{"id":152134,"date":"2025-09-18T06:50:09","date_gmt":"2025-09-18T06:50:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/152134\/"},"modified":"2025-09-18T06:50:09","modified_gmt":"2025-09-18T06:50:09","slug":"the-summer-i-turned-pretty-finale-recap-belly-conrad-4eva","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/152134\/","title":{"rendered":"The Summer I Turned Pretty Finale Recap: Belly + Conrad 4eva"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/p>\n

\n As Susannah foretold, Belly does end up with one of the Fisher sons. But the series finale isn\u2019t the end of the story.
\n Photo: Prime\n <\/p>\n

What do the laws of time and space and basic economics mean, anyway, in the face of infinite love? If there are infinite worlds, every version of Belly chooses Conrad in every single one of them. If Conrad met Belly tonight for the first time, he would still love her. It has been the summer Belly turned pretty for more than half a decade at this point, and Belly has been in love with Conrad Fisher the entire time, including the three years she was also in love with his brother, Jeremiah.<\/p>\n

The fact that none of what\u2019s happening in the final episode<\/a> of The Summer I Turned Pretty makes any logistical sense is utterly unimportant. Jeremiah has had a job for what, seven months now, and he\u2019s already Boston\u2019s hottest up-and-coming chef. He has been food-prepping since 5 a.m. for some pop-up event starring himself, which is being organized by either Taylor personally or the public-relations firm she works for. Before you have time to ask if any of these kids is being paid \u2014\u00a0and, if so, by whom \u2014\u00a0some disaster has forced them to move the whole event to the Cousins house, just so we, as in you and I, can see that beautiful waterfront property one last time. The only thing you need to take away from any of this is that Jeremiah is doing fine both emotionally and professionally. He\u2019s kissing Denise in the kitchen, for one, and Dick Dad, who just weeks ago was lecturing eloquently on the virtues of knowing when to stay away, crashed the event just to say he\u2019s proud of him: \u201cI thought that went without saying.\u201d Classic Dick Dad! And while Jeremiah was becoming Anthony Bourdain, Denise and Steven were out acquiring enough seed money for their little company to send them immediately to Silicon Valley. And Taylor is coming with, because she can do PR anywhere. All problems solved \u2014 hooray. On to the good stuff.<\/p>\n

By the time Conrad parks himself on Belly\u2019s doorstep, she has been living in Paris for either ten months or several years, based on her attitude. In any case, he is stunned to see her roll up on the back of Benito\u2019s Vespa looking uncharacteristically chic in her tan sweater-and-shorts set. The Belly he remembers is very much a jeans and head-hanging-out-the-car-window kind of girl but has the aura of Sabrina post\u2013culinary school (IYKYK<\/a>).<\/p>\n

Now, we, the viewers, know that Belly is equally thrilled to see Conrad, because we see her hastily reapply her classic red lip and ask herself what the fuck she\u2019s doing. Conrad does not have this advantage, so all he gets is Belly coolly confirming that she does, in fact, have a lot of plans for her birthday but she\u2019ll squire him around the sights for the afternoon if he wants. Remember that time and space are as malleable as Play-Doh in this universe, so they do a Big Bus tour of the city, the Louvre, and Versailles with time to spare for the Eiffel Tower and Jim Morrison\u2019s grave before Belly has to go to her birthday dinner, which she belatedly invites Conrad to. I\u2019m sure there is an etiquette book stashed in Susannah\u2019s attic somewhere that could have told Belly the polite thing to do would have been to invite Conrad to her birthday dinner immediately. And clearly she wanted to, just based on the dress she chose, but she must have been thinking it would get in the way of her moving on, which turns out to have been a moot point because Belly was never actually moving on. Moving on is not really what this show is about.<\/p>\n

Because it is the finale, this is an episode chock-full of mea culpas, most of which are professed under the moonlight along the Seine. Conrad admits he thought Belly was staying in Paris \u2014 famously the most beautiful city in the world \u2014 to punish herself, which is close to the most insane thing he\u2019s ever said on this show. He also apologizes for prom. Belly says she didn\u2019t answer his letters because she was trying to move on. And did she? No!<\/p>\n

It\u2019s suddenly very much on, to the tune of \u201cDress,\u201d the sexiest Taylor Swift track. We\u2019re making out on the street. We\u2019re making out in the back of the cab. We\u2019re making out in the stairwell. We\u2019re reaching under the skirt (okay, Mr. Bridgerton!). Then we\u2019re back at Belly\u2019s enormous apartment and we\u2019re getting very naked. We\u2019ve waited a long time for a sex scene this good, and I, for one, was not disappointed.<\/p>\n

It is only in the wee gray hours of the postcoital moonlight that the hardest-working ghost Wasp in show business makes her appearance. Conrad is literally ready to skip his whole Brussels conference in order to laze around in bed with Belly for the next several days, but Belly has cold feet. She asks if the only reason they love each other is because it\u2019s what Susannah would have wanted. Yes, excellent question, Belly. I have been asking this question for three seasons of this show. Conrad scoffs that he does not love Belly just because his mother thought it would be cute if they got married. She\u2019s not so sure, so she sends him packing. Is this it? Is this really the end of Bella and Edward of the East Coast? Don\u2019t be ridiculous. No sooner has Conrad tearfully disappeared around the corner than Belly suddenly decides she has done quite enough growing and evolving for one coming-of-age story. \u201cI have brown hair and brown eyes, and I love Conrad Fisher,\u201d she says in voice-over. Cue the Taylor Swift! Again! Now we\u2019re running through the streets. We\u2019re running through the train station. We\u2019re running through the train. And there he is. \u201cI love you\u201ds are exchanged. Tears are shed. Lips are kissed. All is well. Belly has chosen Conrad, and he has chosen her, and the wish cast in the first season of The Summer I Turned Pretty has finally been fulfilled.<\/p>\n

There are very few series willing to treat this particular kind of teenage fantasy \u2014 what if the cute older boys you grew up crushing on fell desperately in love with you one summer \u2014 with such earnestness. In any other show, if the heroine\u2019s ex-boyfriend suddenly shows up out of the blue the moment she has finally stopped hoping he\u2019ll do just that, she dumps him with a fiery girl-power speech. The Summer I Turned Pretty lets that fantasy play out as the heroine (and all of us, at one point or another) originally fantasized. They come together in a blaze of passion and declare their devotion with little to no thought for the pedestrian realities of life. At this point, I am the only one still preoccupied with how in God\u2019s name they are going to get through another family holiday.<\/p>\n

But I really shouldn\u2019t be. Because if there\u2019s anything that three years of watching this show has taught me, it\u2019s that eventually everything works out exactly as it\u2019s supposed to \u2014 in this universe, at least.<\/p>\n

\u2022 And that picture-perfect ending will actually be depicted in a forthcoming movie<\/a> about one last milestone in Belly\u2019s life that has yet to be explored, which was announced today. I don\u2019t think Belly and Conrad\u2019s story can sustain one more breakup, so I have to assume the milestone is something slightly less sexy, like her first job or (God forbid) childbirth.<\/p>\n

\u2022 Benito gave Belly an oversize, sexy photograph of her for her birthday, which is more than enough explanation for why they broke up.<\/p>\n

\u2022 Denise and Jeremiah got together for one kiss, but she\u2019s still moving to California, so what was it all for? Was it for the line \u201cI can\u2019t believe nepo baby is kissing me!\u201d?<\/p>\n

\u2022 It feels important to note that the summer Belly refers to as \u201cthe summer I turned pretty\u201d is the one Conrad refers to as \u201cthe summer my mom got sick.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2022 The less said about the goofy \u201cChristmas in Paris\u201d photo montage, the better.<\/p>\n

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