**Spoilers for The Summer I Turned Pretty ahead!**
The madness that was Belly Conklin’s engagement to curly-haired, golden retriever-esque Jeremiah Fisher is finally over. Conrad fans, you can breathe again, but don’t get too complacent. Belly is off to Paris, an ocean away from Cousins Beach and the Fisher brothers.
A trailer for The Summer I Turned Pretty (TSITP)’s last three episodes was released on Aug. 29, marking the end of summer and the start of a new chapter, some might say.
To the tune of the aptly titled “Anything Could Happen” by Ellie Goulding, we see Belly take her engagement ring off and embark on her Parisian adventure. This differs from the books, in which she goes to study abroad in Spain, but I quite like the City of Love for Belly — it suits her romantic outlook on life.
In the last seconds of episode eight, Belly sees Conrad from afar at the airport. Part of me hoped that Bonrad would end up going to Paris together, but we all knew that was never going to happen. The opening scene of episode nine resolves this cliffhanger as Belly very maturely ignores Conrad and walks onto the plane, despite the obvious moment of serendipity.
As for Conrad, he learns from his father that the wedding had been called off (He didn’t even know! My heart!), and agrees to go back and look after Jeremiah. Another banger, “Take Me Out” by Franz Ferdinand, joins the TSITP playlist, signifying Conrad’s renewed hope, or perhaps hope for another couple: Steven and Taylor.
While Jeremiah’s friends encourage him to drown his sorrows in beer and sex, Steven and Taylor agree to talk about their relationship later, when they are not babysitting Jeremiah or keeping Conrad away from the distraught ex-groom.
Laurel and Adam take care of the wedding cleanup, initially bickering about Kayleigh, Adam’s now girlfriend, and Laurel’s opposition to the wedding, but then laughing about the ridiculousness of their kids. At this time, no one in Cousins has heard from Belly. Jeremiah assumes that she is somewhere “curled up next to Con-rat,” but Steven and Taylor tell him that Conrad is at the Cousins beach house.
In Paris, Belly stumbles through French customs and discovers that she has missed the deadline to join the study abroad program. Taylor Swift’s “You’re On Your Own, Kid” carries her through the day. Although any anthem from Swift is an exciting addition, I feel like her songs hit harder when used sparingly.
Belly phones her mom, crying on the streets of Paris, and agrees to come home. Having watched the trailer, I assumed that she would change her mind. In a quintessentially French bistro, Belly loses her backpack and starts chasing it around the city, tracking the AirTag inside. Then comes my favorite song in this episode, “Les Jours Tristes” by Yann Tiersen, calling back to the 2001 French comedy-romance film Amélie.
Meanwhile, Jeremiah rejects Laurel’s comfort, and Steven rejects Conrad’s help. Back at the beach house, Jeremiah tells Taylor, “I don’t know what to do without her. I don’t know how to be. She’s everything.” Taylor encourages him to do some soul-searching and remove Belly from the center of his universe.
Still chasing her backpack, Belly is the fastest person on earth to figure out France’s public transportation system, and she ends up at a sketchy warehouse/nightclub. A British tourist called Gemma helps Belly get into the nightclub and introduces Belly to her friends. Here we meet the cute brunette who was taking Belly’s photograph in the trailer: Benito. Belly finds and attacks the thief of her bag, and the emotionally fraught ex-bride leaves the club with her new friends.
At the beginning of the episode, I was reminded that Steven still didn’t know about Jeremiah cheating on Belly in Cabo. His older brother energy surges when Taylor fills him in: “I have been cleaning up that guy’s tears for the past twenty-four hours, and he cheated on my sister with Lacie Barone? Who the f*** is Lacie Barone?”
However, this quickly segues into some prolonged eye contact between Taylor and Steven and finally a long-awaited kiss. They have a heart-to-heart talk, make their way to bed, and say they love each other while Lana Del Ray plays. Later, they laugh together and have fries and champagne, canoodling in the sheets.
Belly (or should I say Isabel?) has drinks with her new friends before leaving for the airport. She calls Jeremiah, who wants to stay together. Belly knows their time has passed, that she is “not the same person that she was before summer.” Jeremiah asks her not to (enter expletive) call him again. He takes his anger out on Conrad, telling him that Belly is across the Atlantic, thousands of miles away from both of them. With that, the episode ends.
But guess what? TikToks of Gavin Casalegno and Christopher Briney filming in Paris have surfaced, which means one or both male leads could join Belly in Paris. More than the letters exchanged between Conrad and Belly in the books, Belly could reconnect with one of her Fisher boys in the most romantic location possible.
Unfortunately, I have a bad feeling that the show will not provide a definitive ending. Perhaps we will see a glimmer of possibility for a future where Belly and Conrad are together, like a scene where they catch each other’s eye from afar and smile.
I think TSITP’s producers will emphasize Belly’s independence: her power over her own life. Like the Notre Dame Cathedral, she is rebuilding, finally learning to see herself outside the context of a Fisher boy.
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