High Desert Episode 6- A Dojo, A Fingernail And A Forged Painting June 7th

High Desert episode 6 is probably the weakest so far. It feels like the slowest episode with the least evolution for the plot. I have to admit, I did lose concentration a bit as it hit many familiar beats.

The episode opens in Guru Bob’s compound. He runs out of his house, being chased by a burly woman. She pins him down while a man in a flat cap looms over him. “I have a buyer,” he begs. The bags in the hallway say something different. “Two things can be true,” he reminds them. Just because he is running away doesn’t mean he doesn’t have a buyer. It’s moments like this; you can really see how much of a weasel Bob is. The man explains that he brought the paintings from Bob under the pretense they were real. He wanted to be connected to a genius, but instead, he was looking at a perfect replication executed by Bob’s missing wife.

Peggy is back with Bruce, who has taken up a spot in the Frontier land office. Aside from Peggy convincing her boss they need their services and a paycheck, it’s all a bit unclear. High Desert can suffer from glossing over side stories and expecting the audience to keep up. She shows Bruce the finger Judy spat out in the last episode. Bruce tells her not to take it to the cops if they want to get their 70k reward. The police are likely to also take the credit, something Bruce desperately needs for his private investigations business to stay alive. Bruce has a friend who can help identify the DNA on the finger, but Peggy just needs the nail.

In the last episode, Peggy met a tech from a nail bar next to the tanning salon owned by Donatella’s family. It seemed like a pointless encounter at the time, but it finally slots into the plot in High Desert Episode 6. This nail tech knew Donatella but hadn’t seen her for over a year. She won’t give Peggy too much information. She’s not the type to “paint and tell,” but she essentially confirms that she did design that acrylic nail for the missing woman.

Peggy is desperate to go to the bathroom and runs into the tanning salon next door. She spots another very well-executed forged painting. She stops and has a chat with Donatella’s brother, still pretending she is writing a book about missing siblings, telling a long yarn about Jimmy Hoffa’s family and an imaginary book deal. These beats are a little bit too familiar at this point.

Guru Bob has been calling her all day, but Peggy doesn’t want to talk to him until they confirm who the severed finger belongs to. She finally explains the whole story of Guru Bob, the paintings, and the henchman to Bruce, who, of course, panics. Brad Garrett has turned what could be a one-dimension character into a lovable failed detective. It’s a shame he isn’t given more to do.

We also learn in this episode that someone still attends PI school. In earlier episodes, Peggy asked Carol to do it for her, so presumably, she still is. The feedback Bruce gets is that she is late and slurs by the end of the class. This is a quick throwback to the opening episode, a quick reminder that hasn’t been considered since. High Desert loves to include these throwaway lines, sometimes relevant to the plot, but some are likely not to be.

We also get the weekly check-in with Carol. This scene felt super disposable in an already throwaway episode. We get our weekly reminder that her stepdaughter is a tearaway, and Carol mostly lets her get away with it. Carol gives Peggy some surveillance photos of another PI case she is supposed to be dealing with. I had forgotten about this following the woman having an affair side-plot, and it seems the writers aren’t particularly concerned about it either.

Despite being vibrant and chatty, there is always this hint of fragility in how Arquette plays Peggy. She is running out of the pills she is hiding inside a Santa doll and getting desperate. This episode is the first time we see Peggy with her walls truly down. Not even a joke can cover it up.

Denny is back at Peggy’s house, struggling to find locations to stay that will accept Judy, the dog. He has started a dojo in her outhouse and now dresses like an 80s fitness guru. In previous episodes, they seemed very on, but now they seem very off romantically. He is currently banned from her bathroom and kitchen. They don’t specify what happened, but this hot/cold dynamic is probably normal for the pair.

Peggy goes to the clinic to pick up more methadone. It appears she has picked a day when the usual nurse is off, and she can convince a newbie to give her a higher dosage of medication. The bad news is her usual nurse is there to tell her she can’t just get pills and needs to pass a urination test. Peggy is usually a quick and confident talker, but here you can see panic set in.

The frontier setting is starting to drag. Her role as the cancan dancer was amusing, but she has struggled to find its relevance in the larger narrative. Her boss, Owen, is a strange character in High Desert. He is one of the few underwritten characters in the show. His only purpose is to rush around and worry about his mother’s opinions.

Bernadette Peters still has the most fun as Ginger, a terribly hammy actress wafting her handkerchief around. She is rewriting Peggy’s script, essentially rewriting Peggy’s history with her mother. Peggy has had it. As Ginger chews scenery, you can see Peggy’s patience wearing then. She suddenly realizes Ginger is not her mother, she will never be her mother, and she is just a lady on the bus who looks like her mother. It’s a sobering moment of reality for Peggy, a woman who thrives living in her own bubble. It’s interesting to see if we’ll see any more of this, Peggy, going forward.

She finally calls Guru Bob back. He lures her back to his compound with the promise of free oxy left on his porch. Once she’s there, the henchwoman grabs her and pulls her into Bob’s home. Peggy, tied up, still knows how to talk herself out of a situation. The henchmen just about toe the line between menacing and campy. She continues to convince them that the art dealer still wants the paintings despite them being fake. She manages to save herself by promising that she’s about to get a deposit in 2 to 3 days.

Denny has become interested in these forged paintings between starting his new dojo and meditating. With a bit of research, he realizes that these forged Monet paintings are still making money. Of course, Peggy knows all this. She just doesn’t trust her convict ex with the information.

The biggest shock is that James Kachel is a real person Peggy has been in contact with. I have been thinking the entire time that Kachel was a random name Peggy was using to scam Bob. He appears on Facetime to talk about Donatella’s art. With the real Monet missing, the forgery is as good as the original for Kachel. In the videocall, we see Peggy’s son Ethan in the background, but he walks away with zero interest in acknowledging his mother. I am desperate to know the backstory of her son, and I hope we get some form of explanation soon.

High Desert episode 6 ends with the nail tech meeting with Donatella’s brother and realizing Peggy is more than a nosy author. Soon after, he discovers the forged painting is missing from the bathroom. He essentially puts a hit out on Peggy, so it looks like our leading lady will also have to deal with the mob in future episodes.

It feels like it takes a long way to get where we needed this episode. A lot of space is dedicated to side plots and characters who have yet to find their purpose. Perhaps the last three episodes will shine a light on their purpose, but currently, only the last five minutes of this episode appear to move the plot on. Find all our High Desert coverage here.