It’s A Face Not A Mask
Episode 2 of Ginny & Georgia begins with Georgia waking up Ginny at 5am with an emergency. She has a hair right on her chin and wants Ginny to help pluck it. At school, Ginny continues to feel like an outsider. In her own words, she’s “too black for the white kids and too white for the black kids” so she never really fits in. Except that’s immediately challenged when a girl called Bracia invites her to a meeting on Thursday. She even encourages Ginny to come and hang out with her friends – which she rejects. In class, Ginny receives a 100% on her most recent exam too. Georgia arrives at the Mayor’s office ready to work. Checking her online banking, she notices some serious issues with her accounts. City Planning won’t approve a new AC unit for Green Gardens either, which is the big drama at the office at the moment. Georgia offers to help but Nick see right through this façade and calls her out for trying to cozy up to Paul. At school, Austin is made star of the week but Zach, the boy whose been bullying him, is not happy. Zach is picked up by Ginny at school who heads to the shop and collects the pill. After her night with Marcus, she wants to be fully prepared if anything untoward happens. Austin prepares for the star of the week accolade, showing up at school with letters written from her Father in jail. Elsewhere, Maxine and Ginny prepare for movie night. Only, Georgia knows they’re not going to the movies and encourages Ellen to check through Instagram to spy on their daughters. It turns out Ginny and the others have gone to Brodie’s basement to smoke weed. With a fake profile, Ellen learns what Maxine is doing and is shocked to see. Ginny heads home after an evening of smoking and talking about pop culture, breaking the news to Georgia about everything she’s been doing – minus the sex. That evening, Ginny sits in her darkened room and begins burning herself with a lighter. After school the next day, Ginny heads out with Maxine’s group (noticeably without Maxine present) where the girls all begin shoplifting. They’re caught out for it though by the shop owner. As Georgia shows up, Ginny outright admits to stealing but Georgia spins this into a race issue. With the situation resolved thanks to some light manipulation, they head out for lunch at Sam’s diner. Georgia reminds Ginny that those girls are not her friends. To teach her the value of money, she encourages Sam to let Ginny work with him on the weekends. Georgia next turns her attention to Paul, finding out where Mayor Paul is at the weekend and bringing her kids along for a spot of lawn bowling. Stirring things up further, Georgia tries to make Paul turn against Cynthia. That evening, Marcus shows up to check on Ginny. She bemoans being one of seven black kids at school and begins crying as no one cares about the planet. Marcus softly asks whether it’s her first time and after a kiss, she eventually kicks him out. As we jump back to the past, we see Georgia heading out on the road with Zion. Georgia stops by a store and pulls a gun on the owner. Georgia then heads back to her abusive ex-partner and shoots him in the hand. As we jump back to the present, we see that Georgia has been the one writing these messages to Austin all this time. As more of the past starts to catch up to Georgia, Kenny’s relatives get close to finding out the truth about Georgia. Georgia’s real name is Mary and she’s lived off the grid for several years. She’s taken Zion’s name but they were never really married. Gil Timmons is in prison for fraud and embezzlement. With the PI heading up to Wellsbury in the not-too-distant future, he promises to dig up dirt and make sure Georgia doesn’t get any money.
The Episode Review
Episode 2 brings up more issues about race, with Ginny claiming at the start that she’s “too white for the black kids” and being left out by the other girls. Yet in that exact same breath, she blows off Bracie numerous times when she encourages her to come and hang out. It’s a little contradicting to be honest, painting Ginny to be a self-made victim as she instead finds herself caught up with the wrong crowd. She’s actively embracing the shoplifters despite their questionably racist comments. Elsewhere, we’ve got Georgia who seems like she’s been on the move now for a long time and could potentially be a wanted woman. After shooting a man in the hand and presumably stealing money from the cash register, it seems like Georgia may even have an arrest warrant against her. It’s a nice twist in truth and one that hopefully adds a bit more dimension to her character beyond the “cool Mum” front she’s been putting on. There’s definitely some nice moments in here though but so far the show hasn’t quite crackled as well as it perhaps could. Let’s hope that changes going forward!
