I’m Already Losing Track of Everything That Happened in the <i>Ginny & Georgia</i> Season 3 Finale

Spoilers below.

In a recent interview with Netflix’s Tudum, Ginny & Georgia creator broke down the plot of season 3 finale as follows: “Ginny gets pregnant, Georgia fakes a pregnancy, and then Georgia really gets pregnant, and we don’t know who the dad is. And when you say these things out loud, you’re like, ‘What in the world is this show?!’”

It’s a good question. The Netflix dramedy is trying to do a lot—arguably, too much. Murder, pregnancy, sex, first love, self-harm, eating disorders, disability, depression, divorce, alcohol, abuse, abortion, cancer, endometriosis, embezzlement, race, queerness, questionable local politics, estranged family dynamics...Ginny & Georgia wants to tackle them all.

Particularly in the season 3 finale, so much happens that it’s difficult to track what’s essential plot and what’s set dressing to up the drama. Sometimes there’s so much going on that it feels like nothing is actually happening; nothing sticks. It’s hard to know how much fans will remember of the season 3 storyline by the time season 4 rolls around, likely sometime in 2027. Still, to the credit of Ginny & Georgia’s cast and crew, they’ve created a series that sucks you in—that compels attention in an era when such a resource is in increasingly fragmented supply. Netflix values a show that knows how to addict its viewers, and to be honest, so do the viewers themselves.

The finale episode repeatedly underscores how its titular protagonists’ fates are intertwined, ironic, and—perhaps—inevitable. For all its absurdity, that premise is fun to explore. Is Ginny (Antonia Gentry) destined to become Georgia (Brianne Howey)? Do all daughters eventually morph into their mothers? Now that she’s blackmailed a neighbor to lie on the witness stand, does that mean Ginny’s only one bad day away from murdering someone herself?

And what about her little brother, Austin (Diesel La Torraca)? As we see in episode 10, “Monsters,” Ginny convinced the sweet young Austin to wrongfully accuse his own father of murder in order to save their mother from prison. “It’s us against the world, right?” Ginny asks Austin. That’s a line directly out of her mother’s playbook.

Still, Georgia always seems so surprised (and distraught) when her actions have repercussions, especially when those repercussions impact her children, and especially when her children start to act as she would. Even after a jury declares her innocent in the season 3 finale’s opening scenes, Georgia takes her sweet time recognizing the impact of the trial on her kids. When she at last reunites with them at home, Georgia apologizes to Austin for the “brave thing” he “had to do.” (He really didn’t “have to do” anything, but sure.) As he walks back into the house, he seems...not okay. And, frankly, neither does Ginny.

Ginny’s father, Zion (Nathan Mitchell) finds Georgia’s newfound freedom “convenient,” because he’s not an idiot. He knows Georgia killed Tom Fuller last season, and he suspects Austin’s father, Gil (Aaron Ashmore), had nothing to do with it. (Even if Gil is still an abusive, awful person.) Alone with Ginny, Zion wonders why Austin never mentioned seeing Gil kill Tom. Ginny suggests the omission was due to trauma. “Yeah, to witness a parent kill someone, that kind of thing will stay with him forever,” Zion replies, giving his daughter a pointed look. She does not take the bait.

Zion has always been patient with Georgia, believing that she acts in the best interest of their daughter despite her questionable approach. But, by the end of season 3, his faith in her is shaken, and he wants a more active role in parenting Ginny. He tells Georgia that he’s going to petition for joint custody, and, in fact, Ginny wants him to do so. “He’s my dad, Mom,” Ginny pleads with Georgia when the latter finds out. “Please don’t make this about you.” She’s shocked when her mother agrees to the arrangement. Emotional maturity! What a concept!

Together, mother and daughter proceed to flop into bed and recap the events of the entire season, including but not limited to: Georgia’s arrest at her wedding to Paul (Scott Porter); Ginny’s poem about her mother being a “monster” going viral; Georgia faking her pregnancy; Paul leaving; Ginny getting pregnant and having an abortion; Georgia running away; and Cynthia lying on the witness stand. Georgia no longer has the prospect of prison looming over her head—and she’s even agreed to go to therapy, wow!—but her neighbors still see her as the newly venerated “Mayoress Murderess,” which means she no longer has any chance of eking out a normal existence in Wellsbury.

And, well, neither does Paul. The town has turned on him thanks to his support of the big-business-touting Proposition 38, plus the fact that he divorced Georgia in her (supposed) time of need. A few drinks deep at the Blue Farm Café, a troubled, frustrated Paul reveals to Joe (Raymond Ablack) that he and Georgia slept together pre-divorce, even amidst their conflicts. Joe is...confused by this, to say the least. Which is fair! He and Georgia also slept together recently. But, uh, more on that later.

Eventually, Paul is recalled as mayor and Wellsbury rejects Prop 38. Paul lays the blame for these political failures at Georgia’s feet. When she goes to his office to return her ring and apologize for lying about the pregnancy, he insists she’s made him into something ugly, ethically warped, and (as we saw earlier this season) potentially violent. Georgia isn’t having any of it. “I didn’t make you anything that wasn’t in there already,” she insists.

Meanwhile, Ginny must deal with an interpersonal reckoning of her own. She wants to believe her mother’s changed, that Tom was Georgia’s last murder victim. But Ginny isn’t sure she believes Georgia can change, and even if she can, Ginny has already changed herself. She’s now wrapped up in her mother’s crimes, implicated in them in a real and irrevocable way. Austin, too.

When Georgia eventually learns Ginny blackmailed Cynthia (Sabrina Grdevich) in order to implicate Gil, she’s furious. “That’s not on you, to do things like that,” she demands, adding later, “I do hard things so you don’t have to.”

“It’s what got you out,” Ginny replies, almost nonchalant. “It’s what you would’ve done.”

Georgia does not like this answer.

Concludes Ginny, “I did what I had to. Prove that I did the right thing...Don’t make me regret setting you free.” Finally, she drops this zinger: “We carry the weight, too. We always have.” She’s referring, of course, to herself and Austin. Georgia’s crimes have always impacted her kids, regardless of whether she wanted or intended them to do so. That’s parenting for you!

As she attempts to ground herself after so much emotional turmoil, Ginny leans on Marcus (Felix Mallard), but he doesn’t have much grounding to offer. He has a serious drinking problem, deepened by his depression, and even if he still loves Ginny—as he insists he does, moments before they embrace—love alone won’t be enough to pull him out of such a deep hole. His twin sister, Maxine (Sara Waisglass), seems to understand this fact, and she begs for their parents to send Marcus to rehab. But their mother, Ellen (Jennifer Robertson), doesn’t want him to fall behind his friends in school, thus “making it worse.”

It might already be too late for that. Marcus has failed his sophomore year. Later, after Ginny performs her latest poem for the school, he lies to her about why he was called to the principal’s office. It isn’t until later, when he’s drunkenly stumbling around their friend’s basement house party, that Ginny realizes the seriousness of his situation...and that he’s already covering it up.

Max drags Marcus reluctantly home, where he gets into a shouting match with his parents before devolving into sobs, insisting on how much he hates himself. After the Bakers put their son to bed, Ginny climbs through his bedroom window to insist he’s not a “loser.” Marcus, still wasted, wants her to read him her “Sunshine” poem—the one she says she wrote about him. But before she can do so, he wets the bed. Ellen then comes in with a glass of water and politely asks Ginny to leave. In tears, Ginny obeys.

The next morning, we watch Ellen driving Marcus somewhere. (Given his pissed-off reaction, I think we can safely assume it’s rehab.) Only after Ellen asks for silence does he realize Ginny has secretly tucked the “Sunshine” poem in his bag. He reads it as they drive away from Wellsbury, and it reminds him he’s still “there, somewhere” deep inside himself.

While Marcus heads to rehab, Ginny prepares herself to spend the summer in Korea with Zion. But what that means for Austin and Georgia remains to be seen. Georgia is clearly falling for Joe—or, anyway, she wants to, as evidenced by her finally confessing to the Blue Farm Café owner that she did, indeed, kill Tom. She tells Joe she feels safe with him, like she can be the “real me,” which means she can be honest and upfront about the multiple (yes, multiple) murders. Joe accepts the “Mayoress Murderess” for who she is, and they kiss. But Georgia insists they can’t be together, at least for a while. She just got a divorce; her murder trial just wrapped up. She needs to get settled. She needs some stability for her kids. And though she doesn’t see them out her front window, her mother and stepdad have apparently landed in Wellsbury, joyriding past the Millers’ house in their truck. We can only imagine what drama that implies for season 4.

Oh, but the twists don’t stop there, friends. Especially after last season’s finale plot twist, Ginny & Georgia would never end season 3 on such a simple note. No, we instead must witness Georgia stroll through the kitchen guzzling milk from a carton. As Ginny watches, it hits her suddenly: “Didn’t you say you drink milk when you’re pregnant?” she asks her mother.

Sure enough, Georgia is having a baby. A real one, not a fake one! And who’s the father? We can’t yet know for sure. It’s a classic soap-opera plot twist. But, hey, it works. Already, Ginny & Georgia season 3 has hit the No. 1 spot on the Netflix Top 10 list. The Miller girls might not have much experience with honesty, but when it comes to drama, they know exactly what they’re doing.