Roundtable: Why are we falling so hard for The Summer I Turned Pretty's love triangle?

MC: I disagree that they don’t care about the secondary characters as much because I’m getting a little more of Taylor’s mom than I personally care about. But I think the three seasons have fleshed out the characters, except possibly Jeremiah, pretty well. His lack of personality kind of makes sense for a character who is struggling to grow up and get out of his brother’s shadow.

EK: It’s definitely given us a good understanding of who Belly is as a person. I wish we’d had either a few more perspective episodes with each of the boys or none at all, so we could understand them completely through Belly’s ever-changing perspective. I’m also a diehard #TeamConrad girl, but I do agree with Jeremiah fans that it feels like the show is tweaking his personality a little bit to make him seem like a far worse choice than he was in season two. As Mary Kate said, you can’t retrofit a person into being “the one,” and a show shouldn’t be able to retrofit a character into being not the one either.

MC: I also think each character and relationship is so defined by the grief of watching Susannah die and losing her. That’s particularly evident in the third season, where all of them have to confront whether they’re doing things because they want to or if it’s just reactionary out of loss. That’s true of the wedding, but it’s also true of Conrad fleeing to California. I don’t see Jere this season as being rewritten to be worse; I think it can be explained by season two that, being fresh off the loss of his mother, he’s clinging to Belly, whereas in season three, their relationship is revealing itself as a square peg in a round hole. And Jeremiah is revealing himself to be more like his dad, which isn’t really what Belly wants.

EK: That’s a good point. The four-year time jump factors into that as well. We haven’t seen what any of these characters were like for three years of college, or how their friends, frat brothers, or just plain old growing up influenced their personalities.

SG: I’m personally frustrated by the lack of on-screen development for them in season three because of the time jump, which was only two years in the book. I find it hard to root for Belly and Conrad, who weren’t together for long before breaking up, despite yearning for each other their entire lives. I think they’re still in the yearning zone without either of them—or us—knowing who they are as people. And with only four episodes left, who knows how much TSITP will invest in changing that? But I’m also not rooting for Jeremiah because the show has pointedly turned him into a big douche (in a way that I don’t think he was before). There’s also no real understanding of how the relationship between him and Belly flourished during this time in college. So at this point, there’s no understanding of their identities outside of this bubble.

MC: I think there’s a degree to which all three are so tied up in each other that they don’t have super-established individual identities, which can also be attributed to grief and co-dependency. I would argue we do see change from Conrad, who extricated himself from the situation, got a therapist, and has been working on himself and his life. He expresses frustration in the show about being sucked right back into old patterns once he’s placed back into triangulation with Belly and Jere. And for those two, I don’t think seeing them in college would have helped much. It’s on purpose that they’re experiencing a weird arrested development together, that college has been “more of the same” from growing up together. That’s why they charged forward with the wedding, to prove that their relationship is viable and adult. And it isn’t!

SG: I agree with you about why they’re rushing their wedding.  But I still feel dissatisfied about everything. To me, there is value in showing Conrad working on himself more and figuring out who he is outside of them because he still got sucked right back in anyway. There is also value in seeing Belly and Jeremiah as a couple outside of a quick montage to hone in on their bond. Right now, author/series creator Jenny Han is sort of retconning him to not being the one, in my opinion, after establishing their chemistry in season two. So much time is being spent on why Jeremiah is certainly the wrong choice—and he is—but I’m not buying that Conrad is the right one either. Every episode ends with me thinking, “All of you need a good amount of years away from each other to see what the world is like.” And that includes Conrad continuing to find himself back in Cali and hopefully showing the other two what growth might look like. 

As you can tell, I’ve gone back and forth between the two guys while watching. In season one, I was on Conrad’s side, and season two sold me on Jeremiah, while the third has me rooting for everyone’s independence. I think a love triangle is somewhat successful when a viewer has at least some conflict about who should end up together. Have you felt that at all during the show’s run? Or were both of you always Team Conrad? 

MC: Always Team Conrad. While I think making both options viable is an interesting way to tell a story, I don’t think it’s necessary to make a good love triangle. In Twilight, for instance, it was always obvious Bella would choose Edward, but Jacob served a purpose to heighten the tension and test the endgame relationship. The third point in the triangle can serve as a mirror or a competitor, it can introduce fun stakes, and it can add interesting flavors like jealousy or infidelity. (This is not good in real life, but you can’t deny that an affair can make for a juicy story.) There wouldn’t be a story without Jeremiah, but Conrad has always been the obviously better choice for Belly in many ways—the main one being chemistry! 

EK: I’ve always been Team Conrad, but at the same time, I agree that all three of them need a lot of space from each other before jumping into anything serious. Conrad was a mess in season two and for good reason. I didn’t want him and Belly to be together then, but I didn’t want her to be with Jere either. What all of them needed at the time was a friend, but of course, that wouldn’t be the juicy show we love. They all need to explore more outside of this messy dynamic, and I’m hoping the show lets Belly do that (even if it’s through another time jump) in the remaining episodes. I hope she goes to Paris and has a hot fall semester fling (or several!), but I do think the show would be pretty unsatisfying if she doesn’t end up with Conrad in the end. Also, seconding Mary Kate’s point, the chemistry is undeniable. That bathtub scene?

MC: I think it’s funny how you guys and many other viewers want Belly to choose no one. Sure, I would tell one of my girlfriends to take some time away, but this is a show about romance, people. I don’t need Belly to discover herself. #TeamToxicity. 

EK: Oh, I very much want Belly to choose Conrad; I just don’t want her to do it right now. 

SG: I’ve liked and enjoyed a lot of love triangles despite knowing full well one person is just a plot device to make the other two realize what they truly feel. The third poor chump must exit once that job is done. But I don’t find myself emotionally investing in those as much. I want real agony and tension from all parties involved. I felt that with TSITP before, but season three has been frustrating to watch in that sense. 

EK: Hot take, but I think the girl deserves to have sex with more people than just these two brothers, as Anika pointed out in the last episode. 

SG: Yeah, I don’t want Belly to choose herself at the end of the show either; that’s a tired trope. But I think it’s important for her to meet or be with a bunch of other folks first because she’s been trapped in this one place for a long time. 

MC: It certainly speaks to the quality of the show that so many people watch it with a protectiveness over Belly. It’s reminiscent of how her mom tried to stop the wedding. Of course, the too-young-to-get-married trope is time-honored in teen TV.

EK: That’s such a good point. Normally, I’m all about the drama, but with this show, I often feel myself wishing these characters could just live normal, healthy, boring lives.

MC: I think that’s something that separates the show from teen TV (and many of the love triangles) that came before it. I wrote about this a bit before, but there’s a realism underneath all the crazy drama. These young people actually feel like young people, as opposed to the “kids” who were basically adults on shows like Gossip Girl and One Tree Hill.

EK: I was so mad about how Laurel handled the wedding. All that resistance just pushed Belly more resolutely into the bad decision. Of course, there wouldn’t be a story if Laurel did successfully talk Belly out of the wedding, but as Mark Kate said, these characters feel real enough that I feel for them on a deeper level than how they all advance the plot.

SG: In that sense, Belly reminds me of Devi from Never Have I Ever, another recent YA show that generated a lot of conversation and fandom wars when it came to Devi/Ben/Paxton. Both young girls are messy, naive, and fueled by their emotions. There are also not as many dramas like this on streaming now, at least not successful ones. I’m curious what you’ll think TSITP‘s legacy will be. 

MC: To your point about Never Have I Ever, maybe the legacy of The Summer I Turned Pretty is that it made teen TV about teens again. I discussed on the site how Riverdale marked the end of a certain kind of teen show, but TSITP has carried on the grand tradition of The CW (as evidenced by all the comparisons we’re drawing on in this very conversation). Yet this show is doing it in a way that’s more grounded in a world I recognize than the teen shows of my youth, which were delightfully outrageous but felt like alternate universes. Part of the reason I still enjoy it even as an adult is that it feels like a passing of the baton. It’s sweet, well-executed, and a lot of fun, and it proves that these kinds of stories still have viability in the streaming age. 

EK: We haven’t talked about it much in this conversation, but the thing that really impressed me about the earlier seasons was how well I thought the show handled Susannah’s cancer. When I first tuned in, knowing nothing about it, I was expecting a frothy, silly drama like The CW shows that Mary Kate referenced. I was pleasantly surprised to be slapped in the face with so much real emotionality. (I cried a lot watching that season-one finale.) That’s really helped to ground the show throughout its run. It’s part of the reason the show appeals to different generations. Underneath all the love-triangle drama, what these characters are dealing with is heavy and feels very, very real. It’s as much about teenagers dealing with their first grief as it is about them dealing with their first love, and that’s an experience almost everyone can relate to.

SG: Yeah, that’s exactly it. I tune in weekly because I feel like I’m watching a show on The CW (one with a crazy music budget) in a world where The CW doesn’t exist in the way that we knew it. Nostalgia is the big factor for me, especially since the show avoided the binge route. Having that anticipation for a new episode releasing every Wednesday, so we can all talk about what’s happening, helps. But TSITP is easily standing on its own two feet and feels elevated as an adaptation—or grounded, as you’ll both have aptly said. Despite my few frustrations, it’s a fun show, and I believe Lola Tung is a star in the making. It’s also interesting to see this teen show as an adult and have a different perspective but still be able to relate to the intensity of the feelings in it.