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Elliot Ward is Cara's father and one of the main antagonists in season 1 of the TV show A Good Girl's Guide to Murder.
He works as an English teacher and responsible for murdering Sal Singh.
Biography[]
Elliot married Isabel Ward and they had two daughters together in Little Kilton, UK - Naomi and Cara. They lived happily together with Elliot working as an English teacher at the local high school. He was close to Cara's friends and served as a father figure to many of them, including her closest friend Pip. In 2017, Isabel died and the Ward family was heartbroken. They leaned on each other and tried to recover the best they could.
In 2019, Elliot began to tutor students for extra money to support his family. He met Andie Bell through his tutoring and they grew close - too close. They had a relationship and slept together a few times. Andie broke it off when she started dating Sal Singh. Elliot was upset but returned to tutoring and his life as normal. One night, Andie visited Elliot and demanded money in exchange for her silence about their relationship. He refused to be blackmailed and she left. She came back again a few weeks later, this time demanding five thousand pounds so she could leave town. When he refused again, she threw a fit and screamed that her father would never left her leave. She attacked Elliot and he pushed her away. Andie hit her head on the countertop and was stunned for several minutes as Elliot left to call the police. When he returned, she was gone, and was later reported missing. Elliot panicked as he believed he might have killed Andie. He decided to pin Andie's death on Sal. He used the hit and run Naomi and her friends were involved in as leverage to force them to lie about Sal's whereabouts the night Andie went missing. He then drugged Sal and lured him into the woods, where he smothered the boy to death. He texted a false confession to Sal's younger brother Ravi then staged Sal's murder as a suicide.
Unbeknownst to Elliot, Andie went home and was killed by her younger sister. Elliot, still unsure if Andie was dead, spotted a blonde girl at a bus station one day and mistook her for Andie. The girl, Isla, corrected Elliot's mistake and he assured her that he could help her get back on her feet. He brought her to a dilapidated home that he claimed to live in with his two daughters. After getting drunk, Elliot confessed to Isla about killing Sal. When Isla tried to escape, Elliot abducted her and kept her in the attic. He visited her daily under the rouse of having "tutoring sessions".
A Good Girl's Guide to Murder[]
Season 1[]
Episode 1[]
Elliot comes home from tutoring sessions and greets Naomi and Pip, who are at the kitchen table. He jokingly asks how the internet is, and Naomi jokes it's still weird and depressing. Pip asks Elliot how tutoring is going. It's boring, but a teacher's salary only stretches so far. He asks Pip if she wants to join them for dinner, but she can't, as Vic is making tacos. She leaves the table and Elliot stops her as she forgot her notebook.
Episode 2[]
Episode 3[]
Elliot dismisses his English class, though Cara and Pip stay to keep analyzing the code. Pip's tried it as a numerical code in case they're coordinates and an anagram if it's an address, but doesn't have any luck. Elliot doesn't think their homework looks like English. Cara lists that it's a code-breaking game and they have to use "black banana bears" to find a location. He solves it as What3Words and Pip calls him a genius. She puts it in her phone and it pings in the center of the woods.
Back home, Pip looks over her detective board when Leanne comes in to talk to her about a phone call she had with Elliot regarding Pip hanging out with Ravi Singh. Pip lies that she hasn't, but Leanne scolds her against lying. She and Victor don't feel this topic is appropriate any longer. Elliot will help her on Monday to pick out a new topic.
Episode 4[]
Pip barely makes it in time for her meeting Mrs. Bradshaw who is conducting her Cambridge University practice interview. Elliot introduces them and watches the interview as Pip talks about the feminist themes in Jane Eyre. Mrs. Bradshaw asks about Pip's chosen EPQ topic. Pip looks at Elliot then lies that her EPQ is about feminism in the graphic novel, declining Elliot's suggestion to elaborate before leaving. Cara later finds Pip to make sure she attended her because Elliot was looking for her in the art room earlier.
The next morning, Pip arrives at school and goes to her locker. Elliot asks for a word of her time. He understands her disappoint about her EPQ, but thinks she's smart enough to know why it wasn't appropriate subject matter. She tells him it's done now and walks away.
That evening, Pip and Naomi pin down Naomi in Cara's room so Cara can force makeup on her older sister ahead of the reunion that night. Elliot needs them to get moving as he's chaperoning. The television is broken so they'll have to entertain themselves otherwise.
Episode 6[]
Isla and Pip sit on the bed as Isla speaking about being a runaway teen. Elliot finds her at the bus station and is relieved to see her before realizing she isn't Andie. He invites her back to his home, soothing her worries by saying he was a teacher with two teenage daughters. He offered her a place to stay until she could get on her feet. Things were nice for the first night, until Isla got up later to find Elliot drinking. She thanks him for the help, calling him a good person. He confesses that he is a bad man, a statement she rebukes as he was good to her. He confesses to killing someone. He details how he murdered Sal Singh and framed him for the death of Andie Bell. She asks for a glass to share the alcohol he's drinking. While he's out of the room, she tries to escape the house, but fumbles over the locks on the front door. He kidnaps her, locking her inside his attic. Isla breaks down in tears as Pip tries to comfort her. As Isla finishes her story, the police and paramedics arrive, saving both girls.
Isla sits in the back of a medics van as the police arrest Elliot. Pip attacks the police car trying to get inside, but it speeds off.
Once at school, Lauren, Connor, Zach, and Pip discuss the break in the case. A forensic team was over at the Wards looking for DNA. Connor can't believe Elliot walked among them like an ordinary, everyday guy while harboring the darkest secret ever. Zach remarks it wasn't just one secret. He also had a girl trapped in his attic in a secret house, had a secret teenage lover who he murdered, hid her body, and secretly murdered her boyfriend. Pip adds that he broke into her house on her brother's birthday and killed her dog.
That night, Pip is whisking batter while helping Leanne cook. She starts crying and admits to feeling guilty about ruining Cara's life. Leanne assures her that's not on Pip, but on Elliot. If she hadn't uncovered the truth, everyone would still believe Sal was a killer, Andie's family wouldn't have closure, and there would still be a girl in Elliot's attic. Leanne is upset that Elliot doesn't have the decency to own up to killing Andie. This makes Pip realize something, and she goes back upstairs to restore some of her crime board. This time, she focuses on Sal, the Wards, and the anonymous threats she received. She realizes through Instagram that the Ward's were out of town on the 14th of September when Barney was killed, so Elliot couldn't have been responsible.
Pip drives through town to the police station where Dan gives her five minutes alone with Elliot. The prisoner immediately apologizes, but she tells him no. She came because he was gone the day Barney went missing, telling him about the threats she received and his murder. Someone else is hiding something and someone else murdered Andie Bell. Elliot admits to being a monster who can be blamed for everything. Pip does blame him for murdering Sal and taking advantage of Andie when she was 17. He kidnapped Isla and kept her prisoner. She knows he would want Cara and Naomi to know he didn't kill Andie. Andie was looking for money the night she died, but Pip doesn't know why. Elliot explains that when he told Andie no to the money she went crazy, saying if she couldn't leave that night she was scared of what "he" might do. When Elliot and Andie were together she told him that Jason was controlling over everyone, running that house with fear. He didn't let her have boyfriends. Jason was supposed to be out all evening that night, but Elliot knows Jason wasn't. He was out looking for Andie by the woods when he saw Jason drive past him in a van. He either lied about his alibi or didn't mention the flaw in it. Either way, eh won't admit to it now. It's Jason's sword against Elliot's. When Andie went missing, Elliot thought she was dead. He was desperate and thought everything would lead to him. Then he remembered reading Naomi's diary a few months prior and learning about the hit-and-run. That's when the dark little seed came into his head. Soon, killing Sal and blaming him was the only way to protect his girl. They had already lost their mom, he couldn't bear the thought of them losing him too. Pip, crying, calls him evil. He wonders if the dark little seed is evil and not him. If they all have a dark seed somewhere deep inside, even Pip. It just needs the right conditions to grow. Pip expected a better metaphor from an English teacher. He had a choice and he chose to murder Sal. Dan comes in to end their time together. Elliot asks about his girls, and Pip leaves without telling him anything else. She asks him about the van Jason drove that night, learning it was blue.
Pip believes for a time that Jason killed Andie, but later learns the truth. Becca had struck Andie that night by pushing her against a wall. Because Andie was already injured by Elliot earlier in the evening, the blow to the wall proved fatal.
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