Get the latest Syracuse news delivered right to your inbox.
Subscribe to our newsletter here.

I thought I’d be upset watching the final season of a show that had defined my summers since 2022. But before I’d even gotten the time to sit down with my friends for a watch party of the Season 3 finale of “The Summer I Turned Pretty,” I learned the characters would return in a movie.

The news lightened the blow of knowing it was the very last episode, until I was met with an ending that left me with lingering questions and few answers.

The series, based on Jenny Han’s novel trilogy, follows Belly Conklin, who has been in a love triangle with her family friends, Jeremiah and Conrad Fisher. Belly has had the best of both worlds: the love of both brothers.

Beyond being known for this on-and-off love triangle between two brothers and their family friend, the show has become known for its top-notch soundtrack.

Now, whenever songs that played during iconic scenes — when Conrad learned Belly and Jeremiah were engaged or tension between Conrad and Belly at the peach farm — come up on my playlists, I’ll immediately think of Cousins Beach.

Season 3’s soundtrack was by far the best. It featured Taylor Swift songs like “You’re On Your Own, Kid” and “How Did It End?” Other hits included “No Surprises” by Radiohead, “Wild Horses” by The Rolling Stones, “Linger” by The Cranberries and Bon Iver’s “Skinny Love.”

The emotional music helped me get through the slow start to the season.

This season finds Belly engaged to Jeremiah, calling off a wedding, moving to Paris and the return of Belly’s best friend Taylor’s relationship with Belly’s brother, Steven.

Overall, the season felt underwhelming. I didn’t get the scenes I felt like they’d been building up the whole series for.

I thought by the end of the season, Conrad would’ve finally gotten what he yearned for throughout the entire series: Belly.

I wanted a final scene set on Cousins Beach with both Fisher brothers, Belly, Taylor and Steven all present. Instead, I was stuck watching a two-minute montage of Belly and Conrad in the car arriving at Cousins Beach, with no dialogue or clarity about final plotlines.

In the finale, after being together for the majority of the season, Taylor discovers that Steven is moving to San Francisco. She agrees to move with him, but he doesn’t seem so thrilled about it. This ending doesn’t make it clear whether or not they’re still together a year or so from then.

The season also needed more clarity on newer characters like Denise, Steven’s coworker and business partner in the season. It’s never revealed who she ends up with, despite a spark forming between her and Jeremiah. The audience is left wondering if Jeremiah will ever discover love other than Belly.

After watching the finale on Wednesday, I felt like a part of my teenage years were over, now that I won’t be able to screen the show every summer. I don’t know if I loved the corny lines or Belly and Jeremiah’s moments, but I sure loved the show’s relatability.

When I started watching the show, I was going into my junior year of high school. At the time, Belly was around my age, still in high school. Now, as Belly and Taylor go off to college in this season, so did I.

Similar to Taylor, I started to explore the communications field and joined a sorority when I went off to college. But when Belly went off to college, she just followed Jeremiah and didn’t create anything for herself. She even chose not to study abroad in Paris for Jeremiah. This storyline frustrated me, undoing character progress from previous seasons.

Still, in a way, I grew up with Belly and the Fisher brothers.

Though I never read the books, my sister spoiled the ending for me. I knew that Belly and Conrad were married by the end of the third novel. I assumed I’d get to see the same on screen. Unfortunately, these expectations weren’t met.

With the third season’s slow start, too much screen time for Belly and Jeremiah and weekly episode drops, it felt like Belly and Conrad would never end up together.

Belly and Jeremiah’s time together should’ve been shortened. With only one episode from Conrad’s point of view, I felt like this season was less about the love triangle and more about Belly, a pretty unlikeable character.

Belly can’t make up her mind and feelings. She craves attention from both of the Fisher brothers, yet can’t be satisfied with either of them. She doesn’t consider the implications of her actions and completely disregards the feelings of others.

After bailing on her wedding with Jeremiah, Belly unrealistically moves to Paris on a whim and takes classes online. She just gets up and leaves, forgetting her college life and family in the United States, all because she built her life around Jeremiah.

Since starting the show over three years ago, I’ve always been rooting for Team Conrad. The finale let the better brother win. Well, almost.

In the season finale, Conrad surprises Belly in Paris. Once again, Belly plays with Conrad’s feelings, with the final scene as the only time she treated him well. A self-proclaimed hopeless romantic, Season 3 made me think Conrad deserved someone better than Belly (though maybe I’m just jealous).

The final scene is Belly chasing Conrad in the train station, with her saying the classic corny line: “I choose you.”

But this ending wasn’t satisfying. It left crumbs of lingering questions about Taylor and Steven’s future, Jeremiah’s future and Belly’s parents’ relationship.

With all the anticipation and waiting two years for Season 3, the final season of “The Summer I Turned Pretty” didn’t live up to its expectations.

I hope there will be more screen time for Conrad and Belly in the movie. If there isn’t, I won’t be watching.

Published on September 22, 2025 at 1:07 am
lilyvzuckerman@gmail.com