‘Ginny & Georgia’ 2×03: “What Are You Playing at, Little Girl?”

When it comes to parents – we have a choice. We accept who they are or we challenge them. I think as kids we think that parents are superheroes, but some of us only see what they give us and what they give us isn’t always the best. Ginny is reacting to the bad and Georgia…well, she’s just Georgia. 

But one thing that we all don’t count on is finding out more than we can deal with and more than we can accept. Ginny and Georgia are both facing that this episode. 

I am just going to say what we’re all thinking, Ginny & Georgia is a masterpiece.

We’re picking up right where we left off with Georgia thinking that Ginny has just tried to poison Paul. What I do have to say is that I do love that Georgia is seeing that she has created a monster. She thinks that she’s done everything that she can to protect her children, but what she’s done is made her eldest daughter believe that her entire life – everything that she knows – is a lie. 

It doesn’t mean that Georgia isn’t willing to go head to head with Ginny. Ginny sure as hell isn’t about to back down. But the truth is that neither of them understand each other at all. Yes, Ginny is doing everything that she can to not let her mother win. 

But they are both losing. They are both losing because what they are doing is isolating each other and bringing each other into their shit, not knowing what the extent of that shit is. Ginny though, she’s at that stage in life where she thinks that she’s calling her Mom out in the best way, by making Georgia know that she has been found out. 

She takes one of Austin’s credit cards that Georgia opened, buying her brother a gameboy. She makes it known that she is onto her Mom, that she’s ruined her future and her credit. Georgia believes that she’s done what she needs to in order to take care of her family, but lets be real… she’s not even come close. Georgia has always been in survival mode, not realizing it. 

But Ginny doesn’t want to be in that mode her entire life. She wants to believe that she can and will be better than Georgia. When Marcus sneaks in and is trying to show Ginny that he care and that he’s there, she reacts and pushes him away. 

One of the things that this season is doing so well is that they are taking the mixed emotions of a teenager and are showing just how strong they can be. They aren’t making excuses, they aren’t dismissing them, but they are showing us just how life at any age is this complicated mess of things and that if you are feeling that, you are not alone. 

Hell, you’re probably more understood than you think you are. 

Marcus and Ginny both think that they are broken, so for each one of them, the push and pull feels normal. Ginny is feeling that with a lot of people in her life, but one of the places she feels at home is with her group of friends, especially with Bracia. 

While at work, they come in and Bracia shows Ginny pictures that were taken for the school play. They aren’t good and Ginny comes up with an idea to help her friend. After all, her father is a great photographer and he’s able to take some amazing pictures of the two. 

Seeing Zion and his daughter bond, it’s a special moment. The dynamics between the two of them, it’s different than she has with Georgia. Zion hasn’t always been there, but he loves his daughter and wants to be there for her. He also understands Georgia on a level that none of us do, which in a way, makes her feel more relatable and gives the viewer the feeling that Georgia – even with all of the things that she does wrong – is redeemable. 

Zion encourages Ginny to embrace who she is. When she’s having issues writing in her journal for therapy, he suggests that she write her entries as poetry. Marcus asks her one day what she is writing and she tells him she’s writing poetry. We see the two of them grow closer, until Max shows up and makes everything awkward. 

Max is dramatic. She’s like level 10 dramatic. She frustrates me because she really just doesn’t seem to understand that her words have consequences and the way that she treats people has consequences. Abby and Ginny are human beings. What she is doing, how she is treating them, has life long implications. 

I do get at their age, they don’t see things that way. What they see is a teenager just being a pain in the ass. But it’s definitely not that simple. When Abby fights back and tell Max that she saw Sophie on a date with a guy, it’s like a slap to Max’s face. There is definitely a part of me that wants to feel bad for her, but there is another part of me that gives no fucks. I guess, even as we get older, we still remember the kids in school that tortured us. 

And so, I just get frustrated with her. 

Abby and Ginny ditch school and go smoke weed. It’s a good moment, because they both need each other. They need friendship and they need someone who understands what they are going through. Both have some issues that are going on and I think that they need each other. Everyone needs friends that they can count on. 

When Georgia covers for Ginny ditching class, she also confronts Ginny on it that night. She wants to know where she was and what she was doing. Ginny’s not one to hold back and tells her that she ditched school and went to smoke weed with Abby. 

But what strikes a nerve in Georgia is that Ginny calls her by her real name. Her daughter knowing her past is something that she’s not sure that she can deal with. She has a panic attack and runs to her car. 

Ginny runs to Marcus. While I do love the two of them together, what kills me is that Ginny wants someone so badly to trust that she tells Marcus about her Mom killing her stepfather. It’s a moment that you want to believe that Marcus will keep a secret, but there is always something that can and will happen. Ginny is too young to realize that. She has every right to be angry at her Mom and she does need someone to talk to, but I feel like telling Marcus wasn’t the right route. 

It’s going to have repercussions. 

Ginny & Georgia don’t have the strongest relationship, but at the same time they do. The two can get mad at each other, they can find pain in each other, but when they do finally talk, they can find understanding too. 

Ginny needs to understand her Mom and why she does the things that she does. There will never be a complete understanding, because they really have lived different but similar lives. The bottom line, what Georgia did was wrong, but she’s justified it in her head. She wants to protect her kids. 

She loves her kids. 

However that plays out, we shall see. 

OTHER THOUGHTS

• Georgia setting Zach up to be a thief just so she can get in the neighborhood club is a new low. 
• Hunter really is heartbroken over Ginny. 
• Padma giving Ginny a hug and telling her she doesn’t think she’s evil was such a moment. I loved Ginny seeing that someone is on her side. 
• Who is Joe dating?
• Abby and Ginny hanging out – more of that please. 
• Max really needs to stop being Max and be kind
• Is it wrong that I am cruising on Zion?

Ginny & Georgia is streaming now on Netflix.