Happy Sweet Sixteen, Jerk
Episode 7 of Ginny & Georgia begins with Ginny rebelling against her Mother. Sporting straight hair, Ginny stifles a smile in the wake of Georgia baking her a cake and singing happy birthday. Austin meanwhile gets a big hug and a thank you for his gift. When she mentions Georgia’s real name, Georgia pushes the cake into Ginny’s face. At school, the whole squad sort out a birthday celebration for Ginny. Hunter even arranges a tap dancing routine for her too. Abby meanwhile, doesn’t seem too happy. In act, she’s really standoffish with the whole crew and struggles to open up. Meanwhile, the Mayoral elections grow ever-close as a debate ensues at the town hall. Cynthia and Paul both trade verbal punches. Afterwards though, Paul heads back to Georgia’s house and starts playing football with Austin, embracing his weirdness. Only, Austin clearly continues to hold onto his anger, directed toward Zach. At work, Georgia phones Marty and asks for his help in combatting the PI that’s sniffing around asking about her. After agreeing to help, she heads home where both Austin and Ginny continue to turn away from their Mother. Upstairs, Marcus sneaks in and hands over Ginny’s birthday present, a beautiful painting. Marcus tries to kiss her but she pulls away. In the morning, Ginny wakes up to find more birthday surprises. After a rather awkward moment involving Paul tiptoeing out the bathroom in a towel, Georgia announces she has a whole day planned for her daughter. Well, the girls concoct a new plan on the back of this: “Operation Get Weird.” This begins with Ginny sneaking out the alcohol from the cupboard. Ready to get drunk and leave for the night, another surprise comes in the form of Jesse and Nick arriving to say happy birthday. Only, Georgia is clearly not happy. She pulls Jesse aside and calls him Gabriel, hinting that she knows who he is. That night the girls sneak out and head over to Brodie’s. There, Sophie and Maxine hook up but don’t have sex. Max is way too nervous and thankfully Sophie is okay with that. Hunter and Ginny meanwhile, most certainly do. While the party is going on, Marcus shows up and starts drinking. To get her own back, Georgia phones the police with a noise complaint and decides against heading down the police station to pick up Ginny. Paul is understandably shocked, as he shows to pick up Ginny himself. He gives her some encouraging words and admits that Austin really looks up to her. On top of that, Paul also admits to loving her Mum. When Ginny returns home, Georgia opens up and admits what happened to her in the past. She was abused by her stepfather and has been homeless and in jail since she was 14. That’s the big secret she’s been holding and why she’s adopted a different persona all this time. Of course, that’s not everything – killing a defenseless rabbit, shooting Ed in the hand and stealing money are still kept a secret. Baby steps though. In the morning, Georgia hands over a picture of her and Zion, patching up the differences between her and her daughter. Just before she leaves, Georgia admits that they’re broke.
The Episode Review
Georgia and Ginny both hit breaking point this episode. Both characters start to open up a lot more and although Georgia is still keeping a fair amount of secrets from her daughter, she at least admits some of the them. Her confession about being abused may well have been hinted at before but it’s still quite the hammer blow to hear. On top of that, the show continues to brush aside most of its subplots that remain half-baked in the wake of the girls all getting drunk and partying at Brodie’s. I’m not quite sure why, but this show has a real tendency to pad out its run-time with numerous dance and singing routines that bring absolutely nothing to the series. Whether Georgia’s lies and manipulation will come back to haunt her this season, shattering the perfect life they’ve built for themselves here, remains to be seen. For now, it’s on to the next episode!
