A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder episode 5 recap

A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder episode 5 is the most important episode of the series. It’s even bigger than the season finale! 

You’d think that we’d learn immediately what Naomi was about to confess to Pippa at the end of A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder episode 4, but we have to wait a little bit into episode 5 until that truth is revealed. 

We flashback to New Year’s Eve several years earlier before Andie Bell died. We see Naomi, Max, and a few others dancing and having a good time. On the way home, Max is driving the car drunk and possibly high. He causes a car wreck that nearly kills someone. Somehow, Max covers up the crime and gets out of it, but there is this big secret hanging over Naomi and the others. 

Why does this matter? Well, back in the classroom at the school, Naomi reveals to Pippa how it matters. She confesses to Pippa that the people who were in that car were contacted by an anonymous person. That person blackmails Naomi, Max, and the others who were with Sal the night of the killing to lie to the police and claim that Sal left Max’s house much earlier than he actually did. 

Naomi gave the hints to Pippa to find Max’s finsta. On it, there’s a picture taken by Sal, and it’s much later than they told the police that he left the party. 

So, in other words, Naomi and Max lied to the police to protect themselves, and now, Sal is dead. Naomi’s been feeling guilty about it for years, and now, Pippa knows. She can go to the police if she needs to, and she reminds Max of that when he walks into the room and threatens Naomi and Pippa. 

If Sal didn’t kill Andie, who did? Clearly, the answer to that question lies with whoever knows what Max did. That person clearly threatens Pippa later, too! 

After revealing what happened with Naomi and Max at the party to Cara, Pippa returns home with the investigation moving in a very clear direction. She receives another threatening text, basically warning her to back off, but Pippa is not backing off. Not at all. 

Now that she knows Sal is innocent, Pippa makes a bold move. She makes a video on social media and posts it online. She promises information that will clear Sal’s name. It’s a bold strategy, and we’ll see how it plays out. 

Well, it doesn’t play out well for Pippa. During her brother’s birthday party over the weekend, Pippa gets another text saying that she needs to drop the case if she wants to see “him” again. Pippa thinks it’s her brother who has been kidnapped, but it’s Barney, her dog. After the party, Pippa and her family search for Barney, but he turns up dead. Someone has hit Barney with their car and fled. 

Grieving, Pip makes another big move. She heads down to the police station and questions Dan, Nat’s brother, about why he helped Max in the hit-and-run. Somehow, she has connected the dots that Dan was behind it. Dan admits that he helped out Max, but it’s because Max was also blackmailing him. Dan and Andie had a relationship when Andie was a teen, and Dan was older, so he would have been thrown in jail had anyone reported the relationship. 

Blackmail, blackmail, blackmail. 

Things are officially at a dead end in the case when Dan doesn’t help Pippa with the investigation. Then, there’s another break in the case. 

Later, Pippa takes an English exam and then catches a ride home with Cara and her father, Elliott. After the test and before getting in the car with the Wards, Pippa gets a call from the “older guy” who was possibly seeing Andie. It’s Naomi, which doesn’t make sense. She tells Pippa that she’s sorry about her dog, and Pippa asks whose phone she is using. Naomi says she found her dad’s old phone and started using it. 

It’s Elliot Ward. He’s the one who was the older man in a relationship with Andie. What a twist! 

Pippa can’t believe it. When Elliot drops them off at home, she puts her phone in Elliot’s car and tracks him to the Ward’s old home. 

Pippa, then, calls the police and drives to the Ward’s old home. She thinks that Andie is still alive, and Elliot has been hiding her this whole time. When she arrives, Elliot sees her, and Pippa begins to question him about his relationship with Andie. Elliot admits to everything, seeing Andie, being with her, and having a relationship with her, but he doesn’t admit to killing her. And, he claims that she’s not being held there. 

He says that night that she went missing Andie asked him for a bunch of money. She seemed panicked, and Elliot didn’t know why. Andie allegedly hit her head and fell. When Elliot came back from trying to get help, Andie was gone. He never saw her again. That’s what he tells Pippa, at least. Do we believe him? 

Everything seems normal until Pippa notices a cord going up into the attic. She goes into the attic and finds another blonde girl, not Andie, who has been held captive at Elliot’s home. 

What are you doing, my guy? Let’s watch episode 6 and figure out what the heck is going on.