The episode begins with Pippa Fitz-Amobi (Emma Myers) telling her friends that she wants to go to a Calamity Party. Lauren Gibson (Yali Topol Margalith) couldn’t be more enthused and the prospect of Anthony/Ant Lowe (Monly Eliot Dominguez) being there only fuels her fire. Cara Ward (Asha Banks) and the others are curious about how out of character this is for Pip but quickly get on board. The problem now becomes tracking down the party’s location since it is rotational. Being that they aren’t part of the ‘it club,’ they soon realize this is much harder than they imagined. Lucky for them, Naomi Ward (Yasmin Al-Khudhairi) was on the higher ladder of the social hierarchy and is willing to share with her younger sister that the location of the parties used to be revealed at noon, the Monday before the party, which happens to be the current time.
Pip uncovers a crucial clue to the location of the party by manipulating Ant into believing that she can tweak his phone’s visibility settings to help his dance videos get more likes. The girls have a hard time deciphering the code, ‘Black Banana Bears’ and likely would have remained clueless if not for an inadvertent assist from Cara’s English teaching father, Elliot Ward (Mathew Baynton).
After discovering the location of the party, Pip briefly meets with Ravi Singh (Zain Iqbal) to make plans to draw out the dealer at the party. Being that he won’t be in attendance, the task will fall solely on Pip’s shoulders.
Pip and the girls assume they are the first to arrive when the boys are nowhere in sight at the party. They soon realize they were mistaken when they find Zach Chen (Raiko Gohara) and Connor Reynolds (Jude Morgan-Collie) playing something reminiscent of spin-the-bottle. Cara has already expressed her desire to leave once and the discovery of the game only adds to those desires. This is until Ruby appears and shows interest in her.
Pip not only soon finds herself a willing participant in the game, but another participant, later to be revealed as Dylan (Matthew Khan) spins the bottle to her. Lauren tells her that she doesn’t have to do anything she doesn’t want and Pip would have likely refused if she hadn’t noticed Dylan passing around baggies of what looked like drugs earlier. Their brief encounter begins awkwardly and only gets more so as Pip tries to uncover the identity of his dealer. When she finally convinces him, he takes her to another section of the party to meet with Howie (Thomas Gray). He doesn’t go in with her which is likely because he owes Howie 60 quid.
After a bit of negotiating, Pip agrees to repay the debt at 20 quid per question. She first asks if Andie Bell (India Lillie Davies) was selling drugs for him. He confirms that she was. The second question reveals that she was dealing weed, Ketamine, and Rohypnol. Before Pip can ask her third question, Howie tells her that Andie made the perfect dealer because she looked so far from the part. He also mentions something about a burner phone that the police never found and Andie keeping her stash in a stuffed bunny. Howie ends up scaring Pip into a near panic attack when he becomes insulted by her last question concerning his whereabouts the night Pip disappeared.
Although Pip flees from Howie’s room, she’s practically defenseless and in the middle of a panic attack when Dylan shows back up. If not for Jesse Walker (Oliver Wickham), Dylan would have probably had his way with her. Jesse warns Pip to keep an eye on her drink as she escorts her back to her friends.
Pip appears to be so traumatized by the event that after returning home, she finds herself in Josh Amobi’s (Kmari Loyd) bed. She not only receives another threat via text but she receives an apology call from Ravi for not going to the party with her. Pip only continues to feel worse when she is confronted by both Leanne and Becca Bell (Carla Woodcock) about the investigation. Despite Leanne not telling Pip that she can no longer investigate the case, she does practically tell her to switch her EPQ back to Gothic feminism. This ultimately leads to Pip skipping out on a meeting with Ravi.
After Leanne’s reprimand, Pip gives abandoning the case some serious thought but not only decides to continue, she makes plans with Ravi the following morning to ‘sneak’ into Andie’s house to look for clues. After Becca, Dawn (Dian Lukins), and Jason Bell (Matthew Chambers) leave, Ravi stands as lookout as Pip slips in through a side entrance to the house, using a spare key hidden under a potted plant.
It doesn’t take Pip long to work her way upstairs where she begins searching Andie’s stash. With her phone on vibrate Pip misses Ravi’s warning text about Becca’s return to the home. Although he rushes into the home and manages to alert Pip, they soon find themselves trapped in Andie’s closet. Just as Becca is about to discover them, they are saved by the doorbell. As Pip and Ravi are racing from the house, the guest is revealed to be Dan De Silva (Jackson Bews), who is on duty responding to suspicious reports from a neighbor.
The episode ends with Dan watching Ravi and Pip flee from the home. It also appears that they didn’t leave empty-handed.
A Good Girl’s Guide To Murder Review
Although I am still not overly impressed, I must admit that the series seems to be on a steady ascent. Episode 2 was enjoyable and this one even more so, despite the constant racial barbs. I did enjoy the calamity party and the effort it took for the gang to uncover its location. The idea of a rotational party is intriguing and the cave setting was even more so.
For me, the episode was nearly destroyed with Howie and Dylan bits. I am not saying these guys are bad actors or anything like that. It was that the whole bit from the spin the bottle game to Pip’s near panic attack that just came off as bizarre. On top of that, Pip’s return home to sleep in her much younger brother’s bed? The whole thing just felt like bad writing. Other than this, I enjoyed the episode and would give it a 5.6 out of 10.
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