In the game of love triangles, there’s always a loser. And in the season two finale of The Summer I Turned Pretty —aptly titled “Love Triangle” — that loser is … Conrad.
It’s been a very tumultuous summer for the central trio; after all it’s been only a few months since Conrad and Belly’s disastrous Prom, the slow dissolution of their relationship, and Susannah’s death and the subsequent fallout at the funeral. In “Love Triangle” (TSITP Season 2, Episode 8) Belly admits that in that amount of time, she’s fallen out of love with Conrad and into love with Jeremiah, even if Conrad accuses her of kissing his brother to make him jealous. But the truth is that when he saw her kissing Jeremiah, Conrad’s “Plan Belly” to win her back is immediately cut at the throat, and in true Conrad fashion he resorts to lying about his emotions by telling her that he doesn’t want her anymore.
Despite saying all of this to her, Conrad doesn’t make it easy for them. On their drive home from Brown, Conrad needles the two of them about Belly’s motion sickness and how she looks in his sweatshirt to prove he knows her best and is the one she really wants, and crosses the line when he asks who was a better kisser, trying to be her most worthy love interest.
But in order for Belly to move forward with her relationship with Jeremiah, he asks both Conrad and Belly to speak about the elephant in the room: Conrad’s obvious, unspoken lingering feelings. Jeremiah is smart—having been through this with the two of them before, he’s as sure as I am that Belly would run back to Conrad the second that he gained the courage to be honest about his feelings. This time, Jeremiah doesn’t want to wait for the other shoe to drop.
Of course, a major storm hits and the trio is stranded on their way home, forced to share a single motel room together. Belly takes the bed, flanked by a brother on the floor on each side of the bed, and consumed by the confusing situation she’s found herself in. Then, in the middle of the night, Conrad finally confesses. He softly walks back what he said earlier and tells her that she doesn’t need to respond right now. He just wanted her to know how he felt.
Belly wakes up early the next morning, probably because it’s near impossible to sleep after a confession like that, but when she emerges from the bathroom Jeremiah is gone. She’s immediately distressed that he’s jumped ship, but he reappears with breakfast in hand. Before she can say anything, he tells her that no matter what she decides, they won’t have a repeat of last summer where he ghosted her. This time, her happiness is what he cares about most. Instead of answering, she kisses him with “XO” by Beyonce soundtracking the moment.
When Belly goes back to the room to tell Conrad, he speaks first and takes back everything he said the previous night. It’s obviously a defense mechanism—one that his mom warned Belly about in a flashback where Susannah asked her to be patient with him (and the scene is soundtracked by “Bigger Than the Whole Sky” by Taylor Swift). He tries to give her back the infinity necklace that represented their relationship, forcing it into her hand when he says that this ending feels different than their previous stops and starts. Another Taylor Swift song “Exile” plays (seriously, how much is this show’s music budget?!) as Belly’s voiceover claims that she’s evicted him from her heart.
Jeremiah walks into the room and Conrad puts on a brave face, asking to be friends and saying that he’ll see them at July 4th before hopping on a bus back to the Cousins beach house. But once he’s outside of the door, he stops and slides down the wall, holding back tears and finally allowing himself to feel his emotions.
Things are briefly rocky for our new favorite couple Steven and Taylor as well. Back in the real world, Steven brings roses to a group hang where Taylor is standoffish and her friends reveal that her ex Milo made a diss album about Steven. Taylor bails on plans the following evening and semi-ghosts Steven, who fumes while listening to the songs directed at him.
But he’s not willing to give up this easily—he drives to Taylor’s before she leaves for volleyball camp and she finally admits that she’s scared about how much she likes him. Vulnerability doesn’t come easy to her, especially as Steven is about to leave for college, but he reassures her about how much he likes her and they make up. He better be telling the truth, or we’re gonna have some problems in season three.
Even Laurel gets a moment in the sun. Her flame Cleveland encourages her to go to a writer meetup in Brooklyn and she goes reluctantly, thinking that she’ll be a small fish compared to the city-based writers. Almost immediately she hits it off with another member who admits to being a fan of her work and she moves out of her comfort zone by reading a passage from her memoir about Susannah.
I would have loved to get more of Laurel’s storyline this season, but it’s certainly hard to find the space when her season one scene partner has passed away within the story. That said, she does have a crucial role as a guide for both Belly and Steven navigating their first relationships, and I loved her insight about how love changes with time—that one way to evaluate the status of the relationship is to consider how much of the future you think about with someone versus how much of it is based in the past.
In the final moments of the season, Belly goes to volleyball camp and begs for another chance with the team. Coach concedes after the entire team begs for her to be allowed to rejoin (I feel like she should be given some grace due to the grief she was clearly dealing with, but I guess the Coach has a zero tolerance policy) and we finally see Belly kick ass on the court. She looks over and sees Jeremiah watching from the stands, and her voiceover admits that this isn’t the future she ever imagined. Is it the future that she’ll stick with? I guess we’ll find out in season three.
Radhika Menon (@menonrad) is a TV-obsessed writer based in Los Angeles. Her work has appeared on Vulture, Teen Vogue, Paste Magazine, and more. At any given moment, she can ruminate at length over Friday Night Lights, the University of Michigan, and the perfect slice of pizza. You may call her Rad.
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'The Summer I Turned Pretty' Season 2 Finale Recap: "Love Triangle" - Decider
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