This article contains discussions of murder, sexual assault, and suicide.
✕ Remove Ads
Warning: SPOILERS ahead for A Good Girl's Guide to Murder.
Summary
- Pip discovers the truth about Andie Bell's disappearance in A Good Girl's Guide to Murder, realizing Elliot Ward and Becca are responsible for her death.
- Mr. Ward killed Sal Singh in order to take the attention off himself. Sal gets justice thanks to Andie and Ravi's investigation.
- The Netflix show keeps most of the major plot points and twists from Holly Jackson's best-selling book.
A Good Girl's Guide to Murder revolves around the disappearance of Andie Bell, a case most of the people in Buckinghamshire believe is closed and over with. They're happy to accept that Andie's boyfriend, Sal Singh, murdered her and took his own life. However, A Good Girl's Guide to Murder's heroine doesn't buy that Sal is responsible for Andie's death — and five years later, Pip (Emma Myers) sets out to prove it. The pushback she receives for reexamining the case tells her she's onto something, and A Good Girl's Guide to Murder's ending sees her uncovering the truth.
✕ Remove Ads
The explanations behind Andie Bell's disappearance and Sal's death turn out to be more complicated than Pip imagined, and she nearly loses her life due to her investigation. However, Pip manages to get justice for both characters, clearing Sal's name and giving Andie's loved ones some semblance of closure. A Good Girl's Guide to Murder's ending contains multiple twists, with the series keeping viewers on edge until the credits roll. It's no wonder everyone found it so easy to blame Sal for Andie's disappearance; the truth is far more surprising and sinister.
Related
25 Best Detective Series On Netflix
Crime drama has never quite looked like this: the best detective series' airing on Netflix filled with anticipation, suspense, and mystery.
✕ Remove Ads
What Happened To Andie Bell? A Good Girl's Guide To Murder's Ending Explained
Becca Bell Accidentally Killed Her Sister After Andie's Fight With Elliot Ward
Andie's death unfolds in two parts, and Pip discovers the truth about that fateful night in increments as well. When Pip realizes that the printed threats she received are from Elliot Ward, she believes that he's the one responsible for Andie's disappearance. And she's partly right. She follows Mr. Ward to the family's old home, where she believes he's keeping Andie alive. However, while Elliot confesses to a relationship with Andie, she's not the one he's holding captive. The girl Pip finds looks just like Andie, but that's the only connection she has to the case.
✕ Remove Ads
Elliot also admits that he and Andie had an argument on the night she disappeared, claiming she got physical when he refused to give her money. He recalls pushing Andie away, and he tells Pip she hit her head against the counter. However, Elliot insists that Andie left his home alive, and he isn't sure what happened after. The police arrest Elliot, no doubt thanks to Ravi having Pip's location, and they save the girl in his attic. The show doesn't dig into why Mr. Ward kept her there, but in the book, he and the girl truly believe she's Andie.
All this happens early in A Good Girl's Guide to Murder's finale, as Pip confronts Mr. Ward at the end of the fifth episode. The remainder of the show's ending sees Pip realizing that Mr. Ward isn't the only guilty party in Andie's disappearance. Pip notices that Elliot and his daughters were out of town the day her dog was killed, meaning he wasn't the only one sending her threats. Concluding that somebody else killed Andie after her fight with Mr. Ward, she goes to speak to him. This sets Pip's sights on the rest of the Bell family.
✕ Remove Ads
The Bell who actually killed Andie is the one you'd least expect: Becca
And the Bell who actually killed Andie is the one you'd least expect: Becca. Pip learns that Andie's sister was drugged and assaulted at a Calamity Party, and the drugs used were the same ones Andie was selling. When Pip confronts Becca, Becca admits she told Andie what happened and was met with self-interest. To make matters worse, Andie planned to leave Becca with their cruel father. Becca pushed Andie in a moment of rage, and combined with her concussion, it was enough to kill her. Becca stood by and watched, making her complicit.
✕ Remove Ads
This is why Becca attempts to kill Pip when she questions her, and she nearly succeeds. She drugs Pip and lures her to an isolated cave, claiming it's where she hid Andie's body. Fortunately, Ravi and Cara reach them in time to save Pip from becoming another casualty of the case.
Who Really Killed Sal Singh In A Good Girl's Guide To Murder
Elliot Ward Believed Sal's Confession Would Take Eyes Off Him
Although Mr. Ward didn't deliver the killing blow to Andie Bell, he does admit to killing Sal Singh. Sal's murder is meant to look like suicide, as Elliot believes it will keep the police focused on Andie's boyfriend over him. He's the one who sends the confession text from Sal's phone, and his plan almost works. The town easily believes Sal is the one behind Andie's death, and no one questions this until Pip. Elliot's use of punctuation in the text is so out of character for Sal that Ravi and Pip realize he didn't send it.
✕ Remove Ads
Elliot is the one who sends the confession text from Sal's phone, and his plan almost works.
This is one of the many clues that point to Sal's innocence, and it's good to see Pip get justice for him at the end of A Good Girl's Guide to Murder. Elliot appears to be the older man Andie was seeing, though it seems she had a few affairs before she disappeared. However, almost all roads lead back to Elliot. As Pip tells him, he's responsible for most of the tragedy that unfolds in the Andie Bell case.
Why Naomi & Max Lied To The Police About Sal's Alibi
Someone Threatened To Dredge Up Their Past
✕ Remove Ads
Elliot and Becca are the killers in A Good Girl's Guide to Murder, but they aren't the only people keeping secrets throughout the Netflix series. The later episodes reveal that Sal's original alibi for the night Andie died did actually hold up. Naomi and Max lied about him leaving their group early, as they were threatened by someone willing to dredge up their past. Apparently, Sal's friends were involved in a drunken hit-and-run that nearly killed a man. Max managed to cover it up, but someone knew and used it against them.
That someone is Elliot Ward, who read what happened in his daughter's journal. As framing Sal was the only way to take the heat off himself, Mr. Ward persuaded his daughter and her friends to lie about Sal's alibi. Once Pip realizes he was still with them past midnight, it becomes clear that Sal is, in fact, innocent.
✕ Remove Ads
Why Pip Is So Invested In Solving Andie Bell's Missing-Persons Case
She Feels Guilty About Telling Sal Where Andie Was
Pip's actions in A Good Girl's Guide to Murder pay off by the Netflix show's ending, but she's pretty obsessive about the case — more than you'd expect an uninvolved teenager to be. This raises questions about why Pip feels so strongly about Sal's innocence. And the series reveals this over time, bringing it back to Pip's flashbacks from the very beginning. In the flashbacks, a younger Pip sees Andie crying and walking past her locker. When Sal asks where Andie went, Pip tells him — and this weighs on her once she realizes Sal is supposedly the killer.
Pip seems eager to prove Sal's innocence for his sake and her own.
✕ Remove Ads
So, Pip seems eager to prove Sal's innocence for his sake and her own. For whatever reason, she feels her decision might have had an impact on what happened that night five years ago. Of course, she's wrong about that. The very end of the finale reveals that Sal went after Andie to discuss running away together. This is a change from the book, but it makes their untimely deaths that much more tragic.
How A Good Girl's Guide To Murder's Ending Differs From The Book
Holly Jackson's Novel Ends Less Dramatically
✕ Remove Ads
The major elements of Holly Jackson's novel remain intact at the end of A Good Girl's Guide to Murder, but the Netflix show ramps up the drama for the final episode. Pip's confrontations with Mr. Ward feels less loaded in the book — in fact, the one at the police station doesn't happen — and Becca never takes Pip to a remote location. Becca drugs the book's lead at the Bell household, making it much easier for Ravi and Pip's family to intervene. The show is also missing a few key moments, but its conclusion is similar in terms of major plot points.
5/10
A Good Girl's Guide to Murder
Mystery
Thriller
Pip Fitz-Amobi, a determined young investigator, is set on uncovering the truth behind schoolgirl Andie Bell's murder five years prior. Sal Singh, Andie's boyfriend, confessed before his own death, but Pip doesn't believe he's guilty. Teaming up with Sal's brother Ravi, she dives into a web of secrets to find the real killer.
- Cast
- Emma Myers , Asha Banks , Raiko Gohara , Zain Iqbal , Jude Morgan-Collie , Yali Topol Margalith , Yasmin Al-Khudhairi , Carla Woodcock
- Character(s)
- Pippa Fitz-Amobi , Cara Ward , Zach Chen , Ravi Singh , Connor Reynolds , Lauren Gibson , Naomi Ward , Becca Bell
- Release Date
- August 1, 2024
- Seasons
- 1
- Main Genre
- Mystery
- Creator(s)
- Poppy Cogan