What Is an EPQ in A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder?

Warning: Minor spoilers about the result of Pip’s EPQ in A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder.

Based on the young adult crime novel of the same name by Holly Jackson, A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder has quickly become a hit with Netflix subscribers. However, discussions of Pip Fitz-Amobi’s (Emma Myers) EPQ in the series will undoubtedly create a bit of confusion with American audiences. Clearly a school project of sorts, the research-based endeavor becomes even more baffling when she appears to be the only teenager working on one.

The show chronicles Pip’s investigation via her EPQ regarding a seemingly open and shut murder case in her sleepy English town. Determined, focused, and headstrong, Pip sets out on a quest to unravel the mystery of Andie Bell’s (India Lillie Davies) disappearance and presumed murder from five years prior. Whilst everyone believes Andie’s boyfriend, Sal Singh (Rahul Pattni), killed her, confessed to the crime via text, and subsequently killed himself after purposefully overdosing in the woods, Pip isn’t so sure.

Ever since Sal’s body was found in the days after Andie’s disappearance, Pip had lived with a nagging sense that something about the situation wasn’t right. Unlike everyone else in her town, she couldn’t believe Sal would ever do anything to harm Andie. Now in her final year of school with the prospect of getting into Cambridge, she decides to scratch the itch that’s been bothering her for years and use her EPQ to solve the case.

While many Americans understand the concept of writing essays for college applications, the idea of an EPQ most certainly seems like a foreign notion, especially given the extent of Pip’s project, which is clearly an outlier regarding how most EPQs are done. Nonetheless, given how ambitious a character like Pip is, viewers should expect nothing less.

What Is Pip’s EPQ?

A relatively new concept across the pond, an EPQ, known as Extended Project Qualification, is all about independent research similar to a college dissertation. For Pip in A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder, her EPQ is meant to showcase her research skills and help her get into one of the most prestigious schools in England. Strictly independent of her regular schoolwork, Pip’s EPQ could have been on a myriad of other topics, such as gothic literature, a topic she’s well versed in discussing.

However, despite being a “good girl” with plenty of smarts, Pip is also a bit of a nonconformist regarding her interests. When she hones in on something, she becomes hyper-focused and doesn’t stop until she sees it through. Because of the nagging sense she’s had since Sal’s body was discovered five years prior, Pip utilizing her EPQ to solve the Andie Bell case is a no-brainer from her perspective.

She kicks off her research by interviewing Andie and Sal’s friends regarding the night of Andie’s disappearance, which doesn’t go as smoothly as she anticipated. As soon as she begins asking questions, people clam up, which only reaffirms Pip’s initial doubts about Sal’s involvement and pushes her to continue her investigation. She eventually approaches Sal’s brother, Ravi (Zain Iqbal), and the pair hardly waste any time before becoming a duo akin to Sherlock and Watson.

Given his family has been essentially shunned by the community, Ravi is equally eager to find out the truth about his brother’s involvement in Andie’s disappearance. In fact, after he shows Pip the “confession” from Sal on his brother’s old phone, the perfect grammar makes it clear someone else sent the text. For Pip, that’s all the proof she needs to justify her EPQ topic.

Pip’s EPQ Is Instrumental in Andie Bell’s Case

As Pip digs deeper for the truth, it becomes abundantly clear there’s more to Andie’s disappearance and Sal’s death than anyone in town realizes. Not only has Pip received personal threats following the start of her investigation, including the death of her dog, but her research continues to unravel an immensely tangled web involving a slew of people.

Unfortunately, the closer she gets to revealing the truth, the more pushback she receives from the adults in her life. Worried that Pip’s independent research is putting her in danger and disrupting the lives of the victim’s families, her mother, Leanne (Anna Maxwell Martin), and English teacher, Elliot Ward (Mathew Baynton), who is also her best friend’s father, persuade her to switch her EPQ topic to something more reasonable, particularly gothic literature.

However, despite reluctantly agreeing to a new EPQ subject, Pip refuses to abandon her investigation and continues to research Andie’s case alongside Ravi, which ultimately pays off. She experiences a few bumps along the way, and even doubts herself as well as Sal’s innocence, before finally revealing the truth behind everything. After discovering what really happened to Andie and Sal, she refocuses the subject of her research project and produces a one-of-a-kind EPQ that’sresponsible for solving a crimethe police had been wrong about for five years.

Pip’s EPQ in A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder is the only thing that made a difference. Without it, the mystery surrounding Sal’s apparent suicide and Andie’s disappearance would have remained as such forever. All episodes of A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder are currently streaming on Netflix.