‘The Summer I Turned Pretty’ Creator Clarifies Character’s Fate Amid Fan Concern

Warning: The article below contains spoilers for The Summer I Turned Pretty Season 3.

John Conklin (Colin Ferguson), father of Belly (Lola Tung), is alive in The Summer I Turned Pretty! For now, at least.

After John’s nagging heartburn at the end of The Summer I Turned Pretty Season 3 had fans worried, author-turned-TV-creator Jenny Han confirmed the character wasn’t having a heart attack. “No, not at all!” she told Entertainment Weekly.

Instead, John complained about his heartburn and asked Laurel (Jackie Chung) to find the Pepcid for him because the writers were depicting “a couple who had known each other a very long time who were giving it another try and kind of falling back into their old dynamics of low-key annoyance,” Han said.

Han also said The Summer I Turned Pretty’s use of Pepcid, a brand of acid reducers, wasn’t product placement, nor was the show’s use of Apple AirTags.

“A lot of people think that everything is product placement on the show, and I’ll just say that I really like living in a real world, a real universe,” Han said. “And I would never say, ‘Can you please pass me the heartburn medication?’ You would just say, like, ‘Where’s the Pepcid?’ … To use a generic, random brand, it doesn’t feel like I’m living in the real world.”

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On social media, fans debated the significance, or lack thereof, of John’s digestive troubles. “The John scene where he says he’s had heartburn all day? Look, scenes should have some value to the storytelling, and I don’t feel crazy for thinking they were gonna imply he had a heart attack or something,” one wrote on X. “Why even waste so much time?”

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Another fan said, “Y’all really thought Belly’s dad was going to have a heart attack just [because] he had heartburn, but really, it was just to show that John and Laurel are still not compatible, lmfao.”

By the way, the Mayo Clinic says heartburn — which is caused by digestive acid moving into the esophagus — can be difficult to differentiate from heart attack symptoms. The clinic also says that if you have persistent chest pain and you’re not sure it’s heartburn, call 911 or emergency medical help.

As for John, he made it to the end of Season 3, but there’s still much more story to come with the just-announced Summer I Tuned Pretty movie.

The Summer I Turned Pretty, All Seasons, Prime Video