With the summer coming to an end, the new episodes of Season 3, The Summer I Turned Pretty, brought viewers back to Cousins Beach one last time. In this season, engagements come and go, broken-hearted Belly flees the country, and an old flame burns bright again!
The season opens with lovebirds, Belly Conklin and Jeremiah Fisher, beginning the school year at Finch college. Belly is a freshman, eager to find her place and excited to spend the next year with the love of her life, Jeremiah, and her best friend from home, Taylor.
Jeremiah, financially-dependent frat boy and Belly’s love interest, is entering his senior year. Although all is well at Finch, Stanford University houses the still broken-hearted Conrad Fisher, brother of Jeremiah and past partner of Belly. While his main focus is to study medicine, Conrad’s ulterior motive is getting as far away from the sweethearts as he can, afraid his own love will be too hard to suppress in Belly’s presence.
The first conflict occurs when Belly’s brother, Steven, gets injured from a car accident. He and Taylor, childhood best friend of Belly and the love of his life, were arguing when he was struck in his car by another vehicle. This jarring scene unites the characters for the first time this season as most of the them visit the hospital, eager to find news about their dear friend.
In these dire moments, the only thing running higher than emotions are the spirits of Jeremiah and Belly after Jeremiah decides to propose. He decides that life is too unpredictable to not express love in the most committed way. This sends Conrad, freshly fired from his medical internship, into the mental struggle that is prioritizing others over yourself, or the other way around.
However, Conrad is not the only disapproving opinion in the tight knit community. Laurel, Belly’s mother, and Adam, Conrad and Jeremiah’s father, are openly outraged at the announcement. This moment creates a rift between Laurel and Belly that remains for the majority of this season.
With the lack of support from family, Belly and Jere quickly turn to friends to help bring this big day to light. While quickly realizing the expenses and stressors of planning a wedding, Belly begins to work a lot and falls down a rabbit hole of doubt. However, with reassurance from Jeremiah and a new agreement from Adam to fund the wedding, Belly begins to slowly regain confidence.
With elegant changes to the wedding from Adam, the once intimate and casual wedding Belly once dreamed of becomes a country club, black tie event. As the wedding day quickly approaches, it becomes clear to Belly that this may be too much for her, and maybe, her love for Conrad is not as insignificant as she once thought.
When the wedding day arrives, Belly finally reveals to Jeremiah that her and Conrad spent last Christmas together and just last night, Conrad confessed that he was still in love with her. The intimate moment led to a vulnerable Jeremiah, who posed a question that would alter the rest of their relationship – does Belly still love Conrad?
In this scene, Belly admits that her love for Conrad will never fully go away. However, she pleads desperately that she loves Jeremiah “Jere” more, a feeling that he refuses to believe as the couple breaks up.
Freshman Laura Doyle gave insight on her opinions to this scene. She voiced, “I was very happy because I didn’t like Jeremiah. Although it was a very sad scene, I think it helped character development throughout the rest of the series.”
While Jeremiah and Belly chose to heal in different ways, they both stayed far away from Cousins, but more importantly, Conrad. Belly seized this time to live out her dream and go to Paris, while Jeremiah used this time to build something for himself. After the “wedding”, Adam cut off Jeremiah from the funds he had been relying on. With this new era of Jere, he becomes an accomplished and dedicated chef.
With Belly in Paris, her new everyday challenges seem to distract her from her broken engagement. Whether it is the language barrier, the inconsiderate roommates, or her bottom-of-the-barrel job, Belly is consistently problem solving in her new life. However, all her problems seem small when Conrad spontaneously appears at her doorstep. Belly’s feeling for him can’t help but reappear.
After a birthday dinner, tour of Paris, and an impromptu slow dance, Belly and Conrad both allow their true feelings to shine through. When the night begins to come to a close, Conrad professes his unconditional love for Belly and the feelings are at last mutual.
Jenny Han fast forwards many months and transitions into Belly and Conrad on their way to Cousins Beach. The character development and newfound peace in Belly shines through. Jenny Han states, “I think the beauty of it is, when she’s remembering herself, she’s remembering how much she loves him.”
During this final scene, HHS senior Libby Rogers described feeling “Happy with the outcome because I am team Conrad, but honestly upset that a show I have been watching for so long is over.”Many other fans like Libby are already mourning the end of this series, however rumors of a TSITP movie have begun to circulate.
