There’s More To The End of Ginny & Georgia Season 1 Than Meets The Eye

Things are left on a precarious note at the end of Ginny & Georgia's first season. Not only is private investigator Cordova (Alex Mallari Jr.)
learning more about Georgia's (Brianne Howey) murderous past, but Ginny (Antonia Gentry) has also learned about it. In response, Ginny has decided to take off with her little brother, lest they be involved in any more of Georgia's criminal activity. But it's not so much just what Georgia did by killing her husband Kenny (Darryl Scheelar) and hiding the evidence that Ginny's upset about. Ginny's desire to get away from her mother is much more complicated than it initially appears.

After Cordova tells Ginny that he suspects Georgia may have killed Kenny, Ginny remembered how right before his death, Kenny sexually assaulted her when he touched her inappropriately, despite her protest, during a yoga lesson. Ginny seems to recognize that her mother killed Kenny to protect her, so Ginny protects her mom by not saying anything to the P.I. But just because Ginny appears to understand where her mother was coming from, that doesn't excuse all the other things Ginny is upset about.

In Ginny and her mother's final scene together, flashes of these unforgivable moments run through Ginny's head — things like finding Georgia's gun in the floorboards and the time that Georgia slapped Ginny. On top of that, Ginny blames her mom for things not working out between Georgia and Ginny's dad Zion (Nathan Mitchell), even though the decision for Zion to leave wasn't a one-sided decision. Ginny is also furious that Georgia never mailed any of the letters that Austin (Diesel La Torraca) wrote to his father. When Ginny confronts her mother about this, Georgia tries to explain that Ginny just doesn't understand the reasons why Georgia's been hiding Austin's father from him. "Maybe that's because you never tell me anything ever!" Ginny shouts. Georgia says she can't tell Ginny anything because she can't trust her. 

That seems to be what hurt Ginny the most — the lies. Perhaps Ginny could have gotten past her mom killing Kenny, as anyone watching the show can. You want to root for Georgia because it does appear that she at least thinks her heart is in the right place. But her moral compass is skewed or even missing. All she does is survive at all costs, even at the expense of her own family.

Ginny can't stand feeling on the outside in her own home. All of the lies, the gun, the un-mailed letters, Kenny — it makes Ginny feel like she doesn't really know her mom. In the first episode, Georgia told Ginny that it was just them against the world, but Ginny seems to realize by the finale that it's just Georgia against the world. She can't even let Ginny or Austin into the reality of her worldview. So Ginny has to get out.

Ginny doesn't even know the full scope of the secrets her mother has kept from her. There's also all the money her mother stole from the town and the fact that it sure looks like Georgia framed Austin's father and sent him to jail. (It's a "joke" that Georgia makes in the first episode that is starting to seem like more of an admission of guilt.) Ginny also doesn't know that in addition to Georgia killing Kenny, she also had his body exhumed, cremated, and his ashes turned into in the fireworks used to celebrate Mayor Paul's (Scott Porter) re-election. (A clever way of hiding the evidence, however dark.)

But there's somehow more. At the end of the season, Cordova learns that Georgia was married when she was a teenager in New Orleans. That man is now a missing person. He likely met the same fate as Kenny, because when Georgia has her friend help with Kenny's body, she mentions that she needs him to help her like he "did in New Orleans," with the man we later learn is Anthony Green (Rodrigo Fernandez-Stoll). Georgia married him to prove she was stable enough to care for Ginny so the state would let her keep her daughter, but he was abusive and controlling too, and it seems Georgia — who was a victim of her step-father's abuse as a pre-teen — thought there was no way out besides killing him.

Ginny doesn't fully understand the reasons her mom is the way she is or the fact that Kenny isn't the first person she's killed. So right now, her faith in her mother has been shattered; everything Ginny thought she knew is a lie. Georgia's actions hurt her family, even when she thinks she's trying to help them, and that damage will be hard to repair when Netflix inevitably grants the series a second season.