Breaking Down the Big Season 3 Finale of 'The Summer I Turned Pretty'

Conrad meets Isabel.

• Here's what you missed in The Summer I Turned Pretty's finale: Belly and Conrad finally reunited in Paris for her birthday.
• Taylor and Steven faced another big, possibly-relationship-ending, hurdle.
• Jeremiah got his happy ending.

Whether you're Team Bonrad, Team Jelly, Team Belly, or Team No One—I think we can all agree that the arrival of the finale of The Summer I Turned Pretty is a huge sigh of relief. After a tumultuous whirlwind of a third season that was full of bad decisions and even worse "solutions," we're finally at the end of the television version of the series (although a movie was just announced). And as sad as it is that TSITP Wednesdays have come to an end, we're also done holding our breath to see how this messy love triangle sorts itself out.

In the second to the last episode, Jeremiah (Gavin Casalegno) and Conrad (Christopher Briney) finally have a mature talk about everything that's transpired, and Jer essentially gives Connie his blessing to shoot his shot with Belly. Meanwhile, Belly a.k.a. Isabel (Lola Tung) decides to stay in Paris and live her best expat life. And so we see Conrad—who also happens to have a medical conference in Brussels—board a plane to Paris to surprise her for her 22nd birthday.

This already sets us up for what might seem like a predictable ending, but you'll find that Jenny Han and the creators of this show still had a few surprises up their sleeve. Keep reading for a full breakdown of everything that happened at the end of The Summer I Turned Pretty season 3.

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Conrad flies to Paris and immediately goes to Belly's apartment and rings the doorbell to no response. Then, of course, as Conrad sits on the sidewalk waiting for her, Belly rolls up the block on a scooter with Benito (Fernando Cattori). Taking off her helmet, we see Belly fully transformed into her grown-up persona Isabel, with her new bob and bright red lipstick. And when she sees her first love, she's caught off guard.

Belly ends up showing Conrad around the city, hitting up all the sites like the Arc de Triomphe, the Tuileries Garden, the Montmartre area, and Versailles (which is technically outside of Paris). She also shows him her spot, a rooftop with a sweeping view of Paris, and they have a sweet moment where Conrad tells her, "Paris never stood a chance." Conrad was supposed to catch a train to Brussels by night, but Belly invites him to her pre-birthday dinner with all her new friends.

The party is when things begin to really heat up between the two former teen sweethearts. Conrad is visibly jealous of the attention Belly pays Benito, but eventually learns that they're not a thing anymore. So after the gifts are exchanged, birthday candles are blown out, and a joint has been smoked, the two of them go off to a park by the Seine and dance in the moonlight. One thing leads to another, and the tension that's been building between them over the past three seasons culminates into one long, extremely hot, steamy, and intense sex scene.

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Wait, so Belly gives up her dreamy Parisian life for Conrad?

Not exactly. Post-steamy sex with Conrad, Belly begins to voice her doubts—questioning things like whether the only reason they love each other is because of Susannah (Rachel Blanchard). She also tells Conrad that she's not giving up Paris for him and that he shouldn't give up his dreams for her either. So at 4:00 AM, she insists that Conrad take the next train to Brussels. Clearly, this is her being confused and pushing him away.

Eventually, though, Belly comes to her senses and chases after Conrad and his train. She runs manically through the streets of Paris, through the station, and rushes through the train cars until she finds Conrad. There, on her actual birthday, she professes her love to the boy who's always had her heart and tells him, "Conrad, I choose you of my own free will. If there are infinite worlds, every version of me chooses you in every one of them." And, of course, she turns her necklace around to reveal the infinity pendant. They kiss and say their I love yous.

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What happens to Jeremiah?

In this finale, Jeremiah is dealing with problems of his own. Taylor (Rain Spencer) seems to have helped him go viral as a hot, young, up-and-coming chef. Now, the PR firm she works for has organized a seemingly last-minute pop-up dinner where he has to cook-up a four-course meal for 30 people. With no venue booked, they decide to do it at the summer house—which, of course, Jeremiah initially hesitates about due to much emotional trauma.

Then, everything goes wrong. Instead of scallops, the seafood supplier sends in oysters. The ramekins he needs for dessert are missing. The waitstaff they hired falls through, and so his frat bros need to step in. His dad shows up uninvited, with the unopened champagne bottles meant for his and Belly's wedding. On top of all of this, Steven (Sean Kaufman) and Taylor are having an explosive lover's quarrel.

But things work out in the end. Adam (Tom Everett Scott) even tells his son that he's proud of him, and always has been. Oh, and he and Denise (Isabella Briggs) have a makeout sesh and seem to be starting a thing—despite her and Steven relocating their company to San Francisco.

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What about Steven and Taylor?

Another wedge comes between this will-they-won't-they couple in the final episode. As if they haven't been through enough already! As mentioned, Denise and Steven need to relocate their company to San Francisco. The problem is, Taylor overhears this before Steven has had the chance to tell her. This raises questions about whether Steven ever intended to ask her to move with him, or if he was just going to leave and break up with her.

Once the two have the chance to sit down and talk everything through, Steven admits that he didn't want to ask her to move for him because he feels like she's already compromised her dreams for her mother—giving up an internship in New York to help Lucinda (Kristen Connolly) get her home salon up and running. He didn't want her to do the same. But Taylor tells him that she wants to allow him to pursue his dreams, and that her PR career won't suffer from a move to California. They decide to make the big cross-country move, and are happy to be on the same page in their relationship.

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What happens to the parents?

IDK about you, but the relationship I was most hopeful for here was John (Colin Ferguson) and Laurel (Jackie Chung). The divorced parents of Steven and Belly were rekindling the flames, and it seemed possible that they might get back together as more than just co-parents. But, alas, these hopes were slashed when Adam gets nosy and gets them to admit to being single again.

Adam, too, shares that Kayleigh (Emma Ishta) has left him. This might not be too big a surprise, given how much he was trying to avoid spending time with her parents. However, it does seem that this summer house parent trio have forged a genuine friendship — which makes sense given everything their kids have put them through together.

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At the end of the day, all you really need to know is: Team Bonrad wins.

The show doesn't go into detail about how Conrad and Belly go about their long-distance relationship, nor how everything else plays out. We don't know how their renewed relationship is received by everybody, how Jeremiah and Denise turn out, what happens to the friend group with Steven and Taylor moving to San Francisco, etc.

In the end, all we really get is a flash forward to an unspecified amount of years later, when Belly returns to Cousins Beach for the first time in a while. The parting shot, the last in the entire series, is of her and Conrad, and the house. But I guess all these unanswered questions are what the movie is for!