A Good Girl's Guide to Murder ending explained: how did Andie Bell die?

Pip and Max in A Good Girl's Guide to Murder ending
Pip and Max in Good Girl's Guide to Murder. (Image credit: BBC)

A Good Girl's Guide to Murder is a teen drama series based on the hugely successful mystery thrillers by Holly Jackson. The series follows Pip Fitz-Amobi who becomes determined to solve the murder of a local schoolgirl after growing convinced that the police had pinned the case on the wrong person. 

Here is everything that happened in episode 6 and how the series ends... 

Who is the girl in Elliot's loft? 

The final episode opens with Pip still in Elliot's loft with the mystery girl he has been keeping captive in there.

She explains that she was sleeping rough when Elliot found her five years ago, and at first, he thought she was Andie, but when she wasn't who he was looking for her he offered her a place to stay that night. But that evening he got drunk and confessed to killing someone... Sal! 

The news is a huge shock to Pip as everyone believed that Sal had taken his own life, which is something Elliot had planned. In a flashback we see Elliot talking to Isla (the woman in the loft), confessing to drugging Sal and smothering him, and talking about how he feels bad about killing him but that he had to. 

Isla is sickened but pretends to be fine as she is terrified of Elliot now and asks him for a drink. As he leaves the room she tries to run out of the front door, but Elliot stops her and that's how she came to be kept captive in his loft. 

Elliot Ward played by MATHEW BAYNTON in A Good Girl's Guide to Murder

Elliot has been keeping Isla captive for years.  (Image credit: BBC)

Soon the police arrive and arrest Elliot and save Isla, who is taken away in an ambulance. Pip is also freed and her dad runs towards her and hugs her tight. 

The next morning Pip is at home and she tears down all the evidence on her wall and rubs off all the writing... believing she now has the case cracked. But has she? 

Pip and Ravi talk about how things have changed now that everyone knows Sal didn't take his own life or kill Andie. Ravi says his parents are happy one minute and sad the next. Pip tries to talk to Ravi, struggling to tell him how she feels about him, but he cuts her off and tells her he is leaving the village, finally free now they know what really happened to his brother. 

Pip is heartbroken that he is going, but things look slightly better when she sees Cara at school and they share a hug. The fact Pip uncovered Cara's dad as a killer hangs between them, but it looks like there is hope for their friendship still. 

Later at home, Pip cries about ruining Cara's life and her mum comforts her, telling her she is amazing and that she's proud of everything she has done. It's only when her mum says she is annoyed that Elliot doesn't have the decency to own up to killing Andie that Pip is given food for thought... what if Elliot didn't kill Andie? 

Back in her room, Pip digs out some of the evidence she threw away and makes a new timeline, which proves that Elliot couldn't have been the one to kill Barney... meaning there is another killer still out there.

Pip goes to speak to Elliot at the police station and confronts him about kidnapping Isla, killing Sal and having a relationship with a student - all of which he doesn't deny. But two things Elliot didn't do is kill Barney or Andie. So who did? 

Pip realises that the person sending her threatening texts is different from Elliot's paper threats and that there is someone else who is hiding a secret. 

Elliot tells her that Andie wanted money because she was scared of her dad, Jason, and that his alibi for the night she died was being at a dinner party. But Elliot says he knows that Jason left the dinner party for a time because he saw him in his blue van while Elliot was out looking for Andie. But it is Jason's word against Elliot's. 

A Good Girl's Guide To Murder Andie Bell (INDIA LILLIE DAVIES);Salil Singh (RAHUL PATTNI)

Elliot might have killed Sal, but he didn't kill Andie.  (Image credit: BBC)

Why did Elliot blackmail his own daughter?

Elliot tells Pip that he knew when Andie was found that all evidence would lead to him, so he needed to act fast. He remembered Naomi acting differently not long before and so he read her diary and found out about the hit-and-run. 

He claims a dark thought, a way of covering his back, then planted itself in his mind, and that was to kill Sal and put the blame for Andie's disappearance on him. He says he was doing it to protect his girls, so he used the hit and run as a way to make Naomi and Max lie to the police and make his story about Sal killing Andie work. 

With her time with Elliot over, Pip goes to see Ravi and tells him that they still have a killer to find. But he has packed and is ready to leave, and doesn't want to hear anything about Elliot, the man who killed his brother. Pip tries to persuade him to stay, that they are a team, but he tells her it is over and she leaves, upset. 

Did Jason kill his own daughter?

Pip heads to a recycling plant where she finds the blue van hidden under some tarpaulin. She is convinced that she has found the van that Jason killed Andie in, but it turns out to be a false alarm. 

Jessie, the girl from the party who saved her from the drug dealers comes to her rescue once again, saving her from being caught snooping around the plant. But she tells Pip that Jason didn't leave the dinner party to kill Andie, but that the alarm went off at the recycling plant and he was heading out to switch it off, and she knows because she works there. 

Jessie says Becca was her best friend and that she and Andie were wild, which is why their dad was so strict with them. She tells Pip about a night when Becca went to a calamity party and ended up having her drink spiked. She then woke up somewhere else having been raped by a mystery man.

Back at home, Pip looks at her evidence board again and works out that the man who raped Becca must have been Max Hastings because he was the mystery customer called TT who had a soft spot for Rohypnol... the drug that Andie used to sell to him. She calls Max and he admits that he slept with Becca, but it was consensual, something that Pip points out isn't possible when Becca was unconscious after being drugged. 

Becca in Good Girl's Guide to Murder

Becca has been hiding a dark secret.  (Image credit: BBC)

Who really killed Andie Bell?

We finally find out who killed Andie when Pip works out that the last time she was seen was by her sister, Becca. In a series of flashbacks, we see Andie walking home with her bloodied head, which we now know was from her argument with Elliot. 

In the present day, Pip goes to confront Becca at home and she talks about Max raping her and says she asked her sister to come to the police station to report it. But Andie refused to help because she was the one who supplied the Rohpnol to Max, meaning she would be in trouble. 

Becca tells Pip that Andie was planning to run away with Sal the next day and was selling drugs to save money for her escape. Becca says she was annoyed with Andie because it was always them against their dad, and now she was leaving her alone, so she shoved her and she hit her head against the door and collapsed, where Becca watched her choke and die.

Pip points out that Andie was already injured by Elliot, so Becca isn't fully responsible for killing her. Becca says it doesn't matter now and asks if Pip wants to see where she put the body. Pip says yes, but Becca tells her to finish her tea before they leave. Soon Becca takes Pip back to the caves where the calamity party was held. 

As they get deeper into the dark caves, Ravi has a change of heart and gets off the bus, coming home to see Pip he finds her car outside Jason's house. He is worried that Jason has done something to Pip because the last time they talked she told him she thought he had killed Andie. 

He goes to Cara's house and asks for her help, which is hard for him seeing as her dad killed his brother. She can track Pip on her phone and they see she is in the woods, and they head off to save her. 

Ravi in Good Girl's Guide to Murder

Ravi comes home to save Pip.  (Image credit: BBC)

Where is Andie Bell's body?

Becca takes Pip into the depths of the caves where she uncovers a well and tells her that's where she dumped her sister's body. She tells Pip that she is going to have to put her in the well now, too, seeing as she knows the truth, and Pip realises that she has been drugged. 

Lashing out at Becca, she manages to escape but collapses in the cave as the Rohypnol takes effect. Becca catches up with her and starts to drag her lifeless body towards the well just as Ravi and Cara turn up and save her. They have called the police and Becca is caught before she can escape. 

In another flashback we see young Pip in the school corridor again and when Sal asks her which way Andie went. We discover it wasn't him she was trying to hide from it was her dad, and she tells Sal that her dad knows everything and they need to leave the next day. They agree to run away together and tell each other they love one another, not realising that they are both about to be killed. 

Who killed Barney the dog?

After Pip discovered that Becca was the one who dealt the final blow that killed Andie, it soon became clear that she was the one who had been sending her the text messages, watched her through the window from her dark garden, and was also the one who killed her dog, Barney. 

What happens to Max Hastings?

Back at Pip's house, we discover that she has finished her EPQ and that she has done it about Andie's case after all. Her mum tells her that it is written brilliantly but Pip says that she isn't sure if she wants to go to Cambridge University anymore, or if she only wants to go there because it is where her late father went. Her mum tells her to follow her heart and she will support her in whatever she decides to do. 

Pip then goes to see Max, and he is flirty with her until she tells him that he is the root of all the evil in the case and that she isn't going to stop until every single person he has ever wronged gets justice. He is left lost for words for once as she walks off, triumphant. 

A Good Girl's Guide To Murder Ravi Singh (ZAIN IQBAL)

Ravi and Pip end up together at the end of the series.  (Image credit: BBC)

Do Pip and Ravi end up together?

Yes! At the end of the epsiode Pip goes to see Ravi at their secret place at the lake, where they finally share a kiss. The camera then pans away, and the last shot is of the black ribbon tied to the trees that we have seen throughout the series. 

All episodes of A Good Girl's Guide to Murder are now available on BBC iPlayer in the UK and in the US the series will be released as a box set on Netflix on Thursday, August 1.

Claire Crick
Assistant Managing Editor at What To Watch

Claire is Assistant Managing Editor at What To Watch and has been a journalist for over 15 years, writing about everything from soaps and TV to beauty, entertainment, and even the Royal Family. After starting her career at a soap magazine, she ended up staying for 13 years, and over that time she’s pulled pints in the Rovers Return, sung karaoke in the Emmerdale village hall, taken a stroll around Albert Square, and visited Summer Bay Surf Club in sunny Australia. 

After learning some tricks of the trade at websites Digital Spy, Entertainment Daily, and Woman & Home, Claire landed a role at What’s On TV and whattowatch.com writing about all things TV and film, with a particular love for Aussie soaps, Strictly Come Dancing and Bake Off

She’s interviewed everyone from June Brown — AKA Dot Cotton — to Michelle Keegan, swapped cooking tips with baking legend Mary Berry backstage at the NTAs, and danced the night away with soap stars at countless awards bashes. There’s not a lot she doesn’t know about soaps and TV and can be very handy when a soapy question comes up in a pub quiz! 

As well as all things soap-related, Claire also loves running, spa breaks, days out with her kids, and getting lost in a good book.