Given this context, it’s no wonder that the lore and obsession with Conrad has exploded online. In previous seasons he had his fuckboy moments, to be sure, but his actions in season three have been so pure that they border on parody. This has led to the show’s fandom, in a large part, viewing him as not just the most beloved character, but the protagonist.
While a lot of fans’ conversations in the previous two seasons were about whether they wanted Belly to end up with older brother Conrad (Bonrad) or younger brother Jeremiah (Jellyfish), the Jelly stans have been largely silenced. Now most of the fan discourse online is about Conrad, and how unappreciated he is by both his brother and Belly.
Jeremiah has been so completely denigrated that the actor who plays him, Gavin Casalegno, has faced death threats, and the show’s official social media has posted public statements asking for fans to stop bullying him. The ironic thing is that, if anything, Jeremiah’s actions are pretty normal for an actual 22-year-old guy. He’s selfish, a bit manipulative, and when he is on a break from Belly, it takes him two seconds to sleep with another girl in Cabo. I’m not cosigning this behavior; I’m just saying it rings true.
According to Han, the dichotomy between the brothers’ maturity wasn’t meant to vilify Jeremiah but is actually a realistic depiction of how young men mature. Conrad, she tells Glamour, simply has had more time to work on himself, deal with his grief from losing his mother and with his anxiety disorder, and is now in a more secure place than Belly, who is still figuring herself out.
“I think for this story’s purposes, they now are at the same spot and have both grown, but I don’t think that means that Conrad’s a perfect person,” she says. “Nor do I think that means [he] quit therapy and no longer has anxiety. I think it’s something that you live with and figure out how to manage, and we saw him managing better and learning how to communicate better and being more vulnerable, just as Belly will continue to have her struggles.”
Sorry to Jenny, but I just don’t buy it. To me Conrad is wholly fantasy, the dream man for the millions of Gen Z and millennial (and even older) women who have spent their entire lives dating fuckboys in hopes of a prince. And we just can’t quit him. Fans are not only breathing a sign of relief this morning that the show will continue with an epilogue-style movie, but the actor behind Conrad, Christopher Briney, is leaning into his “dream man” persona. On Thursday the audio erotica app Quinn announced that Briney will be narrating its latest series, meaning more steamy Conrad-style fantasies are coming your way, if you’re into that sort of thing.
And is indulging in this fantasy so wrong? Absolutely not. Look, the world is a total dumpster fire right now, and you’re certainly not going to feel any better by spending your time swiping on yet another dating app. Maybe Conrad is what we need to make it through these troubled times—the hope that a man could exist with his set of perfect characteristics, beautiful face, and unwavering devotion.