The Summer I Turned Pretty did it. The show actually forced its characters to have a legitimate conversation with each other and finally realize that maybe they were acting at the top of their intelligence. I am talking about Belly and Jeremiah, obviously.
**Spoilers for season 3 of The Summer I Turned Pretty lie ahead**
Episode 8 of season 3 was the moment everyone was waiting for: The wedding. Belly (Lola Tung) and Jeremiah (Gavin Casalegno) were set to get married even after Conrad (Christopher Briney) told Belly that he has never stopped loving her. Yet it took Belly a good while to actually find Jeremiah to tell him what happened and it didn’t go well.
There are a lot of moments in episode 8 that make it clear that Jeremiah and Belly are not mature enough for marriage. Like Jeremiah not realizing that just accepting a job and not talking it through with his fiancé was okay. Or when Belly spent her Bachelorette party crying over a boy who wasn’t her fiancé. They’re young and that’s okay but the two needed to realize that on their own.
Which is what ended up happening. Jeremiah, in one moment where I actually felt bad for him, shared with Belly how she didn’t want to share her love with Conrad and when you think about his life, that kind of makes sense. He was always second to his big brother and even his own father made his love for Conrad over him clear. So why wouldn’t Jeremiah want his wife to be completely in love with him and not also share love for his brother?
That honesty was new for Belly and Jeremiah and ultimately it ended their engagement and frankly? Good.
It started with Conrad
Conrad telling Belly how he felt might have been “selfish,” but it was what they both needed. Belly wasn’t thinking for herself. She gave up Paris, her mother, and her own self worth to be with Jeremiah. He cheated on her and, as we learned in this episode, blamed Belly for doing so. That’s not on her! She wasn’t honest with him but she didn’t cheat on him.
Which is really the biggest issue in Jeremiah’s lashing out on Belly and Conrad. At the end of the day, he cheated on her. Yes, Belly has always been in love with Conrad and that is clear but she DID choose Jeremiah and she didn’t cheat on him, despite the many chances he gave her by not showing up when he said he would.
She respected their relationship. He didn’t. And yes, she was lying to herself about her feelings for Conrad and him confessing his own feelings for her didn’t help the situation but the reality of these characters is that they all need to take a break from each other. Belly broke up with Conrad and went straight to Jeremiah and no one took a beat to realize that maybe they all should breathe and not be together.
But Conrad sharing his feelings for Belly the night before her wedding helped everyone do what was right for them, in the end. The Fisher brothers still need to chat though.
Now if only Jeremiah and Conrad were actually honest with each other…
What has ultimately always been the problem with the Fisher brothers is a lack of communication. Conrad was always the sweet brother, there for Belly and making sure his mother and everyone else was happy while Jeremiah got to be a kid and grow up as normal as possible. Jeremiah has taken the “beloved” nature of Conrad to heart and turned that into something nefarious in his mind.
While we all know Conrad being honest with Belly took a lot out of him, both Jeremiah and Belly saw it as him ruining their wedding and they’re right to think that way. Conrad didn’t mean it that way but that was ultimately what happened. Still, moments like this are when the Fisher brothers should be open with each other and seeing how Jeremiah spoke to Conrad in the end, that doesn’t seem likely.
Hopefully once the wounds begin to heal, the two will actually talk to one another but for now, they need to have the same honesty for each other that they did for Belly.
(featured image: Prime Video)
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