Diksha Sundriyal
Apple TV+’s ‘High Desert’ builds the mystery surrounding the disappearance of Donatella Scarborough and the paintings at her husband’s house. Peggy Newman becomes more invested in finding the truth and turns to unreliable sources for help. She goes into the case with a theory, but the more she finds out about Guru Bob and his wife, the more convoluted everything gets. Peggy is convinced that Dona wouldn’t have run away without her pet parrot, which means something has happened to her. The question is, what happened, and who did it? By the end of episode 5, titled ‘Soul Retrieval,’ one of her theories is confirmed, giving rise to more questions. Here’s what the ending means. SPOILERS AHEAD
High Desert Episode 5 Recap
On the behest of Denny, her husband, who just won’t divorce her, Peggy helps him get the silver buried inside the house. She was hesitant initially, but seeing all the silver, she is glad to have helped Denny, believing that this payment would greatly help her. However, it turns out that the silver was more nickel, and they get a meager amount in return for it. Once again, Denny has failed Peggy, which makes her question why she keeps falling to his cons.
Whatever money Peggy got from the nickel, she tried to give to her boss, hoping that it would help with some of his financial troubles. While he is moved, he tells Peggy that his financial situation will take a lot more money to resolve. He tells her to keep her money and take up a case to actually help the business. The assignment is to spy on a woman who might be having an affair. Peggy doesn’t want to waste her time on it, but she has to do as asked, so she gives it to Carol. Meanwhile, she focuses on Guru Bob.
High Desert Episode 5 Ending: Whose Finger Do Peggy and Denny Find?
In the previous episode, Peggy tells Bob she can get a buyer for his painting. However, a visit to the tanning spa run by Dona’s brother reveals that the paintings in Bob’s home are fakes that his wife painted. Peggy believes she can hook Bob on this detail and make him talk about his wife enough to hint at what he might have done to her. She asks Denny to pose as a potential buyer, despite Carol’s concern about her working with him.
They bug Denny’s dog’s collar, hoping to record the conversation where Bob incriminates himself. He tells them about the turn of his life and how he became a guru from an anchorman. It all started with the death of one of the employees at his office. He killed him by jumping off the building, which was a huge shock for Bob because he found himself responsible. Shortly before the man jumped, Bob had chided him about not smiling more. He wonders if the man would have been alive if he’d said something else.
To recover from the shock, Bob took a break from his job. He was depressed, which made his wife poke him about it. Finally, Bob went to therapy, where the therapist used hallucinogens to help him through it. This was the beginning of Bob’s transformation into Guru Bob. When he was called back to work, Bob had his infamous meltdown on live TV where he declared, “Everything’s stupid.” He was fired, and he fell more and more into the hallucinogens that enlightened him. He started passing it on to other people, and that’s when his wife packed her bags and left him.
Excited by Bob’s confession, Peggy tries to get him to talk more about the forgeries and what he might have done to his wife. However, Denny’s interference ruins everything. When Peggy thought Bob would say something valuable, Denny started talking about his studio and how he and Bob could work together. With the missed opportunity, Peggy wraps it up, and they return home fighting.
While they were talking to Bob, Denny’s dog was out in the field digging in the ground. He eats something and vomits it once they return to Denny’s place. It turns out he’d eaten a finger, which proves that there is a dead body in Bob’s backyard. The finger looks like it belongs to a woman, which could be his wife’s finger. Only a DNA test can confirm whether the finger belongs to Dona, but considering everything, the probability of it being hers is rather good.
If proven, this could mean great things for Peggy. Dona’s family had offered a hefty reward to anyone who located Dona. Because Peggy did it, she could have that reward simply for finding her, if not solving the mystery of her disappearance. The discovery of Dona’s dead body in Bob’s backyard also shows that he might have lied about what really happened between him and his wife.
What he told Peggy and Denny was a relatively straightforward version. Still, considering the kind of person he is, he is expected to be sly about it, mainly because he wants them to buy his painting. Another possibility is that the finger could be someone else’s. Still, it’s a dead body, and it doesn’t bode well for Bob. Whom did he kill and why? No matter what direction the story takes, there is more to Bob’s past and his crimes than what appears on the surface.
Read More: Is High Desert Based on a True Story?
