TV Review: A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder Episode 5

Hi friends, happy last Tuesday of August (what?)! Today I’m sharing my reviews of the last two episodes of the first season of A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder!

If you missed them, check out my review of episode 1, episode 2, episode 3 and episode 4 before diving into this one. As always, there will be spoilers for the TV show and the entire book series. If you haven’t read all the books in the AGGGTM series, you will get spoiled throughout these posts, so keep that in mind before reading!

Now let’s chat AGGGTM Episode 5!

Episode 5
Length: 50:29
Content Warnings: Language, sexual violence, smoking, substances, death, murder, mentions of suicide, blood, grief, drugs, drunk driving, car accident, animal death, kidnapping
Episode Description: A shock confession sheds new light on the investigation. But before Pip can decide what to do next, she receives another threatening message.

In the penultimate episode of a mystery/thriller series, you want lots of information revealed and high stakes; the penultimate episode of the first season of A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder delivers on just that. 

Episode 4 leaves us with Naomi telling Pip that she, Jake and Max lied to the police “Because they found out what we did”, and I thought they did a great job with the reveal of the hit and run. The scene with the hit and run truly shows how soulless Max is. He has absolutely no reaction to hitting that car and leaving that man there to die. Naomi is standing on the road crying saying that they need to call the police, and without even missing a beat Max just tells her to get in the car and he just cleans up the mess by getting Da Silva to take care of it. Of course, the action itself is horrible, but I do think what truly horrifies me is how he doesn’t even hesitate to do that. He knows that he won’t go down for this; the white privilege is really shining through at this moment, and the look on his face? That man is a complete sociopath and loose cannon.

The scene in the classroom with Naomi, Pip, and Max was truly terrifying. I honestly thought that Max was going to hit either Naomi or Pip; that behavior really wouldn’t be out of character and you could feel the pure hatred he has for Pip radiating off of him in that scene, I did legitimately think that he would turn to some violent behavior, especially after Naomi (brilliantly) played him with the reveal that she never told him about the incriminating photo and was always hoping that she’d be strong enough to stand up to him. I was very proud of her at that moment. In my episode 4 review I talked a bit about Naomi and what I felt motivated her to hide the truth for the last 5 years, and I think that in this moment we really do see that deep down revealing the truth was something that she was always going to do, she just needed the courage to do it and Pip helped give her that.

I loved all the Pip and Ravi scenes that we got in this episode. Especially when he comes over after Pip got the threatening text. Not only did we get a cute first meeting for Josh and Ravi (seriously, I need 2 more seasons so that I can get more Ravi and Josh content because I love how much Josh loves Ravi in the books), but we got some really sweet moments between Pip and Ravi and saw some more vulnerability between the two of them. The moment when Ravi says that he sometimes wonders about the person he would be if Sal lived was so heartbreaking. This goes back to what I was talking about last episode with the way Andie and Sal’s rooms were preserved and boxed up after their deaths; Ravi is not only grieving his brother, but also the person that he could’ve been but can’t openly talk about these things with anyone because the Singh family isn’t allowed to openly grieve because it’s been believed that Sal killed Andie. It was a really sad moment, but I found it really beautiful that in Pip, Ravi finally found someone that he can trust and confide in and openly grieve with.

Understandably so, they packed so much information into this episode. I still can’t get over how good the reveal that the mystery number (that Pip assumed was Secret Older Guy) was Mr. Ward’s old/hidden phone. Naomi, very sweetly, calls Pip to say how sorry she was about Barney, meanwhile Pip is having a full on meltdown because it’s MR. WARD’S number that Naomi is calling her on, but it’s saved in her phone as “Secret Older Guy” and she’s about to get in a car with him, Cara, Lauren, and Zach and has to act like she doesn’t have a clue. Shoutout to the writers for having Zach talking about Jekyll and Hyde and The Double and him saying, “It’s the idea that good and evil can coexist in a person at the same time. They are not opposites but instead indissoluble components of the human psyche.” while Pip is trying to process what she’s just discovered. That was so well done and continues the discussion of if someone can truly be a good person.

Emma once again shows off her wonderful acting skills in this episode. First with the scene of Barney’s death — side note, I definitely thought that they were cutting this and that the reason why they put Victor’s name in the guest book from the hotel was going to be the reason she stepped away from the case as opposed to Barney’s murder, but they didn’t and I’m upset about it — and then the scenes with Mr. Ward. The scene at the Ward’s old house with him was so incredibly well acted, by both Emma and Matthew Baynton, who plays Elliott Ward. 

For Pip, you could really see how this had shaken her. When Dan showed her the video of Sal in the interrogation room, it definitely affected her because it messed with the persona of Sal that she had believed she knew; she “knew” Sal in the sense that he was best friends with her best friend’s older sister and had always been nice to her, but she didn’t really know him. However, with Elliott, she knows him. She spends as much time at his house as she does her own, he’s her best friend’s father, he’s like a second father to her, he’s her teacher, he’s a trusted adult in her life and all at once her perception of him is shattered by learning this dark and horrible secret that he’d been harboring. She’s hurt and confused, but most importantly, she’s angry and that is radiating off of Emma in every line delivery and every physical reaction she has to him. It’s beautifully performed.

Elliott on the other hand, has been holding onto this secret for 5 years. He had an affair with his student — do not even get me started on the “she called it off” thing. Sir, you are a grown ass adult and she was a teenager. It never should’ve happened in the first place, and if anyone should’ve “called it off” it should’ve been you. You can see the weight lift off his shoulders as he tells Pip what happened and how he wasn’t actually the one to kill her. He thinks that he’s in the clear, his conscious can be cleared because he’s finally gotten to tell someone what happened, but has also been able to express his innocence in her death, There’s so much subtlety coming from Matthew in his voice and physicality, and the switch in his expression when Pip hears the Pips and runs upstairs was so well done.

The reveal of the girl in the attic gave me chills. When Pip first goes up there and you see a girl in the shadows terrified me on the first watch, and gave me chills again this most recent time that I watched it. And then, the biggest reveal of all was that unlike the book, this girl knows that she isn’t Andie. That honestly shocked me, and I thought that was a really great change from the book, that I will talk about more in my review of the finale!

Episode 5 was jam packed with information, reveals and lots of hard hitting moments. I think it did a great job of ramping up the intensity for a truly explosive finale!

My little loves of the episode:

• Pip saying to Cara “I’d do anything for you”
• The zoomed out shot of Pip in her room looking at the murder board (that shot gets me every time)
• Pip pulling a CW Nancy Drew (iykyk) by recording a video saying she knew who Andie’s real killer was and using herself as bait to get the killer to reveal themselves
• Pip and Ravi playing cards and Ravi calling Pip a sore winner (same)
• When Pip wakes up before Ravi and she has a little smile on her face because he’s there
• Pip and Ravi’s hug. Makes me smile every time
• Leanee’s double stripe ensemble. She’s a fashion icon
• The cinematography and music when Pip thinks that Josh is missing
• The way Pip hugged Josh at his birthday party after she knew he was safe
• Pip laying in Barney’s bed
• “Barney was an absolute gentleman” 
• Cara’s “Okay weirdo” after Pip hugged her and said she loved her. True best friend behavior right there

I’d love to hear your thoughts on the fifth episode in the comments!

Until next time 💜