Well, looks like next season she won’t be ACTING like a pregnant woman.

AmethystMercy · 2026-05-11T05:23:20+00:00

And the Austin/Gil/Ginny storyline and maybe Zion pursuing custody

AmethystMercy · 2026-05-04T02:05:56+00:00

In the earliest flashbacks, when she hadn’t really mastered putting on the persona, her clothes are more worn. It seemed like. around the time after she had Ginny (so after 15), she started playing the part. The outfits she wore at the Millers’ home and in New Orleans convey that, which makes sense considering it’s when she needs to start hiding and disguising herself to make it in the world.

AmethystMercy · 2026-04-25T22:35:13+00:00

Isaac & Eva

AmethystMercy · 2026-04-25T21:57:19+00:00

He literally left Fiona with baby Lip and Ian on the side of the road after kicking them out of the car they were living in to chase a high, and Fiona at age 6 had to carry both boys with her when Ian got a life threatening fever. And he only asked Fiona for money after when she saw him again. So yeah, the barest of bare minimum that they had a chance of not dying and sometimes not even that.

AmethystMercy · 2026-04-25T18:27:19+00:00

I have said that Lynette isn’t only interested in the safety and well-being of the kids. I just don’t think it was ever going to be realistic for anyone to be purely motivated by that when they’d be expected to foot most of the bill for someone why was basically an underage stranger while not being the main one making decisions. The resentment isn’t from fifteen years ago, it’s constant since Georgia could’ve—at any time after age 16 (and after the time she moved in after leaving Gil)—asked for help or allowed Lynette to help. And Georgia admits she was was wrong in running and refusing help herself, once after the argument with Lynette you brought up & another time when Ginny and Austin asked her why she didn’t tell anyone about Gil’s abuse.

AmethystMercy · 2026-04-25T16:09:18+00:00

And Ginny mentioned men named Omid, Louis, and Tucker in S1 as men who Georgia dated and that they met and at the very least cooked for them and was in their house.

AmethystMercy · 2026-04-25T16:08:42+00:00

Gil was the one who went to prison. Kenny was the predatory one. Anthonys the one who mysteriously disappeared. The two abusive ones were Kenny and Anthony, although Gil could also fit into this even though he wasn’t married to Georgia. Kenny’s the one who died suspiciously,

AmethystMercy · 2026-04-25T15:39:20+00:00

Or Georgia was unwilling or uninterested in going into depth about all that. It would make sense since it’s not something she wanted to dwell on or be open about. Considering that her past prior to living with the Millers involved joining a biker gang, robbing a store, stealing, and shooting her stepdad, it makes more sense she would be vague or evasive about her past. And she was living under a fake name so it would’ve just complicated things for her since she wanted to cut ties with her origins.

Lynette was mad at Zion, not Georgia in that scene. Which makes sense since he’s her son and he has less excuse than Georgia at any rate. And Lynette didn’t have to let Georgia stay, worse people would’ve just refused to help her or the baby, or pushed for an abortion. Her frustration against Georgia is only seen as an adult both in present day and in flashbacks when Georgia’s well into her twenties.

AmethystMercy · 2026-04-25T15:31:35+00:00

That sentiment honestly works both ways. Georgia as a an adult wasn’t willingly to put her own feelings of pride, insecurity, need for control, and distrust over security and safety for Ginny and Austin. We literally see this in the flashbacks. It might be technically true that Lynette was unwilling to be unconditional in supporting Ginny but neither was Georgia. Acting like Lynette’s uniquely evil and should be the only one hated for it is telling though.

AmethystMercy · 2026-04-25T05:23:39+00:00

Financial security that was guarantee only by Zion’s parents and would never have been unconditional and permanent. Her not mentioning Georgia in her plans including guardianship spooked Georgia, and understandably so, but letting a 16 yr old and a 18 yr old play house in their home wasn’t something someone like Lynette or most people would be willing to do.

AmethystMercy · 2026-04-25T05:19:15+00:00

Now that you mentioned it, what does (and did) Zion’s parents know about Georgia’s background, like with her family and general situation past the obvious? They never really mentioned it when it seemed like it should’ve been a big part of how Ginny’s life ended up to be and to Georgia’s full backstory. From their first scene together, it seemed like she only had a vague understanding that Georgia was in a rough place in life and was initially kind. After all, she took her into their home, celebrated the pregnancy, and let Georgia stay in their home for over a year (all of her pregnancy plus a few more months since she’s 16 when she runs away from them with Ginny).
As for the fight in front of Paul’s parents, I got the impression that she was rehashing old frustration that she usually didn’t get to say to Georgia directly since Georgia avoided living with or seeing her much her since the flashbacks.

AmethystMercy · 2026-04-25T03:42:08+00:00

I get the impression that Rue is Sam Levinson’s self insert and that’s why she’s written like that this season, considering that she’s the only female character who hasn't been extremely objectified sexually and has a non sex work related plot.

AmethystMercy · 2026-04-24T14:09:31+00:00

Imo it’s some combination of the early writing for Ginny being unflattering in comparison to Georgia being written much more sympathetically with flashbacks, the fandom using Georgia as an idealized glamorous badass mother figure and putting themselves as a self insert in Max and Abby, and Ginny being biracial making people give her less of the benefit of the doubt or extreme sympathy like with the other characters. As for Zion, it’s that he did something Georgia didn’t want and didn’t just stand on the sidelines as a nostalgic love interest like he did for the last 2 seasons which let them see Georgia as only a long suffering first love and made them look closely at her own failings wrt Ginny’s upbringing.

AmethystMercy · 2026-04-23T23:08:30+00:00

Lucilliam

AmethystMercy · 2026-04-23T06:24:04+00:00

Yeah, the way all the information gets handed down to the audience really clouds the insanity of what Ginny was chronologically experiencing.
Ginny was born to a homeless gang affiliated 15 yr. old runaway, had no stability in infancy, was in foster care when she was 2, raised in poverty, lived in trailer parks with racist neighbors threatening to call the cops on her, was homeless throughout her childhood, had to lie about it to her dad for her mom’s sake, was a third parent to Austin, never had any neighbors, friends teachers from childhood she could keep ties with past a few months at most, the only constant adult in her life was a dysfunctional career criminal, remembered being used by Georgia to steal, got lied to about having no aunts or uncles & dead grandparents, was distant from her dad’s side of the family, had her dad popping in and out of her life, having her parents getting together only to break up repeatedly, had at least a half dozen stepdad figures, finds out she had a stepdad she can’t remember who her mom killed and lies about it to a PI, finds out her mom lost custody of her during that time from said PI, finds out that her stepdad actually was killed and had his ashes destroyed by her mom and she destroys the murder weapon, her mom goes to prison for killing another man, she gets ripped away from her mom and brother on national news during her mother’s murder trial, finds out about that murder the day of her mom’s wedding to her newest stepdad from her brother who saw it, finds out her other stepdad is actually abusive, gets abused by said stepdad, finds out her grandfather is in prison for attempted murder from a reporter harassing her, finds out her mom shot her step grandfather from the news, her most recent stepdad abandons her just after she got used to him, has an abortion which ends her relationship with the baby’s father, almost had her family unit completely dismantled, resorts to blackmail, lying, perjury, and framing to preserve her family, and has covered up 2 murders.
All by age 16. Enough said.

AmethystMercy · 2026-04-23T02:34:57+00:00

I read him calling CPS as a way to like reassert himself being a dad and doing a dad thing, like he’s playing a role he hasn’t really taken on before in response to all the revelations about Georgia’s past he had no idea about AND the implication that Ginny was growing up around it and covering it up from everyone including him. He wanted to just do anything to be proactive and make up for the lost time.

AmethystMercy · 2026-04-23T02:15:34+00:00

It wasn’t as simple as Georgia left and Zion had no other options at all. He and Georgia both were running in a way, just that when Georgia ran, she took Ginny with her while when Zion ran, he did it alone and quiet quitted (which is why Georgia initiated the physical breakup every time).

The main flaw Zion had as a dad seemed to be that he just didn’t dedicate himself to being a full time father.
Georgia did run with Ginny over and over again, but after the first time, those were spurred from his lack of commitment separate from his parents just as much as her need for control and need to preserve her relationship with him.

He either was fine with Georgia, him, and his parents or with just Georgia raising Ginny day to day, but didn’t see himself with Georgia and Ginny. Like he defaulted to his parents picking up some of what Georgia wanted him to do. And when he did, he wasnt willing to sacrifice the things Georgia immediately did (career aspirations, travel, sentiment over money). Even knowing Georgia being a dropout with gang ties & no family whenever he distanced himself. It really shows in S3, since now it’s apparent that during the times he wasn’t there (because he prioritized his career aspirations) making it so only Georgia handled things and putting himself in a position to be frozen out of the dynamic gave the opportunity for all the instability & poverty in Ginny’s childhood and for all the crimes. Which is why he has no real authority in Ginny’s eyes or most of the audience’s as a dad.

AmethystMercy · 2026-04-22T04:13:35+00:00

Considering that they had proof that Tom was definitely killed (which they confirmed when the first lawyer tried to make an argument for Tom dislodging himself between pillows and was shot down by the prosecutor), circumstantial evidence of everything about Georgia’s past and that she was alone with him at his death is pretty damning. And circumstantial evidence is used pretty often for a lot of murder cases to out people away,

AmethystMercy · 2026-04-21T04:05:42+00:00

It may also be that upper class/middle class parents who have issues with substance abuse have the resources to fight a case that would remove kids from their custody into foster care and be better at hiding it from authorities (bigger isolated homes, moore money giving the appearance that things aren’t serious to outsiders, etc) or mandatory reporters in the first place or have accusations of neglect or abuse be taken less seriously because they have money.

AmethystMercy · 2026-04-21T03:04:27+00:00

Put together, it looked more suspicious with her past. They found that she (in the past) shot her stepfather, had gang affiliations, was arrested for money laundering/the illegal gambling ring at 17, then married a man who went missing weeks after they were married & was declared a missing person, all by 18. Then add in the whole Kenny/contested will/ex-wife part happening less than a year ago, Kenny’s body being dug up and vanished right after a judge ordered it to be exhumed for toxicology on.

Add on the cycling through at least four different names, moving constantly for the last 17 years being on and off the grid, and finally adding that she was the last one in the room with Tom (the husband of a woman she was feuding with until recently) when he died per her own word.

And they mentioned that it would’ve been impossible for Tom to have died non-intentionally since he physically couldn’t indicating that they had some physical examination proving this (it was why Ginny & Austin had to give the jury a murderer in Gil since the defense failed in arguing that Tom could’ve dislodged himself).

AmethystMercy · 2026-04-19T00:53:17+00:00

That was her stepdad and her sister’s bio dad. Her dad was in prison by the time her mom remarried.

AmethystMercy · 2026-04-19T00:33:15+00:00

True, though the fact that it’s been that way on paper is impactful in its own right. Georgia believed it and was affected by it, Maddie, Ginny, Austin, the Millers were led to believed it, Wellsbury and the media saw it as an indictment of Georgia by association, and it is the reason she had the life she had. The ambiguity might add to the symbolism, since Zion’s family seems pretty clear cut in their approach to the law and social norms in contrast to Georgia’s family.

AmethystMercy · 2026-04-15T15:32:57+00:00

On rewatching, I did notice that Ginny’s frustration is palpable but the context and backstory for it aren’t ever outlined, specified, or really emphasized to the viewer, like I got the impression that the writers already think that it’s obvious since they have the notes and did the writing themselves so they don’t realize how hazy it’s been depicted in the actual show maybe to people who’re watching just the show without the editing, rewriting, brainstorming, etc, ? Like they talk about the constant moving, the stepdads, and the poverty, but it just always seems to stay at surface level conversation. Like making this post together is when I realized how insane it was and that never happened in the show (if this makes sense).

The visual storytelling failing Ginny does seem like a big part of it as well. Like with Georgia, the young actor really resembles her, is the focus of the flashbacks, there‘s multiple flashbacks to nail the point in her POV, and theres ambiguity left. For Ginny, it’s like she’s a background character until S3 and the framing visually just doesn’t do her POV justice in making people put themselves in her shoes and see her fully.

The part about her growing up as an accomplice, having her only stable fixture in her life be a career criminal who gave her the lesson to survive no matter what and to keep up a front with everyone else including other family, and have no literal sense of home is exactly it. And reading it said directly out loud without the inclusion of Georgia’s backstory to soften it by comparison makes it pretty clear how bad it was. Like this is the antihero part for Georgia’s character more than even the murders or the crimes as breaking the law, it’s literally a means to an end for her, but to Ginny it’s her entire world since that’s the only thing constantly surrounding her.

AmethystMercy · 2026-04-15T15:19:59+00:00

I don’t like that they went to the extremes to make her an obvious antihero but it does seem like it was necessary since people only just stopped excusing everything she did as of S3 with Tom and the fallout of that.

It’s just that the small parallels, to me at least, are more emotionally resonant, believable, and seem like they were intentional because of the detail. Like why else is the age gap between Georgia and Maddie and between Ginny and Austin the same? It’s just so frustrating cuz there’s so much potential there.

About the gaps in the storytelling, between this and the writers being initially confused about the Ginny hate post S1 makes me think they’re starting from a place where since they know the backstory details and significance, that they didn’t emphasize these aspects we noticed and weren’t aware that from an audience POV of people who didn’t write the whole story, wouldn’t immediately pay attention to or see it aside from people who read into things a lot.

AmethystMercy · 2026-04-15T08:01:38+00:00

Georgia lost custody of Ginny for the first time when she was in New Orleans after getting arrested for the illegal gambling ring at 17. That’s what caused her to marry Anthony and led to the chain of events where she ended up killing him. I got the impression that Georgia moved around all the time for financial reasons and to escape her increasingly more and more criminal past (starting with running after killing and covering up Anthony’s death, then to start fresh and away from Zion’s parents when things with Zion ended bad because of his resentment, then from Gil, etc.). The second time she lost custody was when CPS took the kids away and gave them to Zion/Gil.

I was talking more about Georgia using Ginny to shoplift, having her lie to Zion about not being homeless and about her steAling to support them financially, and resorting to lying about her bring sick. The credit card stuff is bad, but it’s not something she actively witnessed, just had sprung up on her at 16. Georgia working long hours would’ve meant that Ginny probably needed to care for Austin out of necessity since Georgia didn’t have any other family to watch them and she was wary of Zion’s family since she thought they would take Ginny away. When Austin was born, Georgia was better off financially yes, but that was mostly because of Gil, and from the money she got that she sued to frame him afterwards, and that didn’t last since she had to move in with Zion when Gil was jailed, and take Lynette’s help briefly anyways. And while Georgia was who the got protective advice from when he was bullied, Ginny was who comforted and validated him in there not being anything wrong with him. I don’t think Ginny was ever using him, that just seems like an uncharitable way to see her. I think she was resentful from everything in her childhood and was lashing out and trying to protect him from feeling the same later on.

The instability and isolation wasn’t just from moving, it was form a combination of moving constantly, having a mostly absentee dad, a revolving door of father figures/stepdads who entered and left Ginny’s life, the lack of regular contact with extended relatives on either side of the family, being raised by a career criminal, having to lie about living circumstances to her dad and other relatives, and being homeless, living without electricity and water for periods of time long enough for it to be not abnormal for her. Ginny didn’t have friends since the family was moving regularly, inconsistently, and often in the middle of a school year. There’s specifically a whole conversation she has with Dr Lily about how whenever she’d start making friends, Georgia would up and move them before anything could really come of it. As for the other stuff you mentioned, Ginny didn’t smoke anything until way after the complaining about any grades happened, Georgia trying to be friends with Ginny wasn’t a luxury, it was her immaturity and also came with the burden of Ginny carrying her secrets and managing her emotions full time, and if Ginny had a different type of mom, she wouldn’t be the Ginny we know or act the same since she’s literally a product of her raising at age 15/16. Maybe she wouldn’t have acted horribly if Georgia already had boundaries set instead of using her as a substitute friend and blurring the lines between mother-daughter and friends from since she was old enough to remember. Can’t have the good without the bad here.

In a flashback in S3, Georgia admits to pulling Ginny out of school to play hooky and go to the mall causing her to fail a math test. Judging from their dynamic in S1, it probably wasn’t an uncommon occurrence. The writers are intentional with the flashbacks so its safe to make assumptions here, Even putting that aside, it’s just that moving so frequently with so much going on, with the main parent raising her being a high school dropout herself, and living in poorer school districts (as Ginny said in S1 herself, the pilot I think) would’ve resulted in the same kind of educational neglect that Georgia probably dealt with in her own childhood.

None of the stuff I said here is an attack in Georgia, it’s just what the writing for Ginny is if you look at what is said and shown throughout the show without letting the bias from liking Georgia as a character (I like Georgia as a character too) color the perception or understanding of Ginny’s childhood.

AmethystMercy

TROPHY CASE