‘The Summer I Turned Pretty’ Moms Open Up About Their Complex Onscreen Dynamic

[This interview was conducted prior to the SAG-AFTRA strike authorization.]

[Warning: The below contains MAJOR spoilers for The Summer I Turned Pretty Season 2 Episode 7 “Love Affair.”]

The Summer I Turned Pretty Season 2 may be about the love triangle between Belly (Lola Tung) and brothers Conrad (Christopher Briney) and Jeremiah Fisher (Gavin Casalegno), but it’s also about grief as everyone deals with the loss of their mother, Susannah Fisher (Rachel Blanchard).

Her death has had very different effects on her best friend Laurel (Jackie Chung), who is also Belly’s mom, and Susannah’s sister Julia (Kyra Sedgwick). “They don’t really speak,” Sedgwick told TV Insider of Julia and Susannah prior to the latter’s death. “It’s a wonderful arc to play because she starts out there and then she ends up in a very different place.”

(Credit: Jenny Han via Instagram)

By the end of Episode 7, “Love Affair,” Julia has chosen to back out of selling Susannah’s house at Cousins Beach. After a heart-to-heart conversation with Laurel, she’s able to approach the situation with a renewed perspective. “I think we grew up with two very different realities,” Blanchard said of Susannah and Julia, who shared a dad but were raised under different circumstances. “Our truths were really different from one another, and I think Susannah just had these blinders on. Everything was kind of OK for her and she didn’t really see what Julia’s experiences were like.”

As Julia says in the show, returning to their family home stirs up a lot for her, but Laurel appeals to her maternal side, noting the importance of keeping Conrad and Jeremiah’s ties to Susannah strong after her death. “Julia felt like a stranger in that house,” Sedgwick said. “And that’s something I don’t think Susannah can even fathom on any level.”

(Credit: Prime Video)

Viewers saw a taste of that tension in Episode 6 when the sisters got into a debate about their childhood amid Christmas preparations at the house. “They have trouble seeing anything in the same picture frame, and it’s a great scene to see that flare up. It explains a lot about Julia,” Sedgwick shared. “I loved being able to experience and show that.”

As for Laurel, she’s been struggling to take control of her career after coming out with the memoir, It’s Not Summer Without You. “Laurel is just someone who’s very capable and is good at getting things done. And I think in order to take care of her friend and take care of her family, she felt like she couldn’t feel everything because it would just drown her,” according to Chung.

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Fans get to see those emotions released in this episode during a cathartic chat between Laurel and daughter Belly. “I think it was ultimately her kids who pushed her to face them and get [herself] back on track,” she added.

And while her partner in crime, Susannah, may be gone, there is a potential candidate for a modified friend role in Julia. “Sounds good to me,” Sedgwick said of the possibility moving forward. “I know I’ve not talked about that, but that would be lovely,” Chung seconded. There was a small glimpse of the potential friendship as the women joined forces to convince Susannah’s widow Adam (Tom Everett Scott) to keep the house for their boys.

“It sounds great,” Sedgwick said of the potentially blossoming friendship. “Julia has to get a little bit of a sense of humor, but I think she’ll be able to cultivate one. She has a little one with Skye, so it’s percolating.” With a home to convene at in Cousins, that possibility seems stronger than ever.

The Summer I Turned Pretty, Season 2, Fridays, Prime Video