It’s been two years since the second season ofThe Summer I Turned Prettyended with Belly (Lola Tung) choosing Jeremiah (Gavin Casalegno) over Conrad (Christopher Briney). Within the universe of the show, it’s been four years, but Season 3 begins with a brief scene just one year after the eventsof the Season 2 finale.Belly starts at Finch University, finally excited about something during the school year. She and Jeremiah are in a serious relationship, and he’s already been at Finch for a year. Steven (Sean Kaufman) and Taylor (Rain Spencer) have since dated and broken up, but they get back together on Belly and Taylor’s move-in day.
This one-year flash-forward shows that Belly and Jeremiah are in a stable relationship, while Steven and Taylor are more on-and-off. Conrad is off on his own at Stanford, though he still talks to Laurel and Jeremiah regularly, and they know that he is casually dating Agnes (Zoé de Grand’Maison). The main purpose of the scene is Belly’s conversation with Laurel (Jackie Chung). Laurel looks back on her college years very fondly, particularly because it’s when she met Susannah (Rachel Blanchard), whom she still refers to as her soulmate. Laurel then cautions Belly against making Jeremiah her entire college experience, and encourages her to use the opportunity to find herself and her people. This is followed by a three-year time jump, wherethe events of the seasonfinally kick off.
In ‘The Summer I Turned Pretty’s Season 3 Premiere, Jeremiah Proposes After Belly Finds Out He Cheated on Her
In the present day, Belly and Jeremiah havebeen dating for four years.She’s finishing up her junior year at Finch, while he’s about to graduate. She gets off the waitlist to study abroad in Paris next fall, and she’s excited to tell Jeremiah about it, until he tells her that he won’t be graduating this spring like he thought. Jeremiah never completed the necessary core classes after switching majors, so he has to stay at Finch for one more semester. Naturally, Adam (Tom Everett Scott) is frustrated with Jeremiah, and Belly is worried that she will be abandoning Jeremiah if she studies abroad.Belly has been thriving at Finch,even though she had to give up volleyball due to a knee injury a little while back. She’s majoring in Sports Psychology, and she has a new close friend in Anika (Sofia Bryant). Jeremiah takes it well when Belly tells him about Paris, though, and the two happily attend an end-of-year party together.
This is when, just like in the third book ofJenny Han’sThe Summer I Turned Prettytrilogy,We’ll Always Have Summer, Belly and Jeremiah run into Lacie Barone (Lily Donoghue). Lacie is in Jeremiah’s sister sorority, and the two hooked up during a Spring Break trip to Cabo with his fraternity and her sorority. Jeremiah had broken up with Belly after she got angry with him for hiding the trip, although the breakup was ultimately short-lived.Belly finds out about the hookup at the party,and she is absolutely heartbroken. After Steven gets into a car accident, though, Belly reevaluates her priorities and decides to stay with Jeremiah. Then, determined to prove to Belly that things will be different from now on,Jeremiah proposes to her, and she accepts.
In ‘The Summer I Turned Pretty’s Season 3 Premiere, Steven and Taylor Struggle with Their Feelings for Each Other
As of the Season 2 finale, Steven and Taylor had just started a relationship. It may be realistic to see them on-and-off, but it is still disappointing to seeThe Summer I Turned Prettyso quickly take awaythe magic and sweetnessthat this pairing had in Season 2. In Season 3, Steven and Taylor are sneaking around together while both are dating other people. It hasn’t yet been revealed why they broke up in the first place, but Taylor is scared to be serious with Steven, so they try to keep things casual.Steven dumps his girlfriend and tries to get serious with Taylor,which he tells her while they’re driving to get food together. She panics and gets out of the car, and Steven then gets into a car accident.
Steven’s accident works as a narrative device to make Taylor, Belly, and possibly even Laurel all reevaluate their relationships. After backsliding with John (Colin Ferguson), Laurel is upset that their night together made her miss Belly’s calls about Steven. Belly feels very scared after Steven’s accident, and she doesn’t want to focus on the things that she feels don’t matter. Taylor decides to go all-in with Steven, but when he wakes up,he tells her that she was right and that they should let go of each other.This is a classic miscommunication that could be solved if Taylor put herself out there. Still, it will make for some tension for this pairing this season, particularly considering the fact that Taylor is still in a relationship.
Since transferring to Stanford, Conrad has actually been doing very well. He’s now in medical school, and he has some friends there, including Agnes. He’s also in therapy, and he talks to his therapist about his concerns ahead of seeing everybody at the upcoming dedication for Susannah’s memorial garden in Cousins Beach. Conrad almost has to miss the dedication after getting a summer job working for a Stanford doctor named Dr. Namazy (Nayab Hussain). Conrad and Agnes both start the job together, but Conrad becomes distracted after Steven’s accident. He calls in a favor through Dr. Namazy to help Steven, but she ultimately fires Conrad for failing to call out of work when he needed a personal day.
Although it’s sad to see Conrad lose this job, it perfectly sets up the events of the book, in which he spends the summer in Cousins. Additionally, this fits with an ongoing theme that Agnes states plainly:Conrad has spent so much time burying and dismissing his own feelings,and he now needs to prioritize himself and what he wants. Conrad avoids speaking to his therapist about Belly, but he tells Agnes about his past with Belly in a way that makes it clear that he still loves her. Conrad has been avoiding Belly for the last four years out of respect for her choice, but Belly reveals through voice-overs that they ended up accidentally spending this past Christmas together.
In aperfect recreation of the iconic book scene,Belly details spending Christmas alone at Cousins because Laurel, Steven, and Jeremiah were all away. While she’s there, Conrad shows up as well after his flight gets delayed due to snow. The two have an awkward but sweet reunion the first night, then Belly takes a fall while looking for him the next morning. They end up having a nice, quiet Christmas together, where they joke around, sit in each other’s company, and argue aboutCasablanca– because Conrad commends Ilsa’s (Ingrid Bergman) practical choice, while Belly mourns her great love with Rick (Humphrey Bogart). When Belly hides the fact that Conrad is at Cousins from Jeremiah, Conrad leaves the next morning without saying goodbye.
One major change from the books is the fact thatConrad heard Belly keep their Christmas together a secret.In the book, he tells Jeremiah about his Christmas in Cousins with Belly right away, but Jeremiah might not know about it in the show. Still, this Christmas makes it clear thatthere are still obviously unresolved feelings between Belly and Conrad,and that they continue to have this easy chemistry between them after all this time. Now that Conrad has lost his summer job, he will be returning to Cousins for the dedication ceremony, where –as the season’s trailer revealed– Belly and Jeremiah will be announcing their engagement.
New episodes ofThe Summer I Turned Prettywill be released Wednesdays at 3:00 A.M. EST on Prime Video.
