Editor’s Note: The following contains spoilers for A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder.

The big picture

• A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder
  reveals that Andie’s real killer is her sister Becca Bell, who was hiding right in front of our eyes.
• The series shows that Becca’s actions are more sympathetic because she was abandoned by the neglect of the town fathers.
• The show sheds light on toxic masculinity in Little Kilton, where fathers contribute to the tragedies their daughters face.

Like most crime novels, A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder follows a recognizable narrative structure. An adaptation of the Holly Jackson novel of the same name, one of Netflix’s latest hit series adheres to the typical conventions of his genreOpening with Emma Myers’ Amateur detective Pip Fitz-Amobi reopens an old murder case in her hometown of Little Kilton. During 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. But while Netflix’s slow-paced adaptation ends by introducing audiences to a perpetrator that no one in town suspected, the series is adds a twist to the familiar formula by hiding the series’ true villain right in front of the viewers.

The central mystery of the series revolves around the disappearance of Andie Bell (India Lillie Davies), a high school graduate who was allegedly murdered by her boyfriend Sal Singh (Rahul Pattani) before Sal killed himself out of guilt for his crime. Since Andie’s body was never found and Pip knew Sal as a kind person before his death, refuses to believe this official police versionand eventually teamed up with Sal’s brother Ravi (Zain Iqbal) to clear the Singh family’s name. Together, he and Myers’ character delve deeper into the dark side of Little Kilton, uncovering a number of Andie’s secret friends, incriminating text messages and damning online posts that lead the couple to discover the real killer of the series.

Who really killed Andie Bell in ‘A Good Girl’s Guide To Murder’?

For those familiar with the mystery genre, it will come as no surprise that the police ultimately blamed the wrong boy for Andie’s murder. After Sal and Andie’s friends admit they were blackmailed into undermining Sal’s alibi to make him seem more suspicious, Sal is completely exonerated as a suspect for Pip. Instead, a series of threatening text messages and personal threats lead them back to the same house the victim came from, with A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder End of the revelation Andie’s real murderer is actually her sister Becca Bell (Carla Waldhahn). This revelation is followed by Becca’s attempt to dispose of Pip’s body in the same deep forest well where she had disposed of Andie. The killer’s second attempt is fortunately thwarted by Ravi and Pip’s best friend Cara (Asha Banks).

As for Becca’s motive for murder, things are a little more complicated. It is natural to want to classify all murderers as purely evil and all victims as purely good, A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder is characterized by surrounding the lives of its characters with various shades of moral ambiguity. As someone who was drugged and sexually abused by Little Kilton’s Byronic bad boy Max Hastings (Henry Ashton), at one of the city’s notoriously dangerous Calamity parties, Becca is rightly furious when she learns that Andie is the one who sold Max Rohypnol. Her fate and the fate of all of Calamity’s victims are symbolized by A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder‘S black ribbons, but her sister’s callous actions aren’t what let Becca go alone. In addition to Andie’s reckless side business, Becca actually murders Andie when she learns that her sister plans to run away with Sal. and leaves Becca alone with someone who is far more responsible for the real crime of the series.

“A Good Girl’s Guide To Murder” really suffers from the sins of its fathers

In other mystery shows like A Good Girl’s Guide to Murderthe main blame for the central murder of the series lies with the killer who is revealed towards the end, as this killer usually acts maliciously to undermine the young adults who are desperately trying to find out the truth. In Becca’s case, however, The circumstances of her murder make her actions more sympatheticwhich ultimately proves that she is not solely responsible for Andie’s fate. Not only is Becca a victim herself, but she and the rest of the cast are tragically abandoned by the adults in their lives. More specifically, the real forces behind Little Kilton’s conspiracy are actually the fathers of the showas both Jason Bell (Matthew Chambers) and Cara’s father (Matthew Baynton) contribute significantly to Andie’s murder.

Instead of killing himself out of grief, Cara’s father Elliot Ward confesses to Pip that he murdered Sal to cover up his own involvement in Andie’s death, because he had an inappropriate relationship with her when Andie was still his student. The English teacher was also the one who blackmailed his daughter’s circle of friends to undermine Sal’s alibi. He prevented the police from finding out the truth under the pretense of protecting his daughter – who had been involved in a hit-and-run accident a few months earlier – from further police investigation. Worse still, in order to be able to run away with Sal on the night of her death, Andie begged Mr. Ward for money, after which he bashed her head in. This pre-existing injury allowed Becca to kill her sister so easily, because the slightest push against Andie during the final confrontation between the two It struck a much deeper vulnerability than Becca could ever have known.

As for Andie and Becca’s father, Jason Bell’s role in the death of his first daughter is less direct but no less tragic in one of Netflix’s best new series. Although the man is not shown physically abusing his daughters, the series makes it clear that both girls are very afraid of their domineering parents. When Pip follows clues in the final episode of the series, the same person who saved Myers’ character from an attack at the Calamity party in episode 3 shows up, Jesse (Oliver Wickham), explains that Jason controls his daughters heavily to protect them, although they also dismiss Pip’s suspicions that Jason may have been his daughter’s killer. In reality, Jason’s main contribution to Andie’s death is that he created such a toxic home environment for his daughters that The mere thought of being alone with him spurs Becca to attack her sister with death.

The real villains in A Good Girl’s Guide To Murder point to the deeper problem in Little Kilton

Taken together, the misdeeds of both men show that Becca is not solely responsible for her sister’s death. But their similarities also highlight the most dangerous force at the core of the series: Little Kilton’s problem with violent masculinity. In their efforts to fulfill their self-appointed roles as protectors of their daughters, both Mr. Ward and Mr. Bell ultimately cause no small amount of suffering to those daughters. Jason’s need for control drives Andie into the arms of a dangerous teacher and Becca into such a state of agitation that she kills her sister. Likewise, Mr. Ward causes unnecessary terror and shame to both his daughters by killing an innocent boy in the name of fatherly love, and ultimately To protect himself, he undermined police efforts to find out what had happened to Andie Bell.

The decision of both fathers to put their own sense of security above the well-being of others is bad enough, but Their actions also reveal the grave injustice at the heart of the Little Kilton community. In a city where Max Hastings can attack countless girls without hindrance and Mr. Ward’s relationship with Andie can be kept secret for years, A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder gives Emma Myers every reason to be authentic, as her character has to cope with a hometown dominated by the ruthless cruelty of wanton fathers and sons. Far from a straightforward crime thriller, the Netflix adaptation presents the audience with a clear villain in Becca and at the same time point the finger at the men who made her murder possibleBut with Pip meeting 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 become bad.

A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder can be streamed on Netflix in the US

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