The Amazon Prime TV series, “The Summer I Turned Pretty,” has taken the world by storm. It has become extremely popular, especially for young women. I have been watching since the first season and can confidently say it hooks you from the start.
The show follows a young girl, Isabel “Belly” Conklin, and two brothers, Conrad and Jeremiah Fisher. She has grown up with them since she was a baby, and she has been in love with Conrad for as long as she can remember. Then one summer, Jeremiah starts to notice how beautiful she is. Throughout the show, she goes back and forth between the boys, never really making a final decision until the end. There are spoilers throughout this article, so read with caution!
Now that the final episode came out this past Wednesday, I would like to share my “hot-take” about the show. Belly gets way too much hate. People who watch the show are constantly berating her on the internet, saying she is “stupid,” a “bad person,” and some are even calling her a “slut.” Yes, she does make some decisions that are not the best, but that does not mean she deserves all this slander.
In the first season of the show, she is only 15 years old. Belly was so young. She just wanted to be noticed, and she was finally starting to know that feeling. As much as she loved Conrad, he was pushing her away all summer long. When Jeremiah kissed her in the pool, she finally felt wanted and she liked the feeling of being desired because who wouldn’t, especially at such a young age.
However, those deep feelings for Conrad were still there. When Conrad finally wanted to be with her at the end of season one, of course, she was going to choose him. She was in love.
Conrad and Belly had a good relationship for about seven months. Throughout that time, they were also dealing with the fact that Conrad and Jeremiah’s mother, Susannah, was battling cancer. That pain gets to be too much for Conrad and he ends up breaking up with Belly. He did not want to take her down with his grief.
Belly did not know how bad it was getting with his mom because he would not tell her. She thought things were getting better. The passing of Susannah in season two is a huge plot line in the show and is another reason people like to hate on Belly.
I have heard people say that she was manipulating these boys while they were grieving, but she was grieving, too. Susannah was like a second mom to her and she loved Belly like her own daughter. At Susannah’s funeral, Belly made a scene and told Conrad to “go to hell.”
This probably wasn’t the best time to say that, but in her defense, she walked in on him being comforted by his ex girlfriend. Keep in mind this was only a couple weeks after they broke up. She is obviously going to be upset and confused. The grief of losing Susannah AND Conrad was too much for her to handle and she freaked out. A few months later, a lot of things go down in the show. Belly and Jeremiah rekindle their friendship, but he was still angry about her choosing Conrad in season one.
At the end of season two, however, they kiss and Conrad sees them. He, understandably, gets very upset with them. This is probably the hardest thing to justify when it comes to Belly, but she is not completely to blame. Jeremiah is also part of the problem. He knew how much Conrad loved her and continued to pursue her anyway. Eventually, Conrad tells Belly that he doesn’t love her anymore, and that he has moved on and it is okay to be with his brother. How was she supposed to know he was lying?
Season three features a huge time jump. Belly and Jeremiah have been together for four years. One Christmas, Belly goes to the family beach house and Conrad is there. They spend the day together, but nothing romantic happens between them. She doesn’t tell Jeremiah because she still has some feelings for Conrad. She knows that this is basically emotional cheating and it isn’t right.
As bad as this is, when Jeremiah finds out, instead of talking to her about it like an adult, he physically cheats on her TWICE. Now, one can argue that they were broken up, but the fight they had was not even that extreme. I wouldn’t think we were really broken up either. Once Belly finds out about this, she is extremely angry and sad. Then Jeremiah proposes to get her to forgive him and she says yes.
I am a firm believer that the only reason they do this is because they think it is what Susannah wanted for them. She always thought Belly would marry one of her boys and when she died, Jeremiah felt the need to fulfill her dream. Conrad had spent the last four years loving Belly in silence. When he finds out about the wedding, he is sad but wants to be there for his brother, so he keeps it in.
After the bachelor party, Conrad finds out about what Jeremiah did to Belly. He gets angry and confesses his love to Belly on the beach. She tells him she doesn’t love him and that he will never be what Jeremiah is to her. This caused an uproar on the internet. People thought “why would she say that” and “she is so horrible.” It is not like she did this for fun. She did it because she needed him to move on. She was going to marry his brother the NEXT DAY. That is not something you can just walk away from easily. Jeremiah realizes what is going on and calls off the wedding himself.
Belly goes to Paris to get away from everything and ends up really loving it. She needed to find who she was without the Fisher boys and I thought this was done beautifully. Eventually, she realizes what she really wants. I do not want to give away too much of the ending, but I have been a Conrad girl since season one and let’s just say I was very happy with it. Hopefully reading this has given you a better understanding of Belly’s motivations throughout the show. I am excited to see how they continue the story in the movie they just announced!