A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder, a series of books written by Holly Jackson, just got a BBC adaptation, and it might give people the Nancy Drew vibes, but the show is a dark take on people and how their mind works. The show starts as an innocent investigation into a five-year-old closed case. As it becomes sinister, many disturbing revelations about people emerge. The show brings up the subject of how human beings can carry out despicable acts in the name of love and self-preservation. It also showcased the fact that we as humans are also capable of keeping a secret for way too long until the guilt catches up or someone eventually finds out what we did. There are multiple characters that act this way, and one of them is Dan Da Silva, the brother of Andie’s best friend Nat Da Silva, who was working with the local police. Pippa, during her own investigation, which she began as a part of her pre-university project, became intrigued as she unearthed interesting details about Andie Bell and her boyfriend Sal Singh.
Spoilers Ahead
Dan Da Silva was an intimidating character who got on Pippa’s tail and made snarky comments as she began to question people close to Sal Singh. One of them was Naomi Ward, and the other person was the rich kid Max Hastings. Pippa asked some questions to Dan’s sister Nat, who divulged a lot of secrets about Andie. Dan, being a cop, tried his level best to unsettle Pippa, but he was unsuccessful. Things went out of hand when Pippa and her friend Ravi got into Andie’s home to find the last remaining stash of narcotic drugs in her soft toy. They ran out of the house while Becca and Dan were in the house conversing.Â
As Dan had seen them driving away, he cornered Pippa the next day to discuss why she should perhaps not pursue the case after all. Dan revealed that he and his sister Nat were orphans and pretty much helped raise each other. It was Andie’s father who took Dan under his wing and helped him become a cop. The man claimed he had a lot of gratitude towards the family, especially the father, for helping him find a path to lead a fulfilling life. This helped him financially provide for his sister. He confessed the family had been through a lot ever since Andie’s passing and her body not being found, and it would be better if Pippa not hurt them further by unearthing details that could break them again. However, Dan also claimed he indulged in racial profiling when it came to arresting Sal Singh, as the young boy had brown skin. This disgusted Pippa as she realized Dan was an awful human being and took advantage of his position as a cop.Â
Pippa was being constantly threatened to back off by someone. It was getting worse as her pet dog Barney was found dead as a part of the retaliation for her unearthing details about Sal Singh and Andie’s deaths. Her pet’s death was the last straw, and she chose to go to the police, especially Dan, to reveal everything about the hit-and-run case that Naomi had revealed.
Dan’s real face showed when he confessed to having done many despicable things himself in the past, which he was ashamed of. If these details came out, they would have put his life and career in jeopardy. He physically had to stop Pippa from going to his superiors to reveal the details of the hit-and-run case, because it was him Max had contacted on the night of the accident. Max had leverage over him, which made the rich boy go after a rookie policeman five years ago. Max Hastings knew Dan and Andie had been in a physical relationship when she was in her early teens while Dan was 18. This would be considered statutory rape as Andie was a minor, although she had lied to him about her age. Nevertheless, Max blackmailed him into helping them by making sure Max, Naomi, and Jake’s names never showed up in the chargesheet. Dan turned out to be a lot more awful than Pippa had imagined. This confession came at a time after Pippa was close to finding out who might have killed Andie. She assumed Dan may have killed her but he had never touched her when she ended their relationship.
There was no redemption arc here for Dan Da Silva, as he was caught by Pippa, and he was forced to confess his role in protecting Max. There was no Naomi style situation, where he came forward with his guilt-filled confession of betraying Andie and her family by getting involved with her intimately. Dan’s revealing of his dark past would also mean he wanted this burden off his chest, and it was easy to conclude at this point that he may be racist, but he was not responsible for Andie or Sal’s deaths. Hopefully, there will be a second season of this show. As the show is based on a series of books, there could be a possibility that many of the characters in this season might come back, including Dan Da Silva.
