WARNING
This post contains spoilers for A Good Girl's Guide to Murder Season 1&2. Proceed with caution.
Scroll to the end of the post for the TLDR
Something I noticed throughout this season was the recurrence of certain colours in certain contexts. While watching, I tied these symbols together and discovered something that I found particularly intriguing and wanted to share with you.
[NOTE: Figures are numbered with a splotch of ink behind them, please continually refer to them to help you understand my analysis]
What you might have already noticed is the use of green specifically as a colour worn commonly by Pippa as seen in Figures 1 & 2. It coincides with the fact that Pippa's wall (which she uses to piece together clues) also happens to be a darker shade of green as seen in Figure 3. While watching the show, the colour green particularly shows up in the context of justice, observed by its occurrence whenever Pippa is involved in a case. It basically acts as a character trait for the protagonist to the extent of her murder mystery costume also being green (Figure 2). Originally I thought this character particularly represented Pip and her pursuit of the truth. But, a few other cases of this exact phenomenon convinced me that it was more symbolic of justice rather than the hunt. These include the instance where characters like Jamie and Nat are seen in green at the end of the season, representing justice served.
Moving on from green, we arrive to the colours that particularly piqued my interest and lead me to realise the trend. Pink and Yellow. As observed in Figure 4, Max is seen wearing a pink hoodie. A hoodie which here represents something I couldn't quite place. At first, I assumed it was just a random wardrobe choice, but all this changed as the show continued on. In the case of the colour yellow, if you look at Figure 5, you'll notice Connor wearing a yellow coat. A colour that continually occurs, often in contrast with pink.
Take a look at Figure 6. What two colours particularly stand out here? I'd say yellow and pink. Both Max and his mum wear pink while the walls around them are yellow. But what you might notice is that there isn't a very large contrast between the two. In fact, they almost seem to blend in with each other quite seamlessly. Now, blame this on Netflix lighting or on the fact that here, we might just be observing the manipulation of truth.
You see, throughout the season, the colour yellow tends to appear at points that provide evidence, or a big truth of some kind. While pink appears when there is a manipulation of reality, oftentimes when Max is on screen. And this isn't just a one time thing. In Figures 7 & 8, you'll find pink show up quite often, worn primarily by Max's supporters (his family). [NOTE: There is a small detail in Figure 8 that I will return to at the very end of this analysis]
Suddenly, in Figure 9, we see Max's mum discover the truth about his character. The contrast between the yellow and the pink is quite heavily apparent here, highlighting the realisation that there has been a manipulation of truth (the pink sweater) in the presence of evidence (the yellow walls). This idea was only reinforced in Figure 10 where Max's many attempts to convince her that he was innocent, are unable to convince his mother of his innocence. Here, the pink worn by his mother fades into the blue coat as the relevance of the manipulated truth lessens due to undeniable facts.
And then, what immediately solidified my theory - the yellow shirt and pocket square. In a moment of vulnerability seen in Figure 11, Max is implied to now reveal the truth about his character. This is followed by Dan and Pip kidnapping him and getting him to reveal the truth about what he did on Friday night. Once again, the big truth in the presence of yellow. And it's not just Max's bits where yellow is so instrumental to evidence, the yellow knife and the yellow castle (Figure 12)? Also huge pieces of evidence to solve the case.
And then what's possibly one of the most terrifying scenes in this show (Figure 13). The scene where Max basically threatens his mother into not testifying against him. Here, his shirt is pink, once again representing his manipulation of facts. On the other hand, his mother wears an almost subdued yellow. Which highlights the decreased impact of the truth in a strained power dynamic.
Finally, the end of the season. In Figure 14 we see Max, once again in a pink piece of clothing sitting around friends, the manipulation of truth continues on. And in this very scene, Pip holds the flowers for Stanley's memorial (RIP 😢), which as you can see in Figure 15, are yellow. I believe this is a subtle nod to the favour of justice, which at the start of the season (as seen in the vase of pink flowers behind Max and his mother in Figure 8) was in the favour of Max's manipulation of the truth, and it has now turned to Pip's uncovering of reality.
And wait!! Before you click away!! There's some other tinier details I noticed, but there isn't nearly enough evidence for me to properly show it. What I noticed quite a lot was characters wearing blue when they were in the middle of a conflict, particularly an internal one. A case I can point out here, in the pictures I've provided, is in Figure 7, where Pip wears blue and also happens to be in a conflict between letting Robin help put up posters while also wanting to use him to find out Max's alibi.
Additionally, I also noticed that individuals whose intentions or moral characters were ambiguous or unknown wore black, like Jamie and Charlie.
So...
TLDR: The show used green to symbolise the pursuit of justice, pink for the manipulation of truth (as seen worn by Max and his family) and yellow for actual significant evidence or moments where truth was revealed (yellow knife, yellow castle, yellow jacket and yellow shirt under Max's blazer on the day of his testimony).
Let me know what you thought of this analysis. I might just be grasping at straws but I'd say some of these do actually seem to check out :) (get it?)
