With the newest episode of The Summer I Turned Pretty, Last Call, marking the end of the messiest love triangle known to man, we’ve got a lot to unpack. Though there weren’t as many sensationalist twists in this episode, much to die-hard fans’ rage, there were plenty of loose ends tied up, new paths unfolding, and promises for a loaded last two episodes. I’ll be honest, though it wasn’t as exciting, I’m quite satisfied with the Belly finding herself plot. We all know that at the end of that long road will be Conrad, ready to accept every version of Belly Conklin there could possibly be.
The Aftermath
Would The Summer I Turned Pretty be The Summer I Turned Pretty without the promise of delayed gratification? Episode eight, Last Kiss, left us with Belly spotting Conrad at the airport as she’s about to board her flight. Teasing us with a half step in his direction, episode 9, Last Call, picks up with Belly being called by the flight attendants to show her passport. She contemplates still going towards him, but ends up boarding the plane. He never saw her. Conrad looks up just as Belly is out of view, as if he felt her presence, before he’s distracted by a phone call from Adam. Finding out the wedding has been called off, Conrad leaves the airport and heads back to Cousins, a mix of grief and excitement on his face.
Jeremiah, his groomsmen, Steven, and Denise are at a bar in Cousins, and Jeremiah’s getting wasted. Denise tells him to slow down, to which he tells her to relax; he majored in beerology in college (cringe). Something tells me he has all the credits for that particular major. Steven gets excited when he spots Taylor out the window and walks out to greet her. They’re decidedly less excited when they see Conrad walking towards the bar. Steven is keeping up his aggressive behavior pre-wedding and tells Conrad to get lost.
Taylor sends him inside and takes a more understanding approach. He tries to take all the blame, and she admits it’s only 50% his fault, 50% Jeremiah and Belly. I think I’d bump Belly’s percentage up a bit, but, hey, not my business. Usually, it’s Taylor telling Conrad to leave Belly alone. But this time, she doesn’t; she tells him that when she hears from Belly, she’ll contact him when she hears from her. Just give her time. Taylor’s finally smelling the endgame result.
Bonjour, Au Revoir
Meanwhile, Belly arrives in Paris. At customs, she’s frantic, discombobulated, and spends half the time on the ground looking for her AirTag. Apparently, Belly called last night, and a spot is still open at her school. But without a student visa, she gets stamped through as a tourist. Her lack of planning really sent my blood pressure through the roof this entire episode.
When she arrives at the school, the woman informs her that her space is gone and the program is full. Belly assures that she spoke to a man last night, Anton, who said she could still enter. When the man comes over to look, it’s revealed that he was looking at old spreadsheets; there is no spot left. Belly is officially lost at sea. No plan. How exciting, how un-Belly.
Belly finally picks up one of Laurel’s calls. Crying, she tells her she’s in Paris. Laurel is stunned, but we all know that this is secretly her best-case scenario for how this wedding could’ve shaken out. She tells Belly to come home, but Belly cries harder, insisting that she can’t face everyone at Finch. Laurel is such a great mom at this moment: she reminds her of her options, her support system, and forces nothing on her.
Belly has a return flight for the early hours of the morning, so she heads to a cafe to recoup. Of course, like the poster child for a tourist horror story, Belly leaves her backpack unattended, and it is immediately stolen. Her panicking, telling the uncaring barista that it had a “very valuable ring in it,” sent me. Girl, one: That backpack is probably triple the price. Two: How about we focus on that passport?? The barista puts Belly in his place: “If the ring was so valuable, maybe you shouldn’t have left it in your bag.” Owned.
Thankfully, she remembers her AirTag and sets off on a hunt around Paris to recapture her bag. The product placement promotion this entire episode was shameless: Coach bags and suitcases, Apple AirTags, and red Gatorade. I get it — we got to pay for those Taylor Swift songs somehow.
Who The F**k Is Lacie Barone?
Meanwhile, in Cousins, Jeremiah is throwing a straight-up tantrum, making everyone miserable around him, and rapidly switching between pining for Belly and hating her. I do understand that he’s hurting beyond belief, but my God, he was a demon this episode. Trying to get Taylor to say she’s on his side over Belly (literally, what?), treating Laurel like trash when she came to check on him (this was actually painful to watch — the cruelty in his voice was too much for me), the clear irritation on his face that two people he supposedly loves are finally figuring their relationship out (Taylor and Steven).
Which brings me to the standout of the episode: Taylor and Steven’s long-awaited reconciliation. Finally, we get to see some healthy communication on this show for a change. Not before we get the immensely satisfying reveal of Steven finding out about Jere’s Cabo extracurriculars from Taylor. I will say, a really fun aspect of this episode was watching Taylor and Steven switch roles in the Jeremiah-Belly-Conrad triangle. Taylor used to be a die-hard Jelly but is now the soulmate of it all with Conrad, and Steven used to be unequivocally team Connie, but now stands by Jere, albeit blinded by rage and misinformation.
When Steven heads to the Cousins’ house to grab clothes for Jere, he runs into Conrad and meets him with the same hateful energy he did the day of the wedding. Conrad already gathered his clothes and put red Gatorade (product placement) in his bag to cure his hangover; he’s trying desperately to repair what he broke, but it’s no use, and Steven reminds him of that. Nothing can fix it, “You are the problem,” Steven tells him.
Once again, on my hands and knees, I’m begging Conrad to tell him about the cheating, explain why he couldn’t keep his feelings bottled up after he found out. But he can’t stomp on Jere even more; it can’t come from Conrad. So, Taylor handles it.
Steven paces the hotel room, complaining about Conrad, while Taylor packs up her clothes. Steven’s frustrations with Conrad are clearly deeper than just Belly; let’s not forget that Conrad was Steven’s hero, one of his closest friends, and the person he always looked to for the right way to do things. And now he shattered that after removing himself from the family for four years. As he rants about how Conrad ruined Belly’s life over a high school romance that ended four years ago, Taylor interrupts:
No, no, but it’s not just like some high school relationship. It’s Belly and Conrad, you know, all their epic, infinity, soulmate shit. It’s written in the stars.
– Taylor in Last Call, episode nine of The Summer I Turned Pretty
Steven deflects, saying it was still four years ago, so Taylor goes further and tells him about Christmas. When Steven still isn’t seeing the vision, Taylor becomes the hero we all needed: she tells Steven about Cabo and Lacie Barone.
Jeremiah cheated on Belly? I have been cleaning up that guy’s tears for the past 24 hours, and he CHEATED ON MY SISTER with Lacie Barone? Who the f**k is Lacie Barone?
– Steven in Last Call, episode nine of The Summer I Turned Pretty season three
Sean Kaufman’s delivery of the last line had me cackling. It was almost deeply satisfying, but we switched back to Taylor and Steven’s own relationship far too soon. I want to see more rage, more reflection, more understanding of Conrad, but they take it as their sign to communicate how they feel and stay away from the patterns of the unholy trinity. Taylor tells him that at the hospital, when he changed his mind about them, it broke her. It was always her biggest fear: that he’d take it all back.
Steven finally communicates his biggest problem with Taylor: she shows up so fiercely, so consistently for her friends, and she finally did it with him this past weekend, so why can’t she do it when they’re a couple? Taylor confides that that’s just how she is with guys, and Steven and she have always seemed like the most terrifying thing to dive into because it’s actually real. They talk it out and agree that they’re worth the risk, and we finally have a couple we actually want back together. They spend the rest of the episode blissed out and in love: peace on Earth.
Inflicting Some Damage
But hell is in Paris as Belly is still on the hunt for her bag. Her AirTag takes her to a shady event in the depths of Paris. She gets in by pretending to be a woman’s girlfriend to stop being harassed by a disgusting man outside the club. When they introduce themselves inside, Belly says her name is Isabel. Listen, I know fans were incredibly disappointed with this episode for the lack of development, but for me, this was all the development I needed. Changing the name given to her by the boys and her family, and striking anew with her real name in a new place, where she can be anyone she wants to be — absolutely, Isabel, absolutely.
Gemma, the girl from the club, introduces Isabel to the rest of her friends (including Benito, the boy we see her getting awfully close to in the trailer), but she’s distracted. She’s on the hunt for her bag and spots it. Arguing with the twitchy thief and getting nowhere, we see old Belly officially leave the building. I much prefer Isabel: when the guy turns around, instead of trying to reason with him more, Isabel kicks him in the back and drags the bag off his back while he’s down.
Her new friends gather around as the man calls her a psycho and continues to claim it’s his bag. She takes out her wedding dress, “This, this is your dress? Huh?” Another small detail I love: the dress that would’ve carried an unbearable memory for the rest of its time in Belly’s closet gets a new memory. An exciting one where Belly was bold and brave, just as she was for not marrying Jeremiah.
The new group takes Isabel for a drink at a bar where she gives them the messy breakdown of her last 36 hours. They love the drama, we all do. Another refreshing scene: they go around the group and share some of the awful things they’ve done, and Isabel realizes she’s not the only living human being who has made mistakes and hurt people. As Gemma says,
You don’t make it through your 20s without inflicting some damage. Otherwise, you haven’t lived.
– Gemma in Last Call, episode nine of The Summer I Turned Pretty season three
Isabel’s redemption arc — let’s go. Isabel tells them she’s leaving in a few hours, and they try to get her to stay, have an adventure, and find herself. She refuses but stays for a drink and heads to the bus. On the bus, Belly peeks out one last time to call Jeremiah. Don’t worry, I told myself: this episode is called Last Call. With her minuscule ring returned to her finger, she speaks to her ex-fiancé, who immediately and excitedly answers her call.
He starts telling her that they messed this up. They don’t have to get married, but they can’t just be over. She needs to come back to Cousins for them to sort it out. That’s when she tells him she’s in Paris and, boy, does he not look happy for her. Jere wants to go back to the way things were, and Belly is shocked (and honestly terrified) to hear it.
I don’t think that’s possible, Jere. I mean, I don’t even know who I am anymore. [Jere: Well, I know who you are. And, I will remind you every single day, you just need to come back home.] I don’t want to hurt you, Jere. I’m not the same person I was before summer, and I think I need to find the person that I can be […] I think I’m gonna stay.
– Belly in Last Call, episode nine of The Summer I Turned Pretty season three
Jeremiah immediately shows his true colors (yes, I know he’s hurting; no, I don’t care): “Yeah, that’s great. You do that. Just don’t f**king, call me again.” MANCHILD. Belly’s heartbroken face reveals a deeper truth: wow, I just dodged a bullet. Jeremiah seems to rebound quickly from the call, heading over to the house to pay Conrad an aggressive, charged talk.
We Hereby Conduct This Post-Mortem
Jere stares at his wedding present from Conrad in the kitchen: Susannah’s painting of Belly and Jere from when they were kids. Conrad comes down, shocked to see him. Don’t think a mature conversation was coming — Jere came to inflict pain and gloat. He asks Conrad if he heard that Belly is in Paris, sarcastically bragging that he must have been the only one she called. (His need to gloat about this was honestly embarrassing, like, obviously she called you first? You were supposed to be married yesterday?)
God, I love that I’m the one who gets to tell you this. She’s staying. She’s not coming back. So you stayed here for no reason. She didn’t choose me, but she didn’t pick you either. So why don’t you get the f**k out, go back to California, and never come back.
– Jeremiah in Last Call, episode nine of The Summer I Turned Pretty season three
Once again, Jeremiah proves that a large portion of his desire for Belly is really a desire to beat his brother in something. Conrad has never viewed the relationship in this way. Belly isn’t a prize to be won; she’s everything. It’s not about her happiness, her growth, her peace: it’s about his ego and his comfort.
Conrad goes to meet Adam out at a bar and confesses that he’s the reason the wedding was called off. I hate Adam, but he was honestly hilarious in this scene and, actually (for once), gave wisdom and sound advice. Conrad: I told her I loved her. Adam: Who? Conrad (confused): Belly. Adam (shocked): Well, why the hell would you do that? Conrad: Because I love her. Adam: Oh, shit… I mean, this man’s lack of knowledge of his children’s lives is honestly astounding.
After the humor, Conrad gets dark. He bears his soul, telling him how horribly he’s messed up: he broke them, he broke Jere, everyone hates him, and the worst thing is, he wanted it, he prayed for it. Adam begins comparing his situation with letting down Jere to his own cheating scandal that so badly damaged his relationship with Conrad.
Or you give him space, sometimes that’s all you can do. [Conrad: You would know]. I would know, I would know. When your mom was sick, when we lost her, it killed me to watch you carry all that. But you treated me like the enemy. What I’m saying is, you’re my son, and I wanted to be there for you, but you wouldn’t let me. [Conrad: because you made everything worse]. Exactly. I had to live with that. You have people who love you and I trusted you would lean on them and you did. And so will he.
– Adam in Last Call, episode nine of The Summer I Turned Pretty season three
His whole teenage and adult life, Conrad feared losing his mom, losing and hurting Belly and Jere, and becoming like Adam. All of these things have happened; it’s overwhelming, it’s painful, but he’s free from the weight of it now. He just has to wait and see. For once, even if it was the hard thing, Adam said the right thing.
Conrad gives Cousins one last look with How Did It End? By Taylor Swift playing, and heads to the airport, again (seriously, how are they all affording these cancelled and rebooked flights?). Our last shot is Isabel in Paris, watching the Notre Dame be rebuilt (way too cheesy and on the nose for my taste) as she begins her new journey.
Endings and beginnings, that’s what Last Call delivered. For the fans on Jenny Han’s Instagram relentlessly bullying her for this past episode: take a deep breath. She gave us nonstop drama for four episodes straight. Sometimes we need to let the dust settle and sweep it off the road before revving the engine again. We’re too obsessed with instant gratification as a culture: we got Taylor and Steven this episode, we saw Jere’s true colors, we saw Belly start becoming Isabel, and begin an exciting, scary, insane adventure.
Sorry that Isabel chose herself, but something tells me Conrad will choose every version of her, over and over again, and she’ll do the same. Be patient, everyone, and examine that para-social relationship with a fictional world you’ve got going on: we all love disappearing into a story, but don’t let it make you lose your head. Good things come to those who wait, they say.
Missed out on last episode’s recap? Get the scoop on episode eight, Last Kiss, here.
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