High Desert's Patricia Arquette Details Finale's Wild Last Moments: 'Peggy Does Have A Value System, It Just Has A Lag'
High Desert's season finale went out with a literal, yet very unpredictable bang.
At the top of the episode, Peg's in a bit of hot water and that couldn't be any more of an understatement. She and the guru are tied up in the back of the Gattchis' truck, and to make matters worse (or I guess it depends on your perspective, maaaan), they're both "tripping balls." In the middle of the desert, Bob finally reveals that Donna fell down the stairs and impaled herself on a trophy. A total accident, he says. After convincing Nick that they have a buyer for 13 of Donna's fake paintings, the Gattchi bros wind up embroiled in fisticuffs after disagreeing on what to do with Peg and Bob. In a quite amusing turn of events, the brothers shoot each other dead, and that's that on that!
Bruce and Carol find Donna's body in the guru's backyard and agree to meet Peggy at Pioneertown. Peggy is, of course, still pretending to have a buyer for the rest of the paintings. She gets Dianne to bring her the Gattchis' painting (the one she stole) so she can continue stumping Bob and stay alive. But after his gun is easily wrestled away from him, he scurries away into the desert like the snake that he is.
Owen, however, is infuriated with Peggy, and rightfully so. But when Dianne jumps to her defense, Peggy comes clean about something she's been hiding all along. When their mother was feverish and in the throes of death, she swiped mom's meds and got high. Feeling like she's hit an all-time low (and that's really saying something here), she grabs the cape from Owen's hands and agrees to get shot out of a cannon for her employer's big event.
After all she's been through — the low lows, the super high highs — has Peggy reached a turning point? Or is this just a new rock bottom?
"I think it's a lot of different things," says Patricia Arquette when asked about her character's state of mind in those last moments. "She's a bit of a crossroads in her life. There's a real drive to be alive, a drive to run away from things, a drive to fix things, a drive to get to drugs, a drive to get high. Within that there's a dangerous element too that people have when you're riding that thin line. There's a part of her that struggles with wanting to be here or not wanting to be here.
"She's also a very reluctant hero. So, despite her own desire, she does want to be the hero. She does want to take care of all these people in Pioneertown. She does have a value system, it just has a lag on it. Sometimes it forgets, but there's a part of her that, in a way, is always forcing her to be a little bit better of a person. And so she's kind of in a quagmire [when she climbs into the cannon]. It's a Perils of Pauline kind of moment!" [Laughs]
How'd you like the High Desert season closer? Grade the finale and season below, then fire away in the comments!