Note: This story contains spoilers from “Ginny & Georgia” Season 3, Episode 10.
As “Ginny & Georgia” Season 3 put Antonia Gentry’s Ginny through the ringer with her Georgia (Brianne Howey) sits on trial for murder, Sara Waisglass’ Maxine wants nothing more than to be there for Ginny, but finds that her advances aren’t well-received, to say the least.
While Maxine and Ginny make up one half of friend group M.A.N.G., which also includes Abby (Katie Douglas), who goes through her own coming out journey in Season 3, and Norah (Chelsea Clark), who struggles with shifting alliances in the wake of the murder trial, Maxine finds herself on the outside looking in as Ginny, Abby and Norah bond as a trio.
“I really don’t think Max did anything wrong — I think she tried to love to the fullest of her ability, tried to be there for Ginny as best as she could,” Waisglass told TheWrap. “There’s only so far you can go alone. With a good friendship, you have to meet each other halfway, and I don’t think Ginny had the emotional capacity to meet Max there.”
“It’s hard to be a teen girl,” showrunner Sarah Glinski told TheWrap, noting that the friends in M.A.N.G. are all very different. “Navigating the complexity of that friendship, I think it’s really real and true to the high school experience.”
“I love all those characters, but I will say, you see comments [that are like], ‘M.A.NG. is toxic,’ and your response is, ‘yeah, definitely,’” series creator Sarah Lampert said. “I love their friendship, but, yeah, it’s realistic.”
In typical Maxine fashion, she is desperate to bring up the shifting dynamics to Ginny and her friends, though her mom, Ellen (Jennifer Robertson) warns her it’s not a good idea. Maxine does it anyways during a party in the Season 3 finale, leading to a spiky conversation between herself and Ginny, in which Ginny tells Max “maybe we just grew apart a little bit.”
“Ginny’s not trying to hurt Max’s feelings — she’s genuinely not angry with Max,” Lampert said, explaining that Ginny’s experiences this season have prompted her to build such strong boundaries that she can’t take on other people’s problems in the same way that she used to. “It’s growth for [Ginny], but in doing that, it might be a little bit of an overcorrect, because then we have the insight of Max’s head, which Ginny does not have, where Max has felt so hurt, left out and just wants her friends and her to be OK … It’s two characters who are really trying to connect and be OK with each other, completely missing the mark.”
On top of dramatic friendship rifts, Max also faced strife in her romantic life as she becomes re-entangled with her ex, Sophie, while in the school musical as she and Silver drift apart — especially when she realizes Silver has been supplying alcohol to her brother, Marcus, who’s been struggling with his drinking this season, putting Max in the middle of yet another tough situation.
While Waisglass praised Max’s vulnerability to everyone in her circle, she hopes Max realizes that being left out from M.A.N.G. has less to do with her than with the contentious situation in which her friends find themselves, saying “I hope that she doesn’t take it personally.”
“I’ve always been on the Max self-love journey, and I think it’s confusing to some people, because when they see Max, they think, ‘Oh, that’s someone who loves herself deeply,’” Waisglass said. “But I do think that Max’s boisterous energy and extreme love for the world and her friends does come from a place of insecurity, and it comes from a place of wanting to make other people happy and pleasing other people before she pleases herself.”
“Max cares so deeply about the people that she loves, and my dream for her is one day they all appreciate that in terms of growth for the character and growth for the friendship, they see that everything she does comes from such a good place,” Glinski said.
“Ginny & Georgia” Season 3 is now streaming on Netflix.
The post ‘Ginny & Georgia’ Star Sara Waisglass, Creator Talk Max’s Tough Season 3 Moments and What Happens Next appeared first on TheWrap.