Content warning: This post includes discussion of domestic violence and child molestation. Welcome back to Wellsbury, because Season 2 of Ginny & Georgia is finally on Netflix. It’s been almost two years since Season 1 premiered, which means you might need a recap of what went down in the first season. Spoiler warning: Spoilers for Season 2 of Ginny & Georgia follow. Many of the major plot points centered around Georgia’s partners, a theme that continued into Season 2 — and I say “many” because as of the Season 2 finale, I’ve counted six men that have a history with Georgia.
Yes, you read that right — six. It can honestly be hard to keep track of Georgia’s romantic past as you watch the show, but don’t worry, because I’ve rounded them all up here. This is every man that we know is a major love interest for Georgia, in (mostly) chronological order.
Zion
We know Zion! We love Zion! Zion is Ginny’s biological father, who gets a bigger role in the beginning of Season 2 when Ginny and Austin run away from Georgia to stay with him for a while. Since Ginny found out about Georgia killing Kenny (more on him later), she turns to Zion instead. He ends up helping Ginny a lot throughout the season, especially when it comes to things Georgia can’t understand as a white woman, like Ginny being singled out by her racist teacher to bring a book on the “African-American experience” to her AP English class.
Zion and Georgia have the main on-again, off-again relationship in Season 1 — they were basically each other’s first loves when Georgia got pregnant with Ginny at age 15. They still definitely have a spark (I mean, he still calls her “peach” after all this time). However, since Georgia is engaged in Season 2, Zion seems to have taken a step back from Georgia and has even introduced a new romance in his life with a lawyer named Simone. It seems that the show is setting them up for a successful co-parenting relationship where they still mean a lot to each other, but may not be right together as a couple in the long run.
Joe
I’ll be honest, I can’t really tell if Joe comes before or after Zion? I’m putting him after since his flashbacks start showing up after Zion’s in Season 1. Anyway! Joe is the owner of Blue Farm Café in Wellsbury, though he also owns an actual farm. He meets Georgia as a teenager at a gas station while he’s on a school field trip, and tells her all about the town he’s from: Wellsbury. He also gives her his sandwich and his sunglasses, the latter of which end up being the thing that help Joe eventually remember Georgia from his past. She kept them all this time, and even moved to the town he told her about — coincidence? I think not.
What’s more, in the flashback, Joe tells Georgia about wanting to own horses, and Georgia says she used to have an imaginary horse named Milkshake. So imagine Georgia’s surprise when Joe’s farm in the present includes a horse named… you guessed it. Milkshake even makes a reappearance in the Season 2 finale: Joe lends the horse to Ginny so she can escort Georgia to her wedding to Paul. That probably doesn’t bode well for Joe and Georgia having any kind of concrete future.
In so far as Ginny & Georgia takes cues from Gilmore Girls (the mother and daughter that are close in age and more like best friends, the small New England town setting), Joe and Georgia is the closest we get to a Luke and Lorelai situation. However, Ginny & Georgia is absolutely a different kind of show — hence, you know, all the murder — so it seems like these two probably won’t have the same happy ending. And anyway, Joe spent part of this season hooking up with Cynthia, Georgia’s once-enemy. Messy!
Anthony
Anthony Green is Georgia’s first husband, and also her first murder victim. Ginny was a baby when Georgia was married to Anthony, so he comes after Zion and probably Joe, but before Gil… I think.
Gabriel, the private investigator hired to take Georgia down for Kenny’s murder, finds out that Anthony is officially listed as a missing person, but we know from flashbacks that Georgia did poison and kill him — she just didn’t mean to, as she tells Ginny. She married him after losing custody of Ginny for running an illegal poker ring, in order to prove to the authorities that she’s responsible enough to get back her child. Anthony gets controlling, however, leading to Georgia feeling like she has no other option but to run.
Gabriel wants to pin Anthony’s murder on Georgia, but he doesn’t actually have any evidence as of right now. That said, with Georgia getting arrested in the Season 2 finale for the murder of Cynthia’s husband, Tom, it’s probable that this history with Anthony might come back into play in Season 3 if Georgia is taken to trial.
Gil
Gil gets the bulk of flashbacks this season. He’s the biological father of Austin, Ginny’s younger half-brother, and he’s been away in prison until this point for embezzling funds from his workplace. Remember that Season 1 plotline where Georgia hid Austin’s letters to Gil instead of sending them and then Ginny found out and sent them for real? We know Georgia got mad about that, but we didn’t really know why until Gil gets free and decides to show up in Wellsbury.
Georgia began dating Gil when Ginny was young, thinking he was just a regular guy with a stable, well-paying job. She finds out later that he’s a criminal and is able to make so much money because he writes fake invoices. Gil eventually becomes abusive toward Georgia, who finds out she’s pregnant with Austin. She decides to write out a check to herself from Gil’s company for $100,000, which ends up getting Gil caught for all his crimes and sent away to prison. Now he wants revenge.
Gil’s main motive this season for returning is to threaten Georgia and blackmail her into stealing money for him from Paul’s wealthy family. However, he does also appear to actually love his son and want to be in his life again. Georgia eventually tells Paul about her history with Gil, and Paul threatens Gil with legal action, leading to him being taken away by police at the end of the season. Something tells me he’ll be coming back, though — I doubt he’d give up that easy.
Kenny
Everyone knows Kenny because the show’s central premise hinges on his death. Kenny is Georgia’s second husband, and it’s revealed during Season 1 that he was a sleazy stepfather to Ginny, having molested her while she was doing yoga. When Georgia finds out, she kills him by giving him a drink with poisonous wolfsbane in it. She then takes Ginny and Austin on the run from Texas all the way to Wellsbury, Massachusetts, the show’s main setting.
However, she can’t outrun the consequences forever: Gabriel is hired by Kenny’s ex-wife, Amber Lynn, to look into Georgia because she doesn’t want her to have access to the money in Kenny’s will. Gabriel can’t find enough evidence to pin Kenny’s murder on Georgia, but his lurking around Wellsbury (and pretending to be a third grade teacher named Jesse who ends up dating Georgia’s coworker Nick) is definitely unsettling for the Miller family.
Paul
Paul Randolph is the mayor of Wellsbury (and for my fellow Friday Night Lights fans, he’s played by Scott Porter, aka Jason Street). Georgia gets a job working in his office in Season 1, but sparks soon fly between the two of them despite the differences in how they grew up. Paul is kept in the dark about pretty much all of Georgia’s past, and ends up falling in love with her, leading them to get engaged by the end of Season 1.
In Season 2, Paul moves in with the Millers and continues his work as mayor, with Georgia often helping solve issues in the town (though they argue about her involvement because she tends to make announcements on his behalf without his permission, like, a lot). Paul also hopes to become a real father figure to Austin, considering who his biological dad is.
For most of the season, Georgia is insecure about the class differences between her and Paul’s rich parents. She also doesn’t want Paul to find out about her past crimes, since she’s afraid he’d leave her if he knew. Gil knows this, and uses it to threaten Georgia, but Ginny manages to convince her to just come clean, after they establish a backup plan to run to Lake Powell in Utah if it all goes south. Paul is obviously shocked and angry, but he seems to bounce back pretty quickly when Georgia finally tells him about Gil’s threat.
Paul eventually learns the truth from Georgia about most of her crimes, though — importantly — not the murder of Tom, which gets her arrested at their wedding in the Season 2 finale. Paul tells Georgia he’ll get his lawyers involved, but the poor guy doesn’t know that Georgia really is guilty. This happens after the two of them are already legally married, so it looks like Paul is in this for the long haul, whether he wants to be or not.
So there you have it — six men in Georgia’s life, and each one brings more mess than the last. One thing’s for sure; Ginny & Georgia may be confusing to keep up with at times, but it’s never boring.