Ginny & Georgia Boss Teases What That Stunning Finale Means for a Potential Season 3

[Warning: The following contains spoilers from Season 2 of Ginny & Georgia. Read at your own risk!]

Everyone's favorite dysfunctional mother-daughter series has returned, and Season 2 of Ginny & Georgia was even better (read: messier) than Season 1. While Ginny (Antonia Gentry) and Georgia (Brianne Howey) started the season farther apart than we've ever seen them, the teenager and her hurricane of a mother were able to find peace with each other by the end of the season, just before all of that progress was ripped away from them. 

Before we get there though, the season pushed Ginny to ask for help and get into therapy so she could learn to stop self-harming. Therapy helped Ginny grow up a bit more and have a deeper understanding for Georgia, while also learning to stand up for herself. She managed to reconnect with her friends at school and grow a deeper relationship with Marcus (Felix Mallard), even though the two didn't end the season romantically together. 

As for Georgia, she weathered the arrival of an abusive ex (Aaron Ashmore), a horrendous Christmas dinner with two different sets of in-laws, and a soul-barring confession that shockingly led to a dream trip down the aisle. Paul (Scott Porter) decided he wanted to be with Georgia despite finding about about (most of) the skeletons in her closet. However, their first dance bliss was short-lived when the cops arrived with private investigator Gabriel Cordova (Alex Mallari Jr.) to arrest Georgia for murdering Cynthia's (Sabrina Grdevich) husband (but she did it out of compassion, we swear!). 

TV Guide caught up with Ginny & Georgia creator and executive producer Sarah Lampert to discuss Georgia's stunning arrest and what it means for the Millers, who should be in for a better time in a potential Season 3.

Let's start with this massive cliffhanger at the end of the season. Please walk me through the decision to have Georgia get arrested and face some criminal charges for her actions.
Sarah Lampert: So many shows just kind of repeat the same formula across the seasons. For us, our favorite thing to do is really surprise everyone. I think even in how Season 2 is so different from Season 1. If we get to Season 3, that'll be different from both Season 1 and Season 2. My favorite thing is just when the unexpected happens and when the audience is really taken on this roller coaster ride where they care about the characters, but they are entertained and they are surprised. We always knew we wanted season to end in an arrest. That was the plan from jump.

She's being arrested for what feels like a compassionate murder, if that's the right way to phrase it, rather than many of the other crimes she's committed purely for self-preservation. 
Lampert: I think that everything Georgia does can be justified, but that doesn't mean everything she does should have been done or is right. And I think that the beauty of these characters is they're so messy and complex. We in the writers room and we on the show aren't saying what's good, or wrong, or right. We're really leaving it up to interpretation in the sense that I think everyone is going to have different opinions on if she should or should not have done this, to be completely honest. So yeah, I think I want to get really complicated with it. We want it to be confusing. We want it to be surprising.

Ginny and Georgia began the season in the worst place the audience has seen them before but by the end, they seemed to have reached some sort of peace. How does this arrest potentially affect their relationship when Ginny processes that her mother has murdered yet another person?
Lampert: It's all very layered because we spent all of Season 1 breaking the relationships apart. We spent all of Season 2 slowly preparing the relationships. I agree, at the end of Season 2, we have Ginny giving this beautiful maid of honor speech and helping her mom get down the aisle, really being there for her mother. However, we also show that conversation that she has with Cordova at Blue Farm where he says, "If this happens again, part of this is on you. You're enabling this. You're protecting her. So if she does anything else, if she kills again, you're culpable." I think we see that come across Ginny's face as the cop cars are pulling away. She doesn't want her mom to go to jail. She doesn't want her mom to be taken away from her. At the same time, she is grappling with the fact of — should she? She doesn't know the facts of anything yet. She's just always had a deeper sense of morality and justice — a very different sense of justice than Georgia does. 

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The person I was most worried about in the finale was Austin. Ginny has a stable dad, a therapist, and a boyfriend that is very in the know about everything. Georgia was arrested for killing Austin's only friend's father. How worried do we need to be about that little kid? 
Lampert: Diesel does such a wonderful job of playing [Austin]…We see flashes of him being a very vulnerable little boy who is really hurt when his mom doesn't send his dad his letters and who wants to bond with both Zion and Paul. He is clearly looking for that father figure and is so excited when his dad shows up in town. We see this little boy, but at the same time, even more so than Ginny, we see instances of Austin really being his mother's son. Violence doesn't shake him. He stabs Zack in the hand with the pencil. He punches Zach in the face in Season 1. It's going to be really interesting to see who this little boy grows into, especially as he is witnessing all of this and going through all of this. 

I also want to talk about Ginny and Marcus because they make, what I thought, was a very mature decision not to be together at the end of the season, but it's obvious they still care for each other. How did you guys come to that resolution for them? 
Lampert: We really want the show to exist in a space where there's no right answer, there's no wrong answer. There's no good character, there's no bad character. Well, some bad characters, but these characters are really complex and they're really messy. Marcus is really struggling with a depressive episode and he can't be with anyone right now, but he's incapable of fully communicating that with Ginny. Max kind of helps her see what's going on with him more and she's able to really grow up a bit and be there for him. He's always been there for her during her mental illness struggles, so I think both of them really are a safe space for each other. They care so deeply about one another. 

For me, if we're going to tackle these serious issues, especially for our younger-skewing audience, it was really important to broach these hard topics in a responsible way and also in a way with hope. He does get back on his meds. He has a support system. There are structures set up in place for him because he has gone through this before. He kind of knows what he needs to do to heal. When dealing with depression and self-harm, we have a licensed therapist who reads every script and gives us notes. He also watches every cut and gives us notes, which was especially important in the Ginny therapy scenes to make those realistic. We also have Mental Health America weighing in on every episode, every script, every cut. We really, really wanted to handle all of these issues with care, but in a truthful way. 

On that note, I really like that it was Ginny who actively asked for help when she needed it rather than being caught self-harming and forced into help reluctantly. It was really powerful for her to have that agency. 
Lampert: Again, this is an instance where we really leaned into the experts that we work with…What would be a realistic and honest way to show this and it bringing her to a breaking point? I think she get to a point where she's really at her limit for how she feels. She scares herself so she goes to Zion and she's like, "Please. I need help." He's the one who gets her into therapy, which I love to see. I love to see, as a dad, he's stepping up for his daughter, which is great. Then ultimately, we did think it was important for Georgia to find out in the way she found out because that felt more true to their relationship. 

Then there's Joe. My biggest wish if there is a Season 3 is for Joe to have a better time than he's had. Can you talk about his arc this season and where you see him heading in the future?
Lampert: My dad is very mad about what we did with Joe this season. Joe is his favorite character. I love Joe. I would murder someone dead for Raymond Ablack. He's so phenomenal…It was really hard seeing that character so heartbroken all season and struggle. I also think that character had some growing up to do. He's always giving Ginny advice to be honest, to be truthful, and then he so rarely is. So when we saw him confront Georgia at the end of Season 2 and really be like, "What are we? Is this all in my head?" I thought it was a really, really powerful scene…There was just so much space created and all of these unanswered questions which I am not going to answer. I also love Joe this season try to put up strong boundaries. Georgia doesn't understand boundaries and doesn't respect them, but we saw him try. 

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Joe does ask if she ever thought about them together and are there feelings there, and Georgia doesn't really answer the question. As a writer, what did you think was going through Georgia's head in that moment?
Lampert: It's an eventful night for Georgia when Joe decides to broach this confrontation. What Georgia doesn't realize is what Joe could potentially bring to the table as a romantic partner. Paul represents everything that she's trying to prove to herself. She doesn't really feel deep down that she deserves this life. A word that was brought up a lot this season was "damaged." Georgia has internalized this feeling that she is damaged and that she does not deserve a good life. Part of the reason that they came to Wellsbury is because she wanted to give this life to Ginny. Another reason is that she has this unhealed childhood trauma and she wants to prove to herself that she deserves this...Paul represents to her a piece of her that she feels is missing and a validation that she can be successful. He can provide her with this good life for her and the family. It's not that Joe wouldn't have given her that, but I think she's so blinded by what Paul is offering that even though she has a really deep emotional connection with Joe, it's just not something she explored. 

Speaking of Paul, he did a pretty stunning thing by decided to marry Georgia after her massive confession. How might this arrest impact their relationship? He seemed like he was at his limit. 
Lampert: Paul has some of the most fun character arcs this season. Scott Porter did such a beautiful job…He really did bring in that stability to a season of madness. He really brought a grounding to the Miller household that I think was necessary. He has these layers and ultimately, kind of always surprises us. When he proposes after he found out she slept with Zion, when he learns about [Georgia's past] and he marries her anyway. It was a very conscious decision not to show Georgia coming around the corner at her wedding and instead show Paul's face and then reveal her standing there. Paul really loves her. That's really real. Ha she reached a breaking point? I think that we would need to be explored in Season 3. 

Ginny & Georgia Season 2 is now streaming on Netflix.