The Summer I Turned Pretty ends (for now) on a beautiful, slightly unsatisfying note

The 80-minute-long installment opens with Belly frazzled by Conrad’s arrival the day before her twenty-second birthday. Still, she takes him around all the tourist places in a montage of them strolling through the Gardens of Versailles and admiring art at the Louvre (well, he admires her while she looks at the paintings). It’s only when he tells her that he wants to see the city through her eyes that she takes him to her favorite local spots, including a rooftop with killer views, where they open up to each other. The passionate looks and meaningful conversations dial up a notch at a celebratory dinner her friends are throwing. At this party, Conrad witnesses the life Belly has built for herself, with chic French pals who surround her with love, gifts, and joints. And when he learns that Belly’s single, having dumped Benito six weeks ago, that’s all he needs to hear to lean into openly flirting. And the flirting is good and sexy and charming.

It’s almost so good that I immediately wondered how much better it would’ve been to see more of this Belly/Conrad and less of the fighting, avoiding, and pining that was going down between them the previous summer. Yearning is basically what they always did, except for a brief dating period that was understandably marred by Susannah’s (Rachel Blanchard) illness. We’ve never seen these people, who seemingly belong together, be with each other as adults. Anyway, after inevitably hooking up on her birthday to a needle drop of Taylor Swift’s “Dress,” Conrad and Belly have one more tough chat. This time, she claims she’s unsure about him and asks him to leave for Brussels after he says,  “Now you’re stuck with me forever.” Her instinct is to protect her heart because he’s broken it before. But once he leaves, all it takes to change her mind is a glimpse of Junior Mint and the infinity necklace. Off she goes to chase her man, finding him on a train. She then says in a weird start, “I choose you of my own free will,” before turning it into something more heartfelt. “If there are infinite worlds, every version of me chooses you in every one of them.” That’s more like it. 

TSITP had to give Bonrad fans all the time with their favorites because the previous episodes didn’t deliver on that front. So that means we’re left with an installment in which Belly doesn’t share any scenes with any of the show’s other main characters. Even when she returns to Cousins, it’s with Conrad to an empty home. It feels disingenuous considering how early TSITP seasons were heavy on the ensemble and the larger family dynamics. Her last onscreen interaction with Steven (Sean Kaufman) was a fight on the morning of her wedding. At least the show lets us know that back home, Jeremiah has moved on with former coworker/current roommate Denise (Isabella Briggs) and is a TikTok-famous chef in Boston (sure!). He’s got the stamp of approval from his strict father, too. As for Steven and Taylor (Rain Spencer), they’re going strong; and Tay is moving to California now that Steven and Denise have secured the seed funding for their business there. 

In the end, it’s easy to see why a show with a simple premise, deft execution, and a CW-level of soapiness found a massive audience (and led to unhinged ‘shipping wars online). As seen with her To All The Boys trilogy, too, author and series creator Han knows how to tap into universal emotions like grief and coming-of-age issues such as first crushes and heartbreaks. So whether you’re Team Conrad or Team Jeremiah, there’s no denying that watching Belly navigate these circumstances has been a pleasure.  

Stray observations  

• • Not to bury the lede, but this is not the end! Earlier today (and after I wrote this recap), Prime Video announced a finale movie that will be written and directed by Han.
• • With Lola Tung, a star is born. She was always a strong anchor for TSITP, but in season three, the actor really showed off her range, and I’m excited to see where her career goes. 
• • Shout-out to Tom Everett Scott as well, who reveled in playing the slimy Adam Fisher. He knew how to get on all of our nerves, but this year, he also got a couple of laughs out of me with his facial expressions as Adam processes the love triangle his sons have found themselves in. 
• • Adam, while telling Belly’s divorced parents why they should go on a singles cruise: “They’re 24/7 fuckfests.” 
• • The other Swift song featured in this episode was “Out Of The Woods,” and I’ll confess I was expecting a more full-circle Bonrad moment with the use of “Lover” or “That’s The Way I Loved You.”  
• • Of all their pivotal chats in this installment, the one I appreciated the most was when Conrad told Belly that she wasn’t the villain for breaking up the Fisher brotherhood, that it was all of their faults and that they were too young when they made any promises to each other. Ultimately, that seems to be the show’s message: to forgive yourself for the mistakes you made and figure out what to be next.