Why Belly’s ‘The Summer I Turned Pretty’ Choice ‘Makes Sense,’ Plus What Those Letters Mean
Spoiler Alert
[This interview was conducted prior to the SAG-AFTRA strike authorization.]
[Warning: The below contains MAJOR spoilers for all of The Summer I Turned Pretty Season 2.]
Season 2 of The Summer I Turned Pretty has officially come to an end as Belly (Lola Tung) seemingly made her choice between the Fisher brothers, Jeremiah (Gavin Casalegno) and Conrad (Christopher Briney).
But the finale, “Love Triangle,” was about more than the title of the episode implies as it captured touching moments between Belly and Susannah (Rachel Blanchard) and also continued to further the romance between Belly’s best friend Taylor (Rain Spencer) and brother Steven (Sean Kaufman).
It followed a cliffhanger ending to Episode 7, which saw Conrad catch Belly and Jeremiah kissing after waiting for him outside of his college finals. Needless to say, the scenario made for an awkward car ride as the trio headed to Belly’s family home in Pennsylvania after their stop at Brown University.
(Credit: Prime Video)
When a rainstorm forced them to take shelter in a motel, decisions were made in the morning, with Belly choosing to pursue a relationship with Jeremiah and breaking things off with Conrad, despite him being her first love. Casalegno hopes fans walk away feeling a sense of “peace.”
“I think it’s so exciting being in the honeymoon phase of your relationship where everything is just peachy and rainbows and awesome, and so I think that people are gonna be excited,” he told TV Insider. “It just makes sense at the end.” While Conrad fans may feel differently, Susannah’s words to Belly in a flashback scene should reassure viewers that everything will work out in the end for the brothers and Belly, no matter how the cards fall.
“She’s trying to leave them with a sense of hope,” Blanchard says. “That’s all she really has.” In the sequence, Belly visited a dying Susannah and lamented the fact that neither Jeremiah nor Conrad was speaking to her at that point. Susannah tried to comfort her by promising that everything would work out in the end.
(Credit: Prime Video)
But we haven’t reached the end yet, as the show’s been renewed for a third season, which will surely cover showrunner Jenny Han‘s third book in The Summer I Turned Pretty trilogy. One particular detail hinting at Season 3 was a scuffle Susannah had with some letters she was writing and her best friend Laurel (Jackie Chung) accidentally caused her to knock over.
For readers of Han’s novel, this could be an easter egg of sorts as a letter mix-up down the line stirs up some fresh drama. As for whether the onscreen moment was meant to tease future events, Blanchard says, “We don’t know yet.”
On a less drama-filled note, Steven and Taylor made their relationship official but not without some uncharacteristically vulnerable moments. Spencer says of Taylor’s candid nature this season, “She’s able to show a more vulnerable side of herself. It’s still challenging, and you can tell that she still tries to revert back to [old ways] instead of [showing] how she really feels.”
When Steven confronted her after a disastrous official first date, Taylor admitted that it was difficult to accept the fact that he liked her after she’d harbored a crush on him for years. “My favorite scene with her walls cracking is in the last episode where they’re by the car and she tries to push him away because of how much she cares about him,” Spencer says. “I think the fear of losing him becomes greater than the fear of being vulnerable.”
Ultimately, that display earned her some reassurance as Steven tried to convey that he wasn’t planning on ditching Taylor anytime soon. Only time will tell for certain though, so buckle up for the long wait as Season 3 production remains on hold until the SAG and WGA strikes are over.
The Summer I Turned Pretty, Seasons 1-2, Streaming now, Prime Video
