High Desert – Season 1 Episode 5 “Soul Retrieval” Recap & Review

Soul Retrieval

Peggy and Denny finally do their “retrieving the silver” job as episode 5 of High Desert begins. The house now belongs to an older couple and they are not currently present. While keeping the coins in their bags, both express relief that they do not have to worry about money any more. Peggy even goes to the extent of calling Stewart and smugly declares to him the mortgages won’t be a problem.

When the older couple suddenly show up, Denny, in a panic, drops a large chunk of the coins. But they don’t have the time to get it back. They passionately kiss each other as they get into their getaway buggy.

All that joy dies down in the next scene as they get a fraction of what they had initially thought they would for the silver. Peggy decides not to keep her half for the mortgage and gives it to Bruce instead to keep the business going. Her logic: “I want to have a future.” Bruce is touched and expresses his gratitude to Peggy, who reminds him to attend the Pioneertown meeting with Owen. She also believes Donatella, Bob’s missing wife, is alive. She’d never leave her beloved pet parrot like this!

Peggy gets an assignment to confirm if the wife of a client is cheating on him. Peggy reluctantly takes it and hands over the duties to Carol. She herself focuses on developing her play more. Carol is disappointed in Peggy for already being physical with Denny and making the same mistakes she did earlier. For now, Peggy and Denny are going to Bob’s to catch him in the act.

Peggy is wearing spy glasses with a bug inside them, but Denny thinks putting the bug in Judy’s collar would be more discreet. Denny is posing as an art consultant for a famous artist.

The couple go to Bob’s house, where he pats them down but Denny is unhappy seeing Peggy getting all “touchy-touchy” with Bob. It’s like foreplay which he cannot bear. Denny does his best to get Bob to confess on tape that the painting is a fake. Bob is thrown off by Judy, and even though he doesn’t suspect they are bugging him, he asks them to take Judy out. Peggy desperately tries to get her back in as Bob opens up about the “Artist behind the fakes” – his wife, Dona.

Bob starts narrating how he came to be “Guru Bob.” It all started 18 months ago when he worked for KPVK, the news network. While on a lunch break, Bob casually asked one of his colleagues to “smile more” without knowing what he was going through. The colleague forced a smile onto this face.

Moments later, as Bob was waiting at the taco truck for his turn, the same colleagues jumped from the roof. The splatter of blood and pieces from his glasses covered Bob and he was stunned. He went into an existential trauma and couldn’t process the events.

He took a leave of absence, barely being able to function like a normal human being. Dona did not molly-coddle Bob in his crisis. She wanted him to move on from it. Bob sought psychiatric treatment. He used to go through hallucinogenic sessions that completely changed his life. He was shortly called into work and that is when his “television epiphany” took over his life. Bob’s changed perspective brought to him more people that suffered from an insert crisis.

Bob gave hope to his community of followers and that is how the legend grew into what it is today – and that is also when Dona left him.

Denny gets excited and shares his plans to open a “qigong centre” with Bob when Peggy insists they leave. Judy swallows something from the desert and grows uncomfortable during the car ride. Peggy is livid at Denny for spoiling her plan. She now has to figure out a new plan to get Bob. As Judy whines even more, Peggy gets her to vomit. She expels a human finger, which might potentially belong to Dona. Is her body barrier in Bob’s backyard?

The Episode Review

The legend of “Guru Bob” might just be about to go bust. The human finger, which the couple find with the wildest strokes of luck, infuses new energy into the narrative. It has the potential to shake things up and bring more urgency to the story. While there is definitely depth in Peggy coming to terms with the new reality of her life, High Desert had been missing its exciting tangent.

If she can score the reward on Donatella, she has a bright future ahead, but something tells us that it won’t be easy. Her path will be riddled with transient issues building up in High Desert’s cinematic universe. The show has a lot of options to trigger as of now but has mostly stayed in its comfort zone. This might spurt them on to take more chances and surprise the viewers with some decent plot twists.