Note: This story contains spoilers from “Ginny & Georgia” Season 3, Episode 10.
In “Ginny & Georgia” Season 3, Brianne Howey’s Georgia Miller is put on trial — but not just in the court of law. “She’s also on trial with her friends and family,” showrunner Sarah Glinski told TheWrap. “Everyone’s judging her and figuring out if they want to continue being part of their lives.”
That includes her daughter, Ginny (Antonia Gentry), who is taken from Georgia in the midst of her murder trial to live with her father, Zion (Nathan Mitchell), while Austin (Diesel La Torraca) is sent to live with his father, Gil (Aaron Ashmore), whose pattern of abuse raises eyebrows. Though Ginny and Georgia’s separation forces the mother-daughter duo to confront some difficult issues on their own, series creator Sarah Lampert noted the shift could ultimately help them achieve a healthier relationship.
“We talked to Dr. Taji [Huang], who’s our psychologist who’s been helping guide our characters mental health journeys since Season 1,” Lampert told TheWrap, noting the show’s ongoing partnership with Mental Health America. “I had asked her at the beginning of the season what would have to happen for Georgia and Ginny to one day have a healthier relationship, and her answer was: Georgia would have to really be broken down and understand that her actions have consequences specifically on her children, and Ginny would have to set some pretty firm boundaries.”
With that goal in mind, Glinski and Lampert began breaking down Ginny and Georgia — from romantic disappointments to shifting alliances to an abortion — with the hopes the pair could rebuild.
While Ginny’s loyalty to her mother holds strong, Paul (Scott Porter) eventually turns his back on his new marriage to Georgia as rumors of her being a serial killed start to circle the town. Though Georgia is able to lure Paul back momentarily under the guide of a positive pregnancy test she claims to be her own — but turns out to be Ginny’s — Georgia finds herself drawn to her longtime friend, Joe (Raymond Ablack), who finally get together after seasons of tension.
“When Georgia is with [Paul], [Brianne] as the actress, brings an energy that matches the mayor, and then when she’s with Joe, you really feel her having fun,” Lampert said. “She’s in her early 30s — you feel her youth. You feel the fact that she’s with someone who she just connects to, and it’s easy. There’s no wall, there’s no pretense, there’s nothing to prove, there’s nothing to gain. She’s just existing and she’s free.”
Georgia’s romp with Joe happens as Georgia plans to run away from the trial and Wellsbury, but she ultimately decides to turn herself in, deciding that a life in prison is better than never getting the chance to see her kids again. Though Georgia knows her chances at freedom are low as she stands on trial for the murder of Tom Fuller, she’s shocked when Austin tells the court, under oath, that it was his father, Gil, who killed Tom — a plan orchestrated by Ginny. The choice — which kills two birds with one stone as Georgia walks free and Gil steps out of their lives — marks a dynamic shift between Ginny and Georgia, after Ginny has made her reprimanding position clear on Georgia’s past indiscretions.
“Ginny’s half Georgia, so she’s always had a little bit of that in her — she’s seen her mom use these skills that she has throughout her life,” Glinski said.
“She doesn’t have a lot of sympathy or empathy for it … [but] when she’s tasked with maybe losing her mother, she steps up and fulfills that Georgia role,” Lampert added. “When you put Ginny in the same circumstances as Georgia, what’s she going to do?”
While Ginny makes peace with the questionable moral lines as she secures her mother’s freedom, Austin seems to be struggling with guilt over his choice to frame his father in the finale, which Lampert teases will evolve more in Season 4.
“For Austin, his gene pool is Georgia and Gil, so if we’re talking nature versus nurture, where his character grows could potentially take a very interesting space, based on a) everything he’s been through, and b) who his parents are,” Glinski said.
Season 3 leaves off on a major cliffhanger when Ginny catches Georgia taking a swig of milk straight from the bottle and asks her, “didn’t you say you drink milk when you’re pregnant?” With Georgia having slept with both Paul and Joe within days of each other, Season 4 will deal with the fallout of Georgia’s pregnancy, especially in the wake of her messy breakup with Paul.
With Georgia also receiving a call from her father in the finale, who warned her that if he could find her from prison, so could her mother and her stepdad, Lampert said the themes for Season 4 are “origins and cycles,” with Glinski teasing some visitors will be coming to Wellsbury.
While there was a more than two year gap between Seasons 2 and 3 — which the EPs attribute to the WGA strike — Lampert said the turnaround for Season 4 will be a “much faster process,” thanks to the two-season pickup Netflix gave the show in May 2023. “We weren’t in the writers’ room yet [when Season 2 came out], and now we’re already halfway through it.”
“Ginny & Georgia” Season 3 is now streaming on Netflix.
