Diksha Sundriyal
Apple TV+’s comedy series ‘High Desert’ follows the misadventures of Peggy Newman, a private investigator with a lot on her plate. By solving the disappearance of Donatella Scarborough, she wants to put her agency on the map. However, the more she digs into Donna’s story, the more Peggy realizes how dangerous things are. Her meddling with the Scarborough affair puts her in peril as she crosses paths with some very violent people, one of whom might be the killer she is looking for. By the end of the episode, the walls start to close in on Peggy, and she will have to get to the bottom of the truth before she becomes the killer’s next victim. Here’s what the events in this episode mean for Peggy. SPOILERS AHEAD!
High Desert Episode 6 Recap
The sixth episode of ‘High Desert’ titled ‘A Nod Is Not a Hello,’ opens with Guru Bob running from the father-daughter duo who previously cut off his nipple. He sold them a fake painting, and now they want their money back. Seeing Bob’s suitcase packed up and ready to go, they think he will run away, but he convinces them that he has a potential buyer for another painting. He calls Peggy to prove he is right, but she doesn’t answer his calls.
Peggy takes the finger that Denny’s dog found in Bob’s backyard to her boss, who sends it for a DNA test, which will take a week to confirm if it’s really Donna’s finger. Peggy cannot wait that long, so she takes the nail from her finger and goes to the nail salon frequented by Donna. She believes that for someone who spent a lot of time there, Donna must have talked about her life with someone who could give Peggy a clue to solving the mystery.
Apart from the case, Peggy also struggles to keep her addiction in check. She takes pills on the day she’s supposed to take a drug test. She doesn’t get her meds for the week when she makes excuses about not taking the test. Denny sets up camp at her house because her has nowhere else to start his studio. He tries to pry information from Peggy about the finger, but she doesn’t divulge anything.
She discovers that Ginger has taken over the script in her absence at work. A conversation with Ginger reminds Peggy that she is just a lookalike and not her actual mother, so she fires Ginger from the play. Meanwhile, Carol takes Peggy’s classes and updates her about the case she was supposed to solve for her boss, who starts to take the Scarborough case seriously after she shows him the finger.
High Desert Episode 6 Ending
Peggy’s investigation into the disappearance of Guru Bob’s wife has put her in a pickle with several gangsters. She found the first sign of danger surrounding the Scarboroughs when she saw the father-daughter duo torturing Bob in his backyard. She didn’t know what the ex-anchorman had gotten himself into, but Peggy knew it was serious enough for them to cut out one of Bob’s nipples. This episode confirms that it’s about the fake paintings Bob has been selling to people.
At first, Peggy thought that the paintings in Bob’s house were real, but then she discovered that they were all fakes painted by Donna. Bob sold one of those paintings to Gatchi, who found out it was a fake after showing it off to people. Not only was he fooled, but also humiliated, and for a gangster like him, it is not a good precedent to let people get away with deceiving him. Now, Bob is trying to sell other fakes to make money to pay back Gatchi or run away and disappear forever.
To prove that he has a buyer on the line, Bob points Gatchi and his daughter toward Peggy. The gangster doesn’t believe Peggy has a buyer ready to buy a fake painting. However, she makes a compelling case and, for the time being, saves herself from being killed. However, in the bid to save her life, she makes a promise which will certainly land her dead if she doesn’t keep it. To prove that her buyer is real and serious about buying the painting, she lies that he is ready to pay $250,000 as a deposit in 2-3 days. Because Bob owes him, this is Gatchi’s money, and he lets Peggy go under the condition that she would turn up with the money.
Previously, Peggy found out that James Kachel is one of the interested buyers, and she uses his name to prove that she is connected to a potential buyer. In this episode, we discover that she knows James Kachel and not just in a professional capacity. There is some history between him and Peggy. When they video-call each other, Peggy calls out to a young man in the background and comments on how he has grown his hair. Because a lot about Peggy’s past is still vague, it could be that the boy is her son. Her exact relationship with Kachel is not revealed, but it shows that she might be able to get the money she promised Gatchi by bringing Kachel into the equation.
Another danger looming over Peggy is that of Donna’s brother, Roger. She showed up at his tanning salon, pretending to be a woman named Sylvia Plath who lost someone close to her and is interested in Donna’s story. Through the nail-salon lady, Roger discovers that her real name is not Sylvia Plath, and she has been asking questions about his sister. He also discovers that Peggy stole one of Donna’s paintings from the tanning salon, making him chase Peggy even more aggressively.
With Gatchi on one side and Roger on the other, Peggy has to be more careful about her next step. She still doesn’t know what happened to Donna, but if her found finger indicates anything, whoever got rid of her won’t hesitate to do the same to Peggy. So, before she becomes an unsolved mystery for the next PI, she will have to figure out how to deal with both these dangers at the same time.
Read More: Is High Desert Based on a True Story?
