By Brinda Patel
Staff Writer
Summer is finally over, and so is the “The Summer I Turned Pretty” series. After three seasons, the love triangle between the three polarizing characters, Belly, Jeremiah and Conrad has concluded. Two brothers pining for one girl was enough to keep the audience on the edge of their seats for three seasons, especially this one.
However, the show wasn’t just about them. It was also about individual dynamics between their families and friends, and how that ultimately factored into every decision they made as the season progressed.
The finale was the 11th episode of the third season. The episode opens with Conrad visiting Belly in Paris after she sent him a postcard. After things fell apart between her and Jeremiah on their wedding day, she moved to Paris. In the books, she goes to Spain for a semester after everything unfolds.
In the series, however, she has been in Paris for a year at this point and has built a new life for herself. Conrad had a valid excuse to go see her, given that he was also attending a medical conference in Brussels around the same time.
He surprises her for her birthday and comes to realize that she completely transformed herself. But to him, she will always be the girl he spent summers with at Cousins. Paris Belly goes by Isabel, speaks French fluently, wears bold lipstick and has cut her long hair to a bob.
She is initially caught off guard, but she brushes off her hesitation and shows Conrad her favorite places in the city. The night ends with her birthday party, a walk and dance by the bank of Seine and a conflicting conversation at her apartment.
The show ends somewhat true to Jenny Han’s book trilogy, but not in the way you’d expect. The series is getting a movie to wrap up the characters’ story.
Han has often repeated that she somewhat strays away from the books and that the ending of the television series will not unfold the way the fans are hoping. “I like a hopeful ending,” said Han. “I don’t like too neat of an ending, personally.”
Belly, Conrad, Jeremiah, Steven, Taylor and Denise have grown in multiple ways and their journeys are left open to the viewers’ imagination, whether they all head to California or stay on the East Coast respectively.
Belly is a divisive, and imperfect character. So are the Fisher brothers, her brother, and her best friends. But her representation onscreen as an Asian American figure, as well as the childhood love triangle meant a lot to so many people and welcomed a new change in the entertainment industry.
Freelancer Olivia Petter reflected in a Vogue article, “In a society where the wants and desires of women are often ridiculed or belittled, here is a piece of pop culture that tells us it’s okay to feel things deeply. That we’re allowed to lean into the crushes and cravings of the teenage girl that still lives inside all of us.”
