for another one. Now that she has her DNA sample, she sets off, hoping to only return to claim the reward money.
Coming to Bruce Harvey, he is finally trusting Peggy now that she has given him a solid lead regarding Guru Bob’s wife and also because she offered to give him such a sizable amount of money in the previous episode. But just because he is softening towards her does not mean that she has stopped being a handful. She gets Bruce the security contract by manipulating her boss. All she had to do was talk to her boss’ mother, and that created a different problem in itself. However, coming back to Bruce, she tells him that she has topped her PI class, but Bruce is apprehensive since the teacher told him that she starts slurring her words towards noon. Peggy had set her best friend, Carol, to take the classes on her behalf, who had even diligently followed up on one of Peggy’s cases and found the required proof of the said woman’s infidelity. The teacher must have been saying that about Carol, or maybe Peggy did attend a class or two, and it was when her drugs kicked in that she became incoherent. Peggy simply says that she ends up talking like that because of Bell’s Palsy, which starts taking effect around noon. Now, Bell’s palsy is when there is a sudden weakness or loss of movement in one’s face. For all of Peggy’s unscrupulous behavior, she has a dangerously quick wit, the kind that combines a wealth of knowledge with the presence of mind. In the ten years that she has spent at home, being a barmaid in a western-themed place, Peggy has done things that are yet to be revealed, and we have started suspecting that her interest in Guru Bob’s life is not just something arbitrary but a carefully planned act.
Meanwhile, she is increasingly on edge as she has run out of her drugs. She calls ahead in the hospital to check that her regular pharmacist is on leave so that Peggy can dupe the new girl into giving her the drugs she wants. Unfortunately, Mary has come to work, and though Peggy tries to avoid a test by stating that the weather would corrupt the results (full points to her excuse-making abilities), Mary refuses to give her more medicines. Peggy also tries to visit her regular drug dealer, the one she met at the beginning of High Desert. Sadly, it is not a good day for Peggy because the guy has been arrested. A desperate Peggy tries to ask one of the guys for half a joint, but what good will that do anyway?
Maybe it was that crankiness that caused Peggy to snap at Brenda, Bruce’s receptionist, whom she had already been miffed with for dating Roger, a guy Peggy had turned down in the past. Why isn’t she happy that it is not her but Brenda who has to discuss Star Wars with him? Maybe Peggy should get her drugs soon. But we can’t ignore that this loss of drugs seems to have let Peggy resolve something with Ginger. Peggy is miffed that her unnecessary words and manipulations were taken out of context, and she now has to shoot herself out of a cannon on her boss’ mother’s birthday. She is angry with Ginger for agreeing to the change in the script of her play that requires such an act. But when talking to Ginger, Peggy finally realizes that she wants to let go of her mother and not find her replacement in her lookalikes.
Ending Explained: Does Peggy Rescue Guru Bob?
At the beginning of Episode 6 of High Desert, we see Guru Bob being chased by Heather, the bloodthirsty daughter of the man to whom Bob had sold the fake artwork. The man claims that he liked the painting because it relieved him of the stress of his job. We understand it since art is escapism, after all. But does fake art provide the same benefit? Since the man came to know that he had been sold a fake, he has been after Bob’s life. He suspected that Bob must be absconding because he had all of his luggage in the living room. The man was probably right, but Bob couldn’t admit that. Instead, he tells him that he has a buyer for the fake painting who can get him real money.
Throughout the episode, Bob has been trying to contact Peggy, but she has been avoiding his calls. When she finally gets his message, she rushes to his side to handle the situation. Peggy tells the man that her buyer is an art collector in New York, James Kachel, who knows that the painting is fake but wants it anyway because of the profit it can get him. He is going to give the deposit of $250,000 in 2-3 days, and the father-daughter duo should let go of Bob and Peggy if they want that. An additional lie that Peggy sells is that she is being stalked by a police officer who has placed a GPS chip on her that she can’t locate.
Peggy gets out of the situation safely with Bob at the end of Episode 6 of High Desert, and she must now deliver what she has promised. Peggy has allowed Denny to stay in her house for the sake of the dog, Judy. She gets the catalog of Dona’s paintings from him that they had gotten in Episode 5 from Guru Bob and shows them to James Kachel. We were surprised that he existed and wasn’t another one of Peggy’s lies. Her son, Ethan, is with James, so maybe their relationship runs a lot deeper than we know. She shows him the fake painting of Dona that she had stolen from the bathroom of her family’s business. James Kachel actually wants to buy it, and we are finally going to get the secrets of Peggy’s past in the coming episodes.
Final Thoughts
First of all, we want to know what kind of best friends Peggy has had throughout her life. Starting with her mother, Peggy mentioned how she had never turned down any of her requests, even those to quit things halfway. Then there is Carol, who seldom tells her that she is being stupid. What is the problem with these women, and what are they hiding? High Desert is clearly headed for Season 2 because the amount of narrative left is not going to get over in just the two episodes left in this season. We don’t have definitive feelings about this story so far, but maybe if and when it all makes sense towards the end, that might change.
