We’re almost at the finish line as The Summer I Turned Pretty nears its close with a penultimate episode, in which “Anything can happen.”
And many things were done for Belly and Jeremiah, despite the series hurtling through changes at the speed of sound.
But then there’s Conrad…
With only the series finale remaining, it isn’t easy to foresee how a possible Bonrad endgame could come to fruition for those who genuinely believe the series will remain book faithful.
And it’s even harder to believe that people would even want an endgame, when this final season has proven more than anything else that Belly and Conrad aren’t on the same page — they’re not even in the same book.
After many episodes of my lamenting that the narrative shortchanged Belly’s growth for the sake of the love triangle, her Paris chronicles have gone into overdrive to rectify that.
It’s still utterly frustrating that this season has relied too heavily on time jumps as narrative aids and shortcuts. But the only choice has been to accept it.
Keeping that in mind, Belly’s adventures in Paris are gratifying for those of us who wanted and needed to see her grow.
Through a series of time jumps, we follow Belly on her Parisian journey, from a bumbling, quintessential American expat to a young woman who has truly found herself.
She had some hardships and struggles, but she found a great group of friends. Belly has an amazing apartment, intends to study psychology, and has a hot as hell boyfriend who ISN’T a Fisher boy, and it’s everything one could ever envision for her.
As Taylor astutely pointed out, Belly reached a point where she could leave the Fisher brothers in the past.
Her phone call with Jeremiah was a special moment because, while they still care about each other, it gave them a sense of peace, closure, and healing.
The series reaffirms that Jeremiah has always been one of her closest friends, and while it was important for them to be apart to grow, they can still genuinely maintain that friendship.
It’s something that feels natural. Because after two seasons of watching Belly actively choose Jeremiah, there’s no real question as to whether they could still be in each other’s lives.
Isabel in Paris is liberated, and the happiest we’ve seen her yet. She’s come into her own, making active choices for herself, and is so much healthier away from Cousins.
In many ways, she did abandon everything and left others to pick up the pieces, but the payoff is good, considering she’s the best she’s been throughout the entire series.
And while there’s a strong chance that she’s genuine in her keeping things casual with her MONTHS-long love affair with Benito, the final moments, as she awaits her quintessential life-changing haircut to represent her change, she expresses a desire for something different.
Similarly, while Jeremiah still had a rough start, he eventually finds liberation, a semblance of happiness, and healing.
Initially, it was irksome that the series still leaned heavily into the “promiscuous bisexual” trope yet again with him hooking up to distract himself from the pain.
And the fact that he was couch-hopping, dropped out of school, and so forth seemed like the series yet again fueling the proclamations about his character that simultaneously erase previous seasons and lack nuance.
But beneath that, there was something gratifying about Jeremiah forging his own family and creating a support system outside of Belly and Conrad.
Adam cutting him off was a blessing in disguise, and notably, something that unfazed Jeremiah, because, despite criticism, he’s not opposed to hard work.
Jeremiah’s finding a kitchen job ties back beautifully to his long-standing love for cooking. For fans who had closely tracked his character, this was a satisfying payoff.
And the hour also managed to deliver a satisfying moment for Jeremiah and Laurel in which he apologized (because he does hold himself accountable). Laurel finally showed up for him emotionally in the way he needed.
More importantly, Jeremiah got to establish his own boundaries, find himself, and heal at his own pace. And it perfectly highlighted how, despite some hiccups, and the series genuinely screwing with the character to serve the plot, the journey itself results in evolution.
Jeremiah is free of his desire to live up to Adam’s expectations. Despite his heartbreak, he gave Belly her space and took his own because it was necessary.
And through Denise, he may have finally found his person. She’s the first genuine friend he may have who knows him for who and what he is, not as Belly’s partner or Conrad’s brother.
If the series angles for that “pair the spares” tactic to give Jeremiah a serviceable “happy ending” to make up for the potential Bonrad of it all, it feels cheap and rushed. But they did a lot of heavy lifting in their scenes, so it’s not completely objectionable.
And then things culminate with Jeremiah and Conrad finally coming face to face again, nearly a year later, to have a conversation that, frankly, felt like the writers had spent more time in fan forums than refreshing themselves with their own scripts from the previous seasons.
Seriously, this season’s continuity issues have made me want to rip out my hair in genuine frustration. It’s one of many reasons this season has been such a difficult watch.
But for Jeremiah’s part, as much as the dialogue felt like more gaslighting, the most optimistic takeaway from the graveyard conversation is that Jeremiah was so tired of being at odds with Conrad that he quietly opted to be the bigger person (again).
There was no reasonable way for them to bring the brothers to a point where forgiveness came easily. Essentially, it required Jeremiah not to push back against some of Conrad’s falsehoods and equivocations, Jeremiah following Denise’s advice, and him keeping his promise to Susannah.
The series results in Jeremiah once again giving his blessing, placing the possible happiness of his brother and Belly ahead of his own, while making it clear that he’s still not okay. Rinse. Wash. Repeat, but sure.
Because Conrad is always going to do what he wants, regardless, no matter how he frames it.
As a viewer, it was frustrating to hear the extent to which Conrad was rewriting history — like the notion that Belly and Jeremiah got together right after they broke up, or that Jeremiah was the one actively pursuing Belly when all of The Summer I Turned Pretty Season 2 was him guarding his heart and Belly CHOOSING him time and again.
Conrad’s projection that Jeremiah would forget everyone else because he loved Belly was also bizarre. We know Jeremiah constantly reached out to his brother (He’s always needed his brother) and became even more immersed in the Conklin world. In contrast, Conrad just disappeared into himself or Belly.
The entire exchange also suffered from the same “tell, not show” issue. The idea that Bonrad’s love was like a “force field” doesn’t ring true when we haven’t seen it.
And admittedly, I couldn’t help but cringe at the way they somehow equated a six-month relationship in high school with four years and an engagement, just to minimize the latter.
These are the things that left me baffled, but this is also where it leads to the Conrad problem.
By the end of that entire exchange, Conrad was no wiser than he had been before. As someone who genuinely enjoyed the complexities of his character, it’s sad to see where he is now.
Everyone is moving on and forward, and Conrad is still stagnant, holding onto the past so tightly that there’s nowhere else for him to go.
Is it really a romance anymore? Because for Conrad, this is a tragedy. And it’s one of his own doing.
It’s now six years since he and Belly broke up, and we’re no closer to understanding why he can’t move on outside of him clinging to a fantasy version of Belly, and maybe, in the saddest conclusion of all, using Belly to cling to Susannah, too.
Again, it just makes me so frustrated that Susannah influenced these children regarding their love lives and futures as she did — she may have meant well, but it was so harmful for all of them.
Jeremiah’s point about Conrad not knowing what it takes to build a relationship over years just made me profoundly sad for him.
The episode certainly toned down what his letters sounded like in the books, but they were still no less disconcerting.
Everything he wrote or sent to her was drenched in nostalgia and trying to lure a young woman intent on pursuing her future back into the past.
It’s stifling and harmful for both of them.
At this point, that infinity necklace doesn’t feel like a promise of forever, or a quaint notion of endless love. It feels like a trap — a threat of running around in circles without ever breaking free, finding a new path, or breaking cycles.
I nearly choked when Conrad said Belly was a person, not a prize to be won, precisely because all we’ve seen from Conrad is that he can never respect her autonomy or agency because he likes to feel in control and feels he knows best.
A hallmark of Belly and Jeremiah’s relationship is that he always gives her choices and respects hers, from their first kiss onward. If anyone is guilty of treating her like an entitlement, possession, or toy (as Taylor said), it’s been Conrad.
Hence, the letter situation — it would make no sense for him to continue sending her letters without receiving a response. But Conrad hasn’t met a boundary he doesn’t push.
We know he’s a collector by heart, is that it? Does he want to collect Belly like a rare piece and place her on a mantle so that only he can admire her? What is it?
There’s no way in which Conrad doesn’t come across as disturbingly, tragically obsessive by now.
He can’t maintain any of his other relationships, whether it be his friendships with characters like Steven or any remaining dynamics with his family.
Every time we see Agnes, who is genuinely a good person for him, every single conversation revolves around him and his feelings for Belly. He doesn’t even ask her how she is!
And it sounds like his therapist gives him great advice, but he refuses to take it and apply it. That’s not growth or evolution, that’s stagnancy.
Essentially, we’ve watched him blow off important things pertaining to his schooling and career three times just to be within sniffing distance of Belly, and it’s not something that people are examining nearly enough.
Belly consumes his every thought. He had four years while he was in California, away from Belly and Jeremiah, to actually create a life for himself and work towards growing and moving on.
But those four years weren’t a distance for the sake of growth (like with Belly), or boundaries for the sake of peace and evolution (like with Jeremiah); it was just a classic case of him avoiding a problem rather than fixing it. And he’s still doing that.
Conrad taking Belly’s generic reply, in which she hoped he was well and called him sweet for thinking about her, wasn’t a call to action for him to make some grand, romantic gesture.
It was a polite peace offering, an acknowledgment of a part of her past, and a genuine nod to her moving forward in life — it was peace.
Yet here comes Conrad with his chaos.
And thus, the illusion of growth they were potentially selling earlier in the season is completely shattered by the end. It’s a sad, unsatisfying place for Conrad to be.
I’m unsure what we’re supposed to do with that, and I’m curious whether the intention all along was to dismantle the romanticization of Conrad Fisher.
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