The Summer I Turned Pretty returns for its third and final season. It’s been a bit of a break since we were last treated with the summer vibes on Cousins Beach, and we want to make sure to remember all the big points from Season One and Season Two. Read on for a series recap!
Season One: All Eyes On Belly
The Summer I Turned Pretty series has brought us two summers of beachy New England vibes, and now there’s one more left to complete the trilogy based on Jenny Han’s book series. Conrad and Jeremiah have been fighting for Belly’s love, and now we’ll finally get to find out who she’ll pick. Will it be her first love, Conrad, or her best friend turned lover, Jeremiah? As we ramp up for the release of the first two episodes on July 16, 2025, let’s take a walk down the Cousins Beach and revisit the last two seasons, and then look ahead to what we can get excited for.
We started with 16-year-old Belly (Lola Tung) arriving at her mom’s best friend’s beach house in Cousins, as she does every year. She spends the summers with her mom, Laurel (Jackie Chung), brother Steven (Sean Kaufman), and the Fisher family: Susannah (Rachel Blanchard) and her two sons, Conrad (Christopher Briney) and Jeremiah (Gavin Casalegno). The Fisher brothers have always seen Belly as Steven’s awkward little sister, but this year it’s her mission to get closer to Conrad and take some action on her long-time crush on him. Queue the beautifully crafted combination of slow burn and miscommunication romance tropes that keeps us clawing back for more.
Conrad has been giving everyone the cold shoulder, which frustrates Belly because this is the summer she’s determined to get closer to him, and he’s giving her nothing! So instead ,she starts going out with another boy, Cam Cameron (David Iacono). She can’t wait around for Conrad forever! Cam Cameron expresses his worry about a certain Fisher brother’s feelings toward Belly, but it isn’t about Conrad; it’s about Jeremiah. These two brothers and their chemistry with Belly simply cannot be matched. Belly assures Cam that there’s nothing to worry about — they’ve always had a really close friendship, but there’s nothing more. But boy was she wrong! She decides to break it off with Cam Cameron after the 4th of July party, where she and Conrad have a close moment together: an almost-kiss that gets interrupted by Jeremiah shooting a firework in their direction. This is a serious sign of his jealousy and just the beginning of Belly’s back and forth with the Fisher boys.
Belly picks Jeremiah to go as her escort to the Debutante Ball, but Conrad steps in to dance with Belly after Jeremiah mysteriously disappears and leaves her alone on the dance floor. What the two of them don’t know is that Jeremiah has just found out about his mom’s cancer and is breaking down over that. Valid. But he still leaves Belly alone, which is what gives Conrad a chance to redeem himself after being so absent from her all summer. After a whirlwind fight between the brothers, the Debutante Ball wraps up and Belly and Conrad share a kiss on the beach to wrap up the season, leaving us on the edge of our seats as to whether Conrad and Belly will start going out or if this was just a kiss.
Season Two: Big Decisions Ahead
Season two picks up showing twirling teenage angst and emotions of a first relationship, Belly and Conrad are budding a new romance, and things are good for a bit, montaged over music by Taylor Swift. But miscommunication and distance are trying forces on their young love, and their youthful spite pushes them over the edge. Despite their breakup, when Belly hears that Conrad is nowhere to be found one night, she and Jeremiah take on the mission to find him. During this tri,p Jeremiah and Belly tie up their own loose ends and make amends from the summer before and for their distance after Susannah’s lost battle with cancer. Jeremiah and Belly are back on track, and maybe even some more romantic chemistry is forming.
They find Conrad at the Cousins beach house, where he tells them that it’s been put up for sale by their aunt Julia (Kyra Sedgwick). Maybe love might have to take the backseat for a little while in order to save the house. But not for too long, though (phew!) because when the whole group decides to spend the night on a golf course green, a game of Truth or Dare breaks out where Jeremiah refuses his dare to kiss Belly. This raises the question: if he supposedly doesn’t have feelings for her, shouldn’t he be able to kiss her just once? Belly has the same question and confronts him, to which he says, “If I kiss you, I don’t know if I could ever stop.” Ahh swoon.
So now Belly knows that Jeremiah has feelings for her. In a party of all parties, one last hurrah at their Cousins house before it sells, Belly and Jeremiah almost kiss. But not only that, Belly and Conrad have a drunken heart-to-heart where she reveals to him that she would’ve fought for him if she’d known how much he cared about her. So, Belly is now torn in half for these two brothers. And she must now officially make a decision.
By the end of Season two, Conrad catches Belly and Jeremiah kissing when they go to drop him back off at college after saving their Cousins house. Poor Conrad. But this pretty much settles it for Belly and Jeremiah to be endgame… right? Well, that’s what we’re all waiting so patiently to find out in Season 3.
What’s Next??
For those who have read the books, there are high expectations for drama and lots of love. In teasers, we can see Belly visiting Jeremiah at school, and the “Jelly” ship seems to be sailing strong, and their passion is through the roof. But of course, this is right when Conrad enters back into Belly’s life. For Conrad and Belly “shippers,” like myself, we have to hold out hope that their spark hasn’t died.
The question remains, though, how accurately will the show stay true to the books? We saw some deviations in Season two by having the Fisher brothers’ cousin, Skye (Elsie Fisher), have a more prominent role with the rest of the primary characters. With this season, as with the seasons before, author Jenny Han has been on set and has been an advocate for staying true to the main points of the books. However, Han did say that we should expect some surprises in this season, even if we readers think we have an idea of what’s going to happen.
Get the popcorn and candy ready for July 16th, when, for maximum suspense, we’ll get just the first two episodes, which will then be followed by weekly releases on Wednesdays. The show will air its final episode on September 17th. It’s going to be hard to hold out for that long, but there’s a whole lot of drama to come over the next couple of months, and I, for one, simply cannot wait.
Looking for your next summer beach read? Check out these recommendations here!
Want to get into some more new July book and screen releases? Take a look here!
