Spoilers ahead for The Summer I Turned Pretty.
In case you’ve been living under a rock, the series finale of The Summer I Turned Pretty (Amazon Prime’s most popular TV show to date) aired on Sept. 17 after three years running. As someone who read the books late in high school and experienced similar heartbreak to Belly’s, watching the show these past few years has been quite cathartic and healing for me.
The impact of the story, and the amount of “AGH!” moments, runs deep, so in honor of the show ending, let’s look back at Belly’s journey over these three seasons.
Season 1: ‘The summer I turned pretty’
When the first season came out, I binged it all in one sitting in my dad’s study, screaming at the TV, and at the time, as a junior-turning-senior in high school, I felt seen. I also had a huge Taylor Swift obsession at the time, and while it may have gone away, it showed me that any time Taylor Swift plays throughout the show, Belly’s thoughts and emotions usually align with the song.
The season opens with Belly Conklin, Steven (her brother), and Laurel (their mother) arriving at Cousins Beach for their annual summer vacation, visiting family friend Susannah Fisher and her two sons, Conrad and Jeremiah. We learn that Belly and the Fisher brothers are childhood friends—practically having grown up together, spending every single summer at the Fishers’ beach house from when they could walk. This year, Belly is turning sixteen, and thanks to validation from Susannah and the loss of her braces and glasses, she finally feels “pretty.”
From the very beginning, it is obvious that Belly is in love with Conrad, but it isn’t so obvious where Conrad’s feelings lie (until later on in the season, when he’s alone with her in his brother’s car, playing with her hair). Conrad’s feelings continue to become a focal point for the show, especially in the Fourth of July episode, where Conrad almost kisses Belly, but Jeremiah interrupts their moment by shooting a firework at the two of them.
“Belly, you don’t know the effect that you have on people.”
Conrad Fisher
Belly progresses through the season fighting her feelings for Conrad, and when Jeremiah eventually admits he has a thing for her, the two of them start hooking up as he promises to take her to the deb ball.
Eventually, it is revealed to Jeremiah that Susannah’s cancer has returned, and the odds of her getting better are not promising. During the deb ball, he leaves her on the floor as he disappears to process everything. Conrad steps in, and he and Belly dance together, but after the fact, everyone finds out that Susannah is sick again, and grief overwhelms both families.
In the final minutes of the last episode, Belly finds Conrad by the beach, and the two discuss their feelings for each other and share a kiss.
Season 2: It’s not summer without you
There is a one-year time jump at the beginning of the season, where it is revealed that Belly and Conrad have broken up, Susannah has passed, and the kids are not talking to each other.
“I was in love, Steven, like out of my mind in love, what was I supposed to do?”
Belly Conklin
Over the course of the season, through flashbacks, we see what happened and why Belly isn’t speaking to the boys. After hooking up with Jere and subsequently dumping him for Conrad, the two aren’t on speaking terms for the duration of Conrad and Belly’s relationship.
The love story between the end of the first season and the start of the second for Belly and Conrad is short-lived, but through Belly’s memories, we see pivotal moments throughout their relationship that become influential to the entirety of the story. Taking a look at these moments, we see long-awaited glimpses of wholesomeness and intimacy as the season moves along. However, with the conflict of Susannah growing more ill with her ongoing battle and eventual passing from cancer, we also see Conrad become more engulfed in his grief. This causes him to begin pulling away from Belly. This eventually leads to the two breaking up at prom.
At the beginning of summer after Steven’s graduation, Jeremiah breaks the no-contact rule with Belly to tell her that Conrad has gone missing, and the two somewhat repair their friendship while they track down Conrad at the summer house. Conrad then reveals that the house is put up for sale.
On an unrelated note, this season dives more into Steven’s interest in Taylor, Belly’s best friend, and the two became a fan-favorite to viewers, ship-wise.
In this season, there is one episode narrated by Jeremiah, revealing that he only really started to notice Belly after her glow-up the prior summer. In the midst of a bubbling love triangle, once it looks like things with Belly and Conrad are officially over, Belly starts to actually have feelings for Jeremiah as well.
Following the beloved house being put up for sale, the crew has a bittersweet yet celebratory farewell party. Belly gets super drunk and goes to the beach, where Conrad and she have a semi-honest conversation (as much as one can have when they’re drunk.) Belly says that she would have fought for their relationship, while Conrad just stands there, owning up to the fact that he emotionally abandoned their relationship after his mother’s death.
Fans were distraught over this exchange, with many making edits about the iconic interaction.
Belly drunk calls Laurel, who comes to Cousins and prevents the house from being sold so the boys can keep one of the last pieces of their mother alive.
Belly and Jeremiah work to bring Conrad back to Brown so he can pass his classes, and Conrad tells Steven that he never stopped loving Belly. However, after Jeremiah and Belly drop off Conrad, the two tour Finch together, and the build-up between the two of them explodes, and they kiss. Conrad sees it and emotionally shuts down. He plays it off by pretending that he isn’t hurt, coldly giving Belly his blessing to be with his brother, because he never wanted her (LIES). Unknown to Belly, the fact that Conrad lost his chance with her kills him.
Season 3: We’ll always have summer
This season took two years to complete and get on air due to the actor strike that happened, but the wait was worth it for fans as the season was expected to be a whopping eleven episodes.
This season jumps four years ahead: Belly is finishing her junior year of college, and Jeremiah is about to graduate. The two have been together all through college, and everything looks peachy keen. Meanwhile, Conrad is going to medical school out in California and has tried to move on from Belly, but is failing miserably.
Belly and Jeremiah go to a party together, and Belly overhears some of the girls talking about how Jeremiah hooked up with another girl a few months prior in Cabo. After hearing this, Belly subsequently breaks up with Jeremiah.
Steven and Taylor, who have been on-again off-again since they started college, have been secretly seeing each other despite both being in relationships, and while Steven is trying to tell Taylor that he is, in fact, still completely in love with her during a car ride, he gets into an accident.
Taylor and Belly get to the hospital, and Taylor calls Conrad, who helps get Steven the medical attention he needs. Jeremiah also comes to the hospital to support Belly, proposes to her, and she says yes. Here is where everyone started yelling at the screen: WHY would you say yes to a man who cheated on you, gave you a ring with zero karats, and proposed outside the hospital?
Telling the parents does not go well either, because both families are against the kids getting married young. Belly and Laurel’s relationship ends up being so strained with the wedding that Belly temporarily moves into the summer house.
We also get an episode from Conrad’s point of view this season, which tells us viewers that he did, in fact, love Belly before she ever turned “pretty.” This episode featured the infamous peach scene from the book, where Belly eats a peach in front of Conrad, and it becomes blatantly obvious to the viewer that this man is severely attracted to her.
Adam decides to support Belly and Jere’s wedding only if it is held at his country club, and while Jeremiah is ecstatic, Belly is not. Conrad also struggles with being around Belly and Jeremiah as a couple. Taken straight from the book, Conrad exclaims to readers, “I would rather have had someone shoot me in the head with a nail gun, repeatedly, than have to watch the two of them cuddling on the couch together all night.” (Chapter 35, Conrad, We’ll Always Have Summer)
During the bachelor/bachelorette parties, Conrad finds out that Jere cheated. This causes Conrad to confess his feelings to Belly on the beach, asking her why she would go through with a wedding that isn’t even like her. Belly denies that there ever was anything between the two of them, but once she is alone, she breaks down and cries.
For the viewer, we truly begin to see the doubt in Belly as soon as she cleans Conrad’s surf wound when “False God” plays for the second time in the series, and when Jeremiah decides to call off the wedding after he finds out about Conrad and Belly’s lingering feelings.
After the wedding blows up, Belly takes a plane to Paris, goes through a few life events, and decides to stay there, mostly because she is afraid to return home after the fallout with her family and the Fishers.
In the final episode, a year has passed since the events of Belly and Jere’s breakup, and Conrad comes to Paris to for her 22nd birthday while on his way to Brussels for a conference.
The two dance in the street on their way back to Belly’s place from a party, and they kiss and have sex. After their night together, the two of them have a hard conversation about their feelings. Conrad says his feelings for Belly have nothing to do with Susannah, and they never did: he always loved her. In her shock, she semi-rebuffs him and he leaves, but she chases him down, boards his train, and tells him that it was always him for her.
“Conrad, I choose you of my own free will. If there are infinate worlds, every version of me chooses you.”
Belly Conklin
The series ends with the two of them back together at the beach house in Cousins.
The summer i turned pretty: The movie
While the ending was good, for me it didn’t feel complete. Where was the wedding and the words “We are married. We are infinite” narrated by Belly? Everything in the third book, plus some new parts, had made it into the script except the wedding, but there was a note from Jenny in the credits that said, “Maybe we’ll meet again one summer in Cousins. Until then—”
Imagine my surprise when I woke up after falling asleep in class to see that a movie was in the works.
So while the show may be over, we do have a movie coming, which means we get more BONRAD!
Jenny Han, thank you so much for this story and the time you have spent bringing it to life. I can’t wait to see your truly finished work.
In the meantime, if you need to re-watch and cry all over again, or if you haven’t seen the show yet, go check out The Summer I Turned Pretty on Amazon Prime Video!