Editor’s note: The below contains spoilers for A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder.
Like most murder mysteries,A Good Girl’s Guide to Murderfollows a recognizable narrative structure. An adaptation of theHolly Jacksonnovel of the same name, one ofNetflix’snewest hit seriesabides by the typical conventions of its genre, opening withEmma Myers’amateur sleuth, Pip Fitz-Amobi, revisiting an old murder case in her hometown of Little Kilton. Throughout her investigation, old alibis are questioned, hidden secrets come to light, and new discoveries are made that dispel old myths about the series' brutal crime. Yet, whileNetflix’s slow-burn adaptationconcludes by introducing audiences to a culprit nobody in town suspected, the seriesadds a wrinkle to its familiar formula by also hiding the show’s true villain in plain sight.
The series' central mystery revolves around the disappearance of Andie Bell (India Lillie Davies), a high school senior allegedly murdered by her boyfriend, Sal Singh (Rahul Pattni), before Sal killed himself out of guilt for his crime. Since Andie’s body was never found and Pip knew Sal to be kind before his death, however, the series' main characterrefuses to believe this official story spread by the police, eventually teaming up with Sal’s brother, Ravi (Zain Iqbal), to clear the Singh family name. Together he andMyers' character plunge deeper into the dark sideof Little Kilton, uncovering a string of Andie’s secret boyfriends, incriminating text messages, and damning online posts thatultimately lead the pair to discovering the series' true murderer.
A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder
A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder follows Pip Fitz-Amobi, a determined teenager investigating a five-year-old murder case that everyone in her town believes is solved. Schoolgirl Andie Bell was allegedly killed by her boyfriend Sal Singh, who later died by suicide. Pip, convinced of Sal’s innocence, reopens the case for her final year project, uncovering dark secrets and endangering herself in the process.
Who Really Killed Andie Bell in ‘A Good Girl’s Guide To Murder’?
For those well-versed in the mystery genre, it will come as no surprise thatthe police ultimately blamed the wrong boy for Andie’s murder.After Sal and Andie’s friends admit that they were blackmailed into undermining Sal’s alibi in order to make him appear more suspicious, Sal is cleared as a suspect in Pip’s mind entirely. Instead, a string of threatening texts and personal threats leads her back to the same house that produced the victim, withA Good Girl’s Guide to Murder’sendingrevealingAndie’s true killer is actually her sister, Becca Bell(Carla Woodcock). This revelation is followed by Becca attempting to deposit Pip’s body down the same deep forest well where Becca dumped Andie, but the murderer’s second attempt is thankfully interrupted by Ravi and Pip’s best friend, Cara (Asha Banks).
As for Becca’s murderous motivation, the matter is a bit more complicated. While it’s natural to want to categorize all murderers as purely evil and all victims as purely good,A Good Girl’s Guide to Murderexcels at surrounding its characters' lives with various shades of moral ambiguity. As someone who was drugged and sexually assaulted by Little Kilton’s Byronic bad boy, Max Hastings (Henry Ashton), at one of the town’s notoriously dangerous Calamity parties, Becca is justifiably enraged to learn that Andie is the one who sold Max Rohypnol in the first place. Her plight and the plight of all Calamity’s victims are symbolized byA Good Girl’s Guide to Murder’sblack ribbons, but her sister’s callous actions aren’t what sets Becca off alone. In addition to Andie’s reckless side business, Becca actually murders Andie when she learns her sister intends to run away with Sal,leaving Becca alone with someone far more culpable of the show’s true crime.
‘A Good Girl’s Guide To Murder’ Really Suffers From the Sins of Its Fathers
In other mysteryshows likeA Good Girl’s Guide to Murder, most of the blame for the series' central murder can be placed at the feet of the killer revealed towards the end, as this killer tends to be acting maliciously to undermine the young adults trying desperately to unearth the truth. In Becca’s case, however,the circumstances surrounding her murder make her actions more sympathetic, ultimately proving that she alone isn’t responsible for Andie’s fate. Not only is Becca a victim in her own right, but she and the rest of the cast are tragically let down by the adults in their lives. More specifically,the true forces behind Little Kilton’s conspiracy are actually the show’s fathers, as both Jason Bell (Matthew Chambers) and Cara’s father (Matthew Baynton) contribute heavily to Andie’s murder.
Rather than killing himself out of grief, Cara’s father, Elliot Ward, admits to Pip that he murdered Sal in order to cover up his own involvement in Andie’s death, ashe had been conducting an inappropriate relationship with her when Andie was still his student.The English teacher was also the one who blackmailed his daughter’s friend group in order to undermine Sal’s alibi, preventing the police from getting to the truth of the matter under the pretense of protecting his daughter–who had been involved in a hit-and-run a few months prior–from further scrutiny by law enforcement. What’s worse, in order to run away with Sal on the night of her death, Andie begged Mr. Ward for money and he smashed her head in the process. This pre-existing injury is what made it possible for Becca to kill her sister so easily, as the slightest shove to Andie during the pair’s final confrontationstruck at a far deeper vulnerability than Becca could have ever known.
As for Andie and Becca’s father, Jason Bell’s part in his first daughter’s death is less direct but no less tragic inone of Netflix’s best new shows. While the man isn’t shown physically abusing his daughters, the series makes it clear thatboth girls are deeply afraid of their domineering parent. As Pip pursues leads in the series' final episode, the same person who saved Myers' character from being assaulted at Episode 3’s Calamity party, Jesse (Oliver Wickham), explains that Jason heavily controls his daughters in order to keep them safe, though they also dismiss Pip’s suspicion that Jason could have been his daughter’s murderer. In reality, Jason’s main contribution to Andie’s death is creating such a toxic home environment for his daughters thatthe mere thought of being left alone with him spurs Becca to fatally lash out against her sister.
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Everyone loves a new villain to hate.
The Real Villains of ‘A Good Girl’s Guide To Murder’ Point to the Deeper Problem in Little Kilton
Taken together, the misbehaviors of both men demonstrate that Becca is not solely to blame for her sister’s death, but their similarities also highlight the most dangerous force at the core of the show —Little Kilton’s problem with violent masculinity.In a quest to fulfill their self-declared roles as their daughters' protectors, both Mr. Ward and Mr. Bell ultimately cause those same daughters no small amount of suffering, with Jason’s controlling tendencies driving Andie into the arms of a dangerous teacher and Becca into such an agitated state that she kills her sister. Likewise, Mr. Ward causes both his daughters unnecessary terror and shame by killing an innocent boy in the name of fatherly love, ultimatelyundermining the police’s efforts to determine what happened to Andie Bell in order to protect himself.
Both fathers' decisions to place their own feelings of security above others' well-being are bad enough, buttheir actions also betray the grave injustice at the core of Little Kilton’s community. In a town where Max Hastings can assault countless girls unchecked and Mr. Ward’s involvement with Andie can be hidden for years,A Good Girl’s Guide to Murdergives Emma Myersevery reason to be authentic, as her character must contend with a hometown dominated by the careless cruelty of wanton fathers and sons. Far from a straightforward murder mystery, Netflix’s adaptation therefore gives audiences a clear villain in Beccawhile also pointing a finger at the men who made her murder possible. Although, with Pip confronting Max in the series' final episode, there’s still hope that Little Kilton’s good girl will soon learn to overcome all the ways a boy can go bad.
A Good Girl’s Guide to Murderis available to stream on Netflix in the U.S.
