The Summer I Turned Pretty wrapped up its third and final season on the 17th of September, with an hour and twenty-minute final episode. Fans of the show worldwide tuned in to see how the show’s infamous love triangle would finally be resolved, however some fans of the original books were still left wanting more.
This season corresponded with Jenny Han’s third and final book in the trilogy – We’ll Always Have Summer – with Han herself as showrunner. We saw our protagonist Isabel ‘Belly’ Conklin (Lola Tung) returning to the fictional coastal town of Cousins, preparing to marry her childhood best friend Jeremiah (Gavin Casalegno) while wrestling with unresolved feelings for his older brother Conrad (Christopher Briney). The season takes place four years after the events of the second, and it definitely felt more mature, or as mature as a YA romantic drama can be, with the main characters now in their early twenties — we saw a greater importance being placed on Belly’s coming-of-age, and a message of finding yourself outside of romantic relationships, that could resonate far beyond its target audience.
The main surprise of this season was the sudden turning point in episode nine, as the drama-filled wedding storyline was wrapped up and the show’s main plot shifted to Belly making a new life for herself in Paris. While I thought this angle was an improvement on the lack of characterisation of Belly in the books, and allowed for the characters to develop outside of their romantic partners, unfortunately, it resulted in later episodes of the season dragging on with uninteresting side plots. It became predictable to viewers who Belly would ultimately end up with, as the story took a more ‘will they, won’t they?’ approach. This meant the build-up to the ending had to be slowly endured to get to that satisfying reunion.
Even with the time spent trying to develop these characters, the ending of the show itself was still rushed, attempting to quickly resolve about four romantic storylines one after another. In the resolution, Belly chooses between the two brothers, while their families and friends are reunited in Cousins. Phoebe Bridgers plays us out. Belly’s final narration tells us that she looks forward to all the summers that are yet to come.
The show concludes in a very open-ended way, unlike the book’s epilogue, which die-hard fans were eagerly waiting to see. However, to all those who were disappointed, there’s still a chance to see a definite ending for these characters. On the night the final episode premiered, Jenny Han unexpectedly announced that a The Summer I Turned Pretty movie is in the works at Amazon, and we will return to Cousins for one more summer.
“Live with Kelly & Mark Lola Tung interview close up” by Nielsoncaetanosalmeron is licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.
