If nothing else, “The Summer I Turned Pretty” Season 3 taught us that the power of a good forehead kiss can never be overestimated.
Every Wednesday since mid-July, author and producer Jenny Han has brought a swarm of viewers to Amazon Prime Video for the latest updates on the world of Isabel (Belly) Conklin and the two Fisher brothers with whom she is fatefully intertwined.
A shocking post-bachelor party confession, a runaway bride, a long-awaited rendezvous in Paris. Han’s show matured with her characters, and she didn’t disappoint.
“Are you team Conrad? Don’t tell me you’re Team Jeremiah…” It’s a question I shied away from all summer.
On the heels of two back-and-forth seasons with Belly’s heart teetering between Conrad, the moody eldest brother, and Jeremiah, his younger, golden retriever-like counterpart — Belly began Season 3 a little over a year into her relationship with the latter.
Three years later, despite a brief kerfuffle related to Jeremiah’s secret rebound during a temporary breakup, the couple is engaged and eager to marry by the end of the summer.
Due to the show’s time jump, we never see what must have been an eventful four years of a loving and committed relationship between the two. The engagement feels abrupt and irresponsible for two college students, while Belly’s feelings for Conrad feel recent to the viewer despite being nearly a half-decade in the past.
The show’s writing heavily favors Conrad, and the happy ending between Belly and her first love seems imminent from the season’s early episodes, despite the ring on her finger. It’s no surprise, considering the original book trilogy follows the same trajectory.
Still, I found myself mourning Jeremiah’s loss alongside him. He spent his entire college experience by Belly’s side, only for her to break her promise and choose his brother over him for the second time on their wedding day.
I’m not one to blame a female protagonist, though. Especially not one who was told that she was “destined” for one of Susannah’s boys as a child. That’s a lot for a grieving teenager to unravel — not that I’m condemning a woman who died of cancer either, per se.
It’d be easy to look at this season and remember nothing but Conrad and Belly pressed up against a wall with Taylor Swift’s “Dress” playing in the background. Admittedly, I’ll be thinking about that for a very, very long time.
But more than the makeouts, the fallouts and the romance — at its core, “The Summer I Turned Pretty” has always been about the art of growing up through all of life’s stages.
I was just as proud to see Jeremiah make his own way as a chef after his dad cut him off financially as I was to see Belly become “Isabel” in Paris. The same can be said for seeing Steven and Taylor learn to communicate with one another.
The show’s main characters aren’t teenagers anymore. In her final season, Han did a beautiful job of painting the way mistakes are an inevitable part of life, particularly in the transition to young adulthood.
Jeremiah wasn’t perfect, but Belly wasn’t either. Neither was Conrad.
And yet, they all lived happily ever after.
Thankfully, with the surprise announcement of an upcoming movie to follow the series’ end, our time watching these characters come into their own isn’t over yet. And I, for one, can’t wait.
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