‘The Summer I Turned Pretty' Season 3, Episode 2: 5 Things You May Have Missed, From ‘To All The Boys' Parallels To 'Red' References And More

Yahoo

23-07-2025

The Summer I Turned Pretty's Season 3 premiere ended with a heartbreaking reveal that sent Belly (Lola Tung) tearfully sprinting away from Jeremiah (Gavin Casalegno).
Season 3, Episode 2, 'Last Christmas,' shows her processing Jere's betrayal and questioning their future together, while remembering a secret of her own that could change everything if she let it…
Spoilers for Season 3, Episode 2 ahead.
In hopes of distracting herself from thoughts of Jeremiah and Lacie's Spring Break hookup, Belly gets her passport for Paris. She's taking the letdown hard and even shutting Taylor out, but when Steven gets into a car accident after a fight with Tay, the friends reunite in the hospital and Jeremiah shows up for support. Belly's unable to reach her parents (who are casually hooking up at a literary conference), but in a heroic twist, Conrad asks for a favor on the first day of his summer clinic job, and his Stanford supervisor ensures Steven gets the best care. Unfortunately, Conrad gets fired before his shift ends, but thankfully, Steven is OK! Still, the accident gives everyone a scare and shifts priorities. Before the end credits roll, Belly agrees to try again with Jere, and — wait for it —accepts his spontaneous marriage proposal!
Since The Summer I Turned Pretty is such a thoughtfully-crafted love letter to fans, each week until its September 17 finale, Decider will be taking a closer look at each episode and highlighting five moments that deserve to be put under the microscope. Whether they're blink-and-miss-it details, brilliant Easter eggs, or major scenes that need to be talked through in greater depth, we're here to obsess over, hypothesize, and dissect the series alongside you. We're also shouting out a standout needle drop each episode, since the show's soundtrack absolutely slaps.
From the walls of Belly's dorm room and more 'Red' references to masterful Jenny Han Easter eggs and more, here are five things you may have missed in The Summer I Turned Pretty Season 3, Episode 2, 'Last Christmas.'
The Posters In Belly's Room
In Season 3, Episode 1, we dissected the photo wall in Belly's dorm room. And in Episode 2, we got a glimpse at two posters that carry major meaning in TSITP's world. The first is a poster for Sabrina, the 1954 film starring Audrey Hepburn, Humphrey Bogart, and William Holden. Fans know that Belly loves old movies and even watched Sabrina on her drive-in movie date with Cam (David Iacono) in Season 1. But a Sabrina poster was also the inspo behind TSITP's Season 3 promo shot that show Jere kissing Belly on the cheek as Conrad looks on. For those who don't know, the movie shows Hepburn's character, Sabrina, in a love triangle of sorts with two brothers. Sound familiar?! Fans can't help but wonder if the references are teasing TSITP's endgame, which, if we're going by movie parallels, would be Conrad.
Speaking of Conrad, there's also a Bye Bye Birdie poster in Belly's dorm. In Book 3, Belly reminisces about watching old musicals on Wednesday nights as a kid with her mom. She explains that her favorite was Bye Bye Birdie, and says she used to sing, 'We love you, Conrad, oh yes we do. We love you, Conrad, and we'll be true.' Instead of Conrad Birdie, however, she was admittedly singing about Conrad Fisher. Another endgame hint?!
Belly Wearing Red (Again)
As the trailer for TSITP Season 3 taught us, in terms of Taylor Swift songs, Conrad is 'Red' and Jeremiah is 'Daylight' (aka 'golden'). After Belly was spotted wearing red in Season 3 promo material, fans believed the wardrobe could be another intentional Belly/Conrad endgame tease — especially when the bold color continued to appear throughout the two-episode premiere. In Episode 1, Belly wore a red shirt, and later, when Conrad called Jere and she answered the phone, she was wearing red sunglasses. In Episode 2, after her fight with Jeremiah, she wore a RED jacket with GOLDEN stripes, ate from a Ramen cup that also featured red and gold at a table with red mustard and yellow ketchup bottles (am I unwell?!), and wore red PJs in her Conrad Christmas flashback. Now, people are allowed to wear red whenever they please! But knowing Jenny's attention to detail, it's hard not to feel like Belly's wardrobe colors here were purposeful.
More Top-Tier Jenny Han Easter Eggs (Christmas Flashback Edition)
The Season 3 premiere showed a photo of Belly and Jere dressed as Lara Jean Covey and Peter Kavinsky for Halloween in an adorable nod to To All The Boys I've Loved Before, but the Jenny Han-iverse references didn't stop there! In Episode 2, fans clocked more subtle parallels between TSITP, To All The Boys, and XO, Kitty, including the side-by-side floor lay and the classic 'Girl Falls, Crush Stares Down Before Helping Her Up' scene. We see you, Jenny!
BONUS: When Belly does finally leave the floor, does it, uh, look like Conrad is carrying her like a groom would carry a bride over a threshold? Interesting.
The Crossword Puzzle Book
Sorry, we're not done with Episode 2's Jenny Han-iverse references yet. But the crossword puzzle book is just so major that it deserved its own entry! During the Christmas flashback, when Belly had her feelings realization for Conrad, fans noticed (and were not happy with!) her narration saying, 'a part of me will always love you' instead of 'I still love you,' like she did in the book. But a brilliant crossword puzzle scene made up for the disaapointment.
After Conrad left the Cousins house, Belly found a 'Merry Christmas' note he left her in his book of crossword puzzles and picked up a pencil to answer 12 Down, another Jenny Han novel: P.S. I Still Love You. If you look closely, you'll see that Conrad had already filled in and erased the answer. So Belly wrote the word 'STILL' again, a word that also mirrored her continual feelings for Conrad. In case that wasn't impactful enough, the word 'CROSSWORD' also appears in Taylor Swift's song, 'Red' (aka Belly's Conrad anthem). She sings, 'Fighting with him was like trying to solve a crossword and realizing there's no right answer.' And if THAT wasn't impactful enough, the reflection of the crossword puzzle book on the table forms an infinity sign, a direct callback to Belly and Conrad's connection. IYKYK.
More Jeremiah Text-To-Screen Changes
In Season 3's premiere, we noted our shock over the decision to add an extra layer of chaos to Jeremiah's already Not Great circumstances by having him graduate late. (Was he not GOING THROUGH IT HARD ENOUGH?!) In Episode 2, TSITP does him dirty again — first, by revealing he slept with Lacie TWICE. Ouch! Then, by changing the proposal scene so that he didn't have a ring or get down on one knee to pop the question. Ouch again! (Especially when you remember he got down on both knees earlier to beg Belly's forgiveness. And Conrad got down on on knee in the flashback to help her up.) The scene was set to Benson Boone's 'Forever and a Day,' not a Taylor Swift song, which seems like another questionable sign. But TBD!
On the bright side, Jere's show proposal came off a lot less desperate and calculated than it did in the book, which I personally enjoyed. The spontaneity (which resulted in no ring/kneel), plus Belly's enthusiasm and cute ESP callback, made the moment read more like a mutual idea and less like an ultimatum, proof of commitment, or solution to the problem. Some of Jere's changes Season 3 text to screen changes still feel harsh to me, but maybe they'll make more sense down the line. And as for no ring, perhaps there's a cute ring buying scene and another down-on-one-knee redo ahead. We're trusting the process!
BONUS: Episode 2's Winning Needle Drop
Make no mistake: Episode 2 opening with Olivia Rodrigo's 'Lacy' as Belly tearfully processed Jere's Lacie betrayal was absolutely iconic. But Sufjan Stevens' 'Mystery of Love' setting the scene for the Conrad Christmas flashback was pure magic. And the transition to Conrad listening to the song in present day while getting a text from Belly? Jenny Han cooked.
Want more The Summer I Turned Pretty Season 3 Easter eggs? Be sure to read our '5 Things You May Have Missed From Episode 1″ recap and share any we missed!
New episodes of The Summer I Turn Pretty premiere Wednesdays at 3:00 a.m. ET on Prime Video.
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