‘The Summer I Turned Pretty' is back and people are going to have some big feelings about it

CNN

16-07-2025

There's a lot to unpack about third and final season of 'The Summer I Turned Pretty' – and we don't just mean Belly's (Lola Tung) college duffle bag.
Prime TV on Wednesday released the first two episodes of the summery, love triangle-laden series, which picks up after a four-year time jump to find Belly in her junior year at the fictional Finch College with her boyfriend Jeremiah Fisher (Gavin Casalegno). Meanwhile, his older brother and Belly's ex, Conrad (Christopher Briney), is studying to be a doctor at Stanford University.
While Belly and Jeremiah are still very much going strong, viewers are instantly reminded that the love triangle between the two brothers and Belly is still, of course, very much a thing, but not the focus of the first two episodes.
The drama in these first two episodes – which take place largely outside of Cousins Beach, other than a select few flashbacks – stems largely from the conflict between Jeremiah and Belly, after Belly learns that Jeremiah cheated on her during a spring break trip to Cabo. The entire situation was very Rachel Green and Ross Gellar – a 'we were on a break' scenario.
Jeremiah thought they were broken up when he went to Cabo; Belly did not.
It was safe to assume some polarizing plot developments would ignite the show's passionate fandom, given the series released a preemptive warning to its active online community of viewers, asking them to 'keep the conversation kind' in a statement posted to its official X page ahead of the Season 3 debut.
The show provided its followers with some guidelines, writing that users who engage in hate speech, bullying, targeting cast or crew and harassing or doxxing other members of the community would be 'banned.' The post did not detail how the rules would be enforced.
'I think we see with a lot of these love-triangle stories, people want the leading girl to end up with someone,' Tung told Teen Vogue in an interview published last week. 'When people have an attachment to the characters, they want to see it come together at the end.'
Tung continued, 'I'm so grateful that they care so much, but people get a little scary about it.'
The strong feelings are likely to continue all season, especially given that the second episode ends with Jeremiah proposing to Belly – a scene that has caused much discussion among show viewers.
It all happened under unsurprisingly dramatic circumstances.
After breaking up over Jeremiah's infidelity, the pair were brought back together after Belly's brother Steven (Sean Kaufman) was hospitalized following a car accident.
With a little nudge from her friend Taylor (Rain Spencer), Belly forgave Jeremiah, who had been at the hospital for support.
During a walk outside the hospital, after Belly forgives Jeremiah and tells him never to hurt her like that again, for which he promises, Jeremiah proceeds to ask Belly if she will marry him.
Without presenting her with a ring (it matters!)… Just moments after her brother finally woke up from a medically induced coma (what?)…
And she said yes (Oy vey).
Book readers knew this was coming, but it still probably felt just as cringe on screen as it did on paper.
It's not that Jeremiah can't be forgiven for a mistake, it's that Belly deserves better. (Here's lookin' at you, team Conrad people.)
After all, Jenny Han, the author of the books on which the series is based, herself told People magazine in an interview published Wednesday that, as far as she's concerned, it's 'debatable' whether or not what Jeremiah did was considered 'cheating or not.'
That we care at all is the ultimate testament to how good of a job the actors are doing on this show. Big plot twists will invite big feelings, which are fine, as long as they're accompanied by civility in equal measure.
New episodes of 'The Summer I Turned Pretty' Season 3 will be available to stream on Wednesdays until the series finale on September 17.