The Summer I Turned Pretty bows out with some tender moments, messy choices, and the long-awaited endgame fans hoped for.
★★★☆☆
The Summer I Turned Pretty has become one of Amazon’s most talked-about YA dramas, inspiring feverish “Team Conrad” versus “Team Jeremiah” debates online. Its final season promised catharsis: with longing, heartbreak, and indecision finally resolved, but this was accompanied by some boring filler episodes, flawed logic, and a rushed finale that may be saved only by the promise of a movie.
The show’s final chapter opens with Belly Conklin (played by Lola Tung) still caught in the web of Conrad and Jeremiah Fisher (played by Chris Briney and Gavin Casalegno respectively). This triangle channels the aching inevitability of teen television: the girl torn between two brothers, echoing hits like The Vampire Diaries, One Tree Hill and My Life with the Walter Boys. But it soon collapses under the weight of some inconsistent storytelling.
The season, set four years after season two, begins with Belly forgiving Jeremiah for cheating and lying almost immediately, agreeing to marry him within days, even though she couldn’t extend the same grace to Conrad, who had broken up with her when drowning in grief over his dying mother. It is this imbalance that makes the season feel like a case of drama being manufactured simply to inflame the fandom. We see Jeremiah cheat on Belly twice in less than a week, lie about it for months, and yet his character is still given redemption. Conrad meanwhile does not even look at another girl in four years, but is sidelined until the final minutes. This makes it feel less like genuine character development and more like rage-baiting dressed up as melodrama.
But this show has always had the capacity to be more than a simple love triangle. The Fisher brothers’ dynamic is compelling in its own right, especially given their family’s circumstances. Having lost their mother as teenagers and left with an inept father, Conrad and Jeremiah are bonded by grief as much as by blood. To set them against one another over the same girl is to fracture what little remains of their family unit. By the end, Jeremiah gives Conrad and Belly his blessing, but the damage is irreversible.
The writers try to soften this by reshaping Jeremiah into an overnight culinary wunderkind, but no amount of newfound ambition distracts from the queasy awkwardness of the setup. And can we get some justice for Redbird? Redbird (Tanner Zagarino) is Jeremiah’s frat brother, introduced this season as a playful, immature yet caring match to Jeremiah. Redbird was seemingly set up for Jeremiah throughout the season and seemed perfect for him. Instead however it’s Denise (Isabella Briggs), another character introduced this season as a smart, independent, tech-savvy woman who’s deserving of someone kind and stable, who ends up with Jeremiah, a man of constant immaturity.
Much of this dysfunction can be traced back to the character of Susannah Fisher (Rachel Blanchard). Though loving and warm, her influence throughout is overbearing. From early childhood, seen through flashbacks across all three seasons, we see how Susannah instilled in both Belly and her sons that one brother was destined to marry Belly, blurring maternal love with personal fantasy. Susannah’s yearning for a daughter clouded her judgment. Only after her death do Belly’s parents manage to reconcile as friends this season, a pointed reminder of the pull Susannah exerted. Belly’s later conversation with Conrad in Paris, in the final episode – where she questions whether they truly love each other or were simply “meant to” – finally confronts the mess Susannah left behind. It is a crucial moment of clarity that feels both earned and essential.
Among the chaos, the most underrated relationship of the series belongs to Belly’s best friend Taylor and her older brother, Steven (played by Rain Spencer and Sean Kaufman respectively). While the central triangle dominates the spotlight, Taylor and Steven’s romance provides a far more balanced portrayal of young love. Though they are immature and sometimes ill-matched on paper, their chemistry is undeniable. Their eventual reunion and maturing in the final episodes are one of the season’s few satisfying developments. Most importantly, their relationship does not leave scorched family dynamics in its wake. Also in this dramatic season, we have to give a nod to the diva himself, Adam Fisher (Tom Everett Scott). While he is an absent father to Conrad and Jeremiah, his one-liners that put Jeremiah in his place throughout the season are hilarious. From the super-senior title, to bringing Jeremiah and Belly’s never-to-be-used wedding champagne to each subsequent event, these moments are comedic genius which lends Adam some small redemption.
Where the final season falters most is in its pacing. Nearly three-quarters of the run is devoted to Jeremiah and Belly’s doomed wedding plot, only for it to be scrapped and then followed by a string of episodes set in Paris that too often drifted into filler. By the time the finale arrives, much of the momentum had been sapped, and Belly and Conrad’s reunion felt rushed.
For a series built on yearning, the final resolution played almost like fast-forward, only forgiven by the announcement of a film sequel. Over three seasons, we have rarely seen Belly and Conrad together as a couple; the film offers the possibility of actually watching them in a relationship. Whether it will deliver the closure fans deserve remains to be seen.
The Summer I Turned Pretty is a story of grief and identity, portraying the messy process of becoming yourself when everyone around you insists on telling you who you should be. Belly is infuriating because she is young and indecisive, Conrad is frustrating because he is closed off, and Jeremiah is maddening because he craves loyalty and stability while failing to give it. But those flaws are what make them real.
Ultimately, The Summer I Turned Pretty closes on a note that is both fulfilling and frustrating. It rewards patience with the long-awaited Belly and Conrad endgame, but arrives at this through a series of baffling choices. It is a show that knew how to generate online discourse and how to stretch yearning across three summers, accompanied by Taylor Swift songs at every turn. Much like first love itself, it was messy, sometimes infuriating, and impossible to look away from.
Verdict
The final season of this summer’s most-watched romance series ends with a mix of confusing and at times annoying storylines, but overall it portrays Belly’s growth, maturity and transformation from season one. The confirmation of a movie sequel offers hope for more satisfying endings for the characters and a glimpse into their adulthood.
Watch The Summer I Turned Pretty‘s final season on Prime Video.
Words by Maicey Navarro Griffiths
Support The Indiependent
We’re trying to raise £200 a month to help cover our operational costs. This includes our ‘Writer of the Month’ awards, where we recognise the amazing work produced by our contributor team. If you’ve enjoyed reading our site, we’d really appreciate it if you could donate to The Indiependent. Whether you can give £1 or £10, you’d be making a huge difference to our small team.