The Summer I Turned Pretty Series Finale: Thoughts on Belly and Conrad—A Review
On Wednesday, September 17th, the long-awaited series finale of The Summer I Turned Pretty was released. I think each season has been able to capture the complexities of grief, love, growth, and relationships, but this final season has truly been the icing on the cake. My favorite part of this final episode was when Conrad and Belly have an important conversation surrounding love and grief towards the end of the episode. Many viewers feel that Belly was too cruel in this scene, but I think it was a perfect example of these complexities.
Belly has loved Conrad her whole life and worries that Conrad’s love stems from their shared grief in the loss of Sussannah. Considering that Belly spent most of her life believing that Conrad would never love her like she loved him—after the way their relationship ended—this line of thinking makes a lot of sense. At this moment, Belly needs reassurance from Conrad that his love for her is genuine, still stuck in that thought process that Conrad and she will never truly be together. When he finally gives her this reassurance, she still worries that she is wrapped up in the unrealistic fantasy of their relationship she has dreamed of forever. After he leaves, she is left to process his words and actions over the last year, resulting in her finally believing in the genuineness of the love they share.
The show ends with Conrad and Belly at the Beach House, followed by images of them in Paris for Christmas during the credits. In these scenes, the joy and comfort the pair feels just being in the presence of the other radiates through the screen. These scenes perfectly capture their relationship and wrap up the show beautifully. It will be interesting to see this pair in the recently announced The Summer I Turned Pretty movie.
