First, I have to give The Summer I Turned Pretty Season 3 Episode 3 a round of applause for simply being one of the messiest installments of the series to date.
The series is running full-speed ahead into the love triangle messiness, and it has spilled over into every aspect of our central trio’s world.
And this entire third season seems deadset on not letting Belly and Jeremiah have a single moment of unadulterated joy that doesn’t come with a caveat.
Because they don’t have a single person in their lives who is on their side, and neither of them is emotionally mature enough to navigate the difficulties they face in this relationship.
Oh, yeah, and one look at Conrad again, and good old Bells damn near stopped in her tracks, slack-jawed, and you could feel all the feelings that she carries for him rushing back to the surface.
You know, typical TSITP things.
The gist of this story? It feels like something ripped out of My Best Friend’s Wedding.
Jeremiah’s chasing after Belly, Belly’s chasing after Conrad, he would be chasing her back if his four years of therapy and friendship with Agnes taught him to use his words properly, and we’re all aboard the messiest ride ever.
But as much as the season is doing a rather jarring (but book-appropriate, yes, I know, I KNOW) pivot to highlight why Belly and Jeremiah aren’t working and that maybe it’s Conrad who is her future, the setup?
There’s a winning third option that I desperately need.
Because behind all the love triangle stuff and unsettling family trauma, there’s something that’s so pronounced when it comes to our protagonist: at 21, she’s still no closer to “knowing” herself or forming her own identity than she was at 16.
Ironically, it’s the characters outside the Fisher-Conklin circle who exude the most wisdom and express the most reasonable takes this season.
I’ve found Agnes to be incredibly compelling and the exact type of energy that Conrad needs in his life. She’s a reflection of someone who can healthily handle her unrequited love and move on.
Agnes is also someone who simultaneously supports and pushes Conrad. She’s been the perfect ear for him to bend when necessary, but she’s been the only character on this show who adequately calls him out on his shit and holds him to account, too.
Redbird shows similar signs with Jeremiah, which is a relief considering the entirety of the season has boxed him into a corner in such an alarming way. Something tells me he’s the only person in Jeremiah’s life at the moment who sees past his “performance” coping mechanism and doesn’t denigrate him.
And then there’s Anika, who is the exact type of friend that Belly needs in this stage of her life. My only frustration is that we haven’t seen more of it.
Anika brings a fresh approach to how she speaks to Belly, encouraging her to stop people-pleasing, figure out what she wants out of life, and stop waiting for people to like her.
It took Anika’s pearls of wisdom for Belly to truly click into place that the most satisfying outcome for this finale season is Belly choosing herself.
Why? Because she still doesn’t even know who she is. Ironically, it’s college where many young adults start to come into their own.
Free from the confines and restrictions of their childhood and the comfort and consistency of their family or the same friends and acquaintances they’ve known most of their lives, college is where one’s world finally expands.
Typically, you meet new people, learn different things, socialize in a way you never did before, and find out who and what you really are and could be.
However, we saw during the TSITP premiere that it wasn’t the case for Belly.
And it’s no one’s fault but her own here. She doesn’t seize opportunities, expand her horizons, or learn how to put herself out there and see what she’s made of.
Instead, she clings to those closest to her as best as she can, and it has severely stifled her growth.
It’s disheartening to piece together that she’s spent her entire college experience rotating between spending time with Jeremiah, Taylor, and Anika.
And the Greek Life isn’t her cup of tea, which has caused friction between her and Jeremiah and Taylor, who fully immersed themselves in frats and sororities.
She’s spent her entire life revolving around Fisher boys. Now, at 21? She’s still chaining herself to Fisher boys.
There are many reasons why she and Jeremiah getting engaged is a mistake. Neither of them is ready for that; their relationship has endured too much turmoil, and it’s evident that Belly still has lingering feelings for Conrad.
But more specifically, the idea of Belly going from crushing on these boys for nearly every summer of her life, and roughly four years of being attached to the hip with Jeremiah, and then walking down the aisle with him?
It’s horrifying because there isn’t a single second where we’ve seen Belly come into her own.
At the core of The Summer I Turned Pretty, the series is a coming-of-age story. And so much of that genre is about self-identity and growth.
However, when you strip this series of its love triangle, it leaves very little in terms of self-discovery for our protagonist.
It’s three seasons and roughly five years since we met Belly, and she’s still a girl who walks with trepidation and molds her thoughts and feelings around those around her.
There’s an immaturity and naivety to her that still lingers.
She still often lives to make other people happy, making decisions that she feels are in service to others. A brilliant young girl who is willing to sacrifice the opportunity of a lifetime studying in Paris to be with her boyfriend — that’s a Belly problem.
And it’s solely a Belly one, as we already saw that said boyfriend isn’t begging her to make such a sacrifice, and saying yes to a proposal because she doesn’t want Jeremiah to be alone or feel like he doesn’t have family? That’s something she needs to unpack.
She spent a lifetime pining after Conrad, putting up with the adverse effects of emotional unavailability.
And she’s spending her present feeling as if she has to be Jeremiah’s savior.
Belly clings to these boys as if her entire identity revolves around the roles that she can play in their lives.
Her passions and goals often fall by the wayside as she doesn’t even know how to define herself outside of these immediate people in her life.
And the third season, thus far, has put a magnifying glass on our protagonist. Her flaws and shortcomings are more glaring than ever.
I cannot think of a more satisfying conclusion for Belly than her putting a pause on the Fisher brothers, getting some space to figure out who she is, what she wants, and what her world can actually look like beyond them, and for the first time, choosing herself.
If it comes down to a choice — between two brothers, her first loves, the boys next door, so to speak — it’s a decision she can make after her path of self-discovery.
The third season is the perfect setup for the show to do something more empowering than the books — let Belly choose Belly, whoever that young woman is, whatever she could be, wherever the road takes her.
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