The series’ end coincided with the announcement of a feature film that will properly wrap up the dramatic love story.
The series’ end coincided with the announcement of a feature film that will properly wrap up the dramatic love story.
A week before the official end of summer 2025, the final episode of Prime Video teen drama “The Summer I Turned Pretty” released Sept. 17.
Based on the eponymous literary trilogy by Jenny Han, “The Summer I Turned Pretty” premiered its first season in 2022. Three years and TikToks later, millions continue to follow the dramatic summer life of Isabel “Belly” Conklin (Lola Tung).
Since birth, Belly’s spent every summer in the fictional Cousins Beach at the house belonging to her mother’s best friend, Susannah Fisher (Rachel Blanchard). It was in this summer home where Belly grew up alongside — and eventually fell in love with — Susannah’s two sons.
Conrad Fisher (Christopher Briney), the brooding and mysterious older brother with a tendency to shut people out, is Belly’s childhood love. His younger brother Jeremiah (Gavin Casalegno), an archetypical golden retriever boyfriend, is Belly’s long-time best friend who she begins to move past platonic with in the first season.
From deciphering the meaning behind Taylor Swift song choices in the soundtrack to jewelry color analyses, online discussions regarding the teenage love triangle were impassioned to the point the show’s social media accounts released a post cautioning against cyberbullying.
Prime Video reported season three’s premiere episodes garnered over 25 million global viewers within its first week of release.
Following a four year time jump from the end of the second season, Belly finds herself spending another summer in Cousins, not having matured much from her teenage self.
From the July 16 start of the final season, shifts in characters’ actions and personalities are frustrating, doing little to progress the plot. While there were a few endearing scenes, most felt rushed and awkward as excessive, crammed plot points sped up the pacing throughout the 11 episodes.
Scenes between Belly and Conrad evoke an off-putting air of paternalism from the former season. Conrad wiping Belly’s face with the bottom of his T-shirt in the fifth episode is more reminiscent of what a father would do to clean a child’s face than a show of affection between lovers. While there is obvious chemistry between Tung and Briney, these writing choices for the pair minimize Belly, failing to give her space to grow past the ten-year-old version of herself.
Belly, with her preference in brothers fluctuating frequently between scenes, is not the only character to have lost emotional maturity. Where Jeremiah used to be one of the better characters at rationally discussing his feelings, this season he reacted more erratically to hurt than he did as a teenager.
Whether the personality change was a decision to progress the plot or show a character fed up with always being second best, Casalengo portrays the defeatist mentality of his character as he conforms to corporate life, becoming a shell of his once vibrant and outgoing personality.
In the last three episodes, there’s still hope for Belly’s character development as she takes charge of her life, making her first definitive choice in the series by moving to Paris.
Tung’s portrayal of living far from home without a strong sense of self is satisfying to watch as Belly begins to discover who she is without a Fisher brother by her side. After spending most of the series unassured and desperate to please those around her, it’s a refreshing change to see her stand up for herself.
Just as the protagonist is growing into a confident, independent young woman, memories of summer’s past begin to trickle into her present. The writing quality is weakened as Belly’s maturity is unraveled by old pictures and mementos in the show’s final scenes.
The conclusion is rushed, lacking a satisfying goodbye to the characters as major plot points from the books were left out entirely and ones created for the show were unresolved.
The same day the finale released, Prime Video announced on social media a “The Summer I Turned Pretty” movie is in the works and will act as a proper finale to Belly’s story. While the idea of gaining full closure sounds enticing, expected drama between Belly and the Fisher brothers may not be worth a couple more hours in Cousins.
All episodes of “The Summer I Turned Pretty” are available to stream on Prime Video.
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