High Desert Episode 8 Britney Spears, A Broken Award And Loose Cannon -June 21

High Desert episode 8 brings us to the end of Apple TV+ dramedy. It’s been a series of highs and lows, bold characters, strong performances, and genuine laughs. Whilst this final episode answers the main murder mystery, it also opens up more questions about characters and relationships. This episode ends annoyingly ambiguous, so let’s hope we get a season 2!

The scene opens with the two bad guys driving away in Denny’s slipstream. They are speeding along when they get stopped by the High Desert police. Their vehicle was involved in a shooting and she must get out of the car. When she does, she takes the cop to the back of the vehicle to sort out the situation. The male stays behind in the car, turning up the radio to blare Britney’s Toxic. The fight scene is concealed behind the car so we instead see the man having a fantastic time dancing to the pop hit. It’s a great blend of action and humor, something High Desert does so well.

When she gets back in the car, scratched up and covered in blood, her father has somehow been shot in the head. As we enter the last episode, it’s worth giving credit to the villains who have popped up throughout the show. Played by Carlo Rota and Julia Rickert they have been an impressively menacing presence with little to no payoff. We see her one last time, returning to the airstream and stealing Peggy’s car.

 Carol’s True Identity Revealed

Carol arrives at Peggy’s house to find Peggy missing. Denny calls her Mia and Carol hushes him because “Peggy knows me as Carol.” Finally, some information on the elusive best friend, who has some form of criminal past and a paranoia that the government is watching her. Carol has a rather shallow explanation for her new identity. She needed some medical care, so Peggy set her up with a handsome doctor, who left her with a troubled stepdaughter. The way it’s casually thrown in dialogue is a genuine shock. We later see Cooper finding her driver’s license. This is one of the most open-ended parts of High Desert, perhaps something to be explored in a sophomore season.

Denny and Carol finally compare stories so everyone is on the same page in terms of the crime family, forged paintings, and a missing wife. Denny rings a random collection of people, and it’s not surprising at all that Peggy has such an eclectic phonebook. He calls a nudist and he calls a woman fighting anti-abortion campaigner. No one knows where Peggy is but they are pretty sure Guru Bob and the Gattachi crime family are involved.

Peggy isn’t at home, but her car and phone are. Peggy is in the trunk of a car, soon joined by Guru Bob. Both of them are very high and very confused. It’s become clear in the last few episodes, Bob is just a weasel trying to scrape by enough money to maintain his guru lifestyle. There is no criminal mastermind at work here.

Ethan calls Peggy’s phone, which Denny picks up, to say that the real Kechel is in jail. Denny explains to Ethan that his mother is complicated but loves him. He begs him not to give up on Peggy but Ethan just hangs up. We never really know what happened between them but we presume that Peggy’s impulsive behaviour ruined that relationship. Denny clearly cares about the pair and their relationship. Underneath his criminal ways, Denny seems to have a good heart and loves Peggy. Matt Dillon plays the cliche ex-con husband with a sensitivity that makes the audience actually root for him.

The Truth About Guru Bob’s Missing Wife

Donatella’s criminal family members are forcing Denny and Peggy to dig their own graves. They think the pair are lovers who plotted together to kill Donatella together. We finally get the true story about Dona’s death, and it’s honestly very generic. High Desert has proudly taken so many swings and had so many unexpected emotional moments, I thought the big reveal would be more of a reveal. I thought a more significant, more eccentric twist was coming.

Bob explains that he came home early from Burning Man to find a letter attached to his news anchor award. His wife, Donatella, tells him she is leaving and angrily throws the award down the stairs. He grabs her arms to stop her from leaving. When he lets go, she falls down the stairs and impales herself on his TV anchor award. Whilst it’s an answer, it’s a pretty unsatisfying one.

Peggy is still promising that she can sell a counterfeit painting for 750K, and for some reason, this crime family believes her. Peggy is either really convincing or these mobsters are pretty terrible. Bob has 12 paintings on his house, and you can see Peggy’s eyes light up with dollar signs. One brother believes them the other doesn’t, which leads to a physical fight. I don’t know these two characters well enough to care who shoots who and who dies. The whole crime family plot ends in a whimper with two brothers fighting in the desert.

Everyone Gathers At Frontier Town

All our characters are on their way to frontier town for the big finale. Carol and Denny team up with Bruce to find Peggy. Peggy’s sister has turned up with the forged painting she stole from Gattachi’s tanning salon. It’s nice to all the different facets of Peggy’s complicated life come together to try and save her. In the opening episode, she seems all alone trying to buy drugs in parking lots, but by the end of the show she has an eclectic range of people who care about her.

It’s the day of the big play which Peggy had written for her mother’s doppelganger. Only the mother actress lookalike Ginger is long gone and Peggy has forgotten about the play. I liked seeing Peggy reconnect with her mother over the play and her lookalike, it just felt like it belonged in a different tone.

Denny has enlisted her pioneer co-worker Roger, who Peggy had been flirting with earlier in the show to play Kachel. On the phone, Peggy had been pretending Bruce was the art dealer. I was expecting some kind of crossed-wires farce, but the ending of High Desert episode 8 was rather paint-by-numbers.

Her boss Owen has finally reached his limit with Peggy’s shenanigans. He starts to list everything she has promised over the season, from the business opportunities to the play she described as “Hamilton in the Desert.” Peggy is a liability, no matter how likable she is, so it’s nice to see some real consequences happening to her. He crosses the line when he calls her a disappointment and says “I know how your mother felt.” This triggers something in Dianne, who finally stands up for her older sister. When their father walked out on them penniless, a teenage Peggy stepped in to help them. This line sums up Peggy, she doesn’t always make the right choices but she is scrappy and knows how to survive.

Denny and Roger corner Bob, leading him to the parking lot with the promise of money. It’s obviously a trap but Guru Bob is so desperate for money he doesn’t care. Bob half-heartedly waves a gun around in an attempt to threaten the men. These two are more experienced and tougher, they don’t care. They leave Bob to run away into the desert. Bob’s ending is well-suited to his weasel personality but it’s the most thrilling to see play out on screen.

Roslyn’s Emotional Final Moments

High Desert episode 8 has one large emotional punch. Peggy can’t connect with her sister because of the guilt she feels about her mother’s death. We see Roslyn’s last moments, burning up and hallucinating. Peggy can’t cope with seeing her mother so close to the end, so she gets high. She is led on the floor tripping as her mother dies in an adjacent room. We might not get a satisfying reveal in terms of the murder mystery, but we did get an emotional beat that helps us to understand every facet of Peggy. Once you know about Peggy’s childhood and how her mother died, every action over the eight episodes of High Desert makes complete sense.

Over the last few episodes, we have seen Owen’s cannon appear. In the previous episode of High Desert, he is firing mannequins out of it and each one lands a fiery mess. It seemed like a background gag but it has a decent significance in the end. Owen needs someone to fly out of the cannon, if he isn’t getting a play, he’ll still give them a show.

When no one else wants to stand up and take part, Peggy volunteers. It’s like some last form of martyrdom, now she has reached some form of closure with her sister. When she climbs into that enclosed space, I was really worried it would end ambiguously with her being shot out. As I dreaded, High Desert episode 8 fades to black just as she is about to fly out of the canon.

It’s up in the air whether High Desert will get a season 2 at the moment. There are a lot of places they can take this show. Arquette has truly embodied the jovial chaos and heartbreak of Peggy. Find all our High Desert coverage here.