The Summer I Turned Pretty Series-Finale Recap: Infinity

The Summer I Turned Pretty
At Last
Season 3 Episode 11
Editor’s Rating ★★★★★
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What do the laws of time and space and basic economics mean, anyway, in the face of infinite love? If there are infinite worlds, every version of Belly chooses Conrad in every single one of them. If Conrad met Belly tonight for the first time, he would still love her. It has been the summer Belly turned pretty for more than half a decade at this point, and Belly has been in love with Conrad Fisher the entire time, including the three years she was also in love with his brother, Jeremiah. 

The fact that none of what’s happening in the final episode of The Summer I Turned Pretty makes any logistical sense is utterly unimportant. Jeremiah has had a job for what, seven months now, and he’s already Boston’s hottest up-and-coming chef. He has been food-prepping since 5 a.m. for some pop-up event starring himself, which is being organized by either Taylor personally or the public-relations firm she works for. Before you have time to ask if any of these kids is being paid — and, if so, by whom — some disaster has forced them to move the whole event to the Cousins house, just so we, as in you and I, can see that beautiful waterfront property one last time. The only thing you need to take away from any of this is that Jeremiah is doing fine both emotionally and professionally. He’s kissing Denise in the kitchen, for one, and Dick Dad, who just weeks ago was lecturing eloquently on the virtues of knowing when to stay away, crashed the event just to say he’s proud of him: “I thought that went without saying.” Classic Dick Dad! And while Jeremiah was becoming Anthony Bourdain, Denise and Steven were out acquiring enough seed money for their little company to send them immediately to Silicon Valley. And Taylor is coming with, because she can do PR anywhere. All problems solved — hooray. On to the good stuff.

By the time Conrad parks himself on Belly’s doorstep, she has been living in Paris for either ten months or several years, based on her attitude. In any case, he is stunned to see her roll up on the back of Benito’s Vespa looking uncharacteristically chic in her tan sweater-and-shorts set. The Belly he remembers is very much a jeans and head-hanging-out-the-car-window kind of girl but has the aura of Sabrina post–culinary school (IYKYK).

Now, we, the viewers, know that Belly is equally thrilled to see Conrad, because we see her hastily reapply her classic red lip and ask herself what the fuck she’s doing. Conrad does not have this advantage, so all he gets is Belly coolly confirming that she does, in fact, have a lot of plans for her birthday but she’ll squire him around the sights for the afternoon if he wants. Remember that time and space are as malleable as Play-Doh in this universe, so they do a Big Bus tour of the city, the Louvre, and Versailles with time to spare for the Eiffel Tower and Jim Morrison’s grave before Belly has to go to her birthday dinner, which she belatedly invites Conrad to. I’m sure there is an etiquette book stashed in Susannah’s attic somewhere that could have told Belly the polite thing to do would have been to invite Conrad to her birthday dinner immediately. And clearly she wanted to, just based on the dress she chose, but she must have been thinking it would get in the way of her moving on, which turns out to have been a moot point because Belly was never actually moving on. Moving on is not really what this show is about. 

Because it is the finale, this is an episode chock-full of mea culpas, most of which are professed under the moonlight along the Seine. Conrad admits he thought Belly was staying in Paris — famously the most beautiful city in the world — to punish herself, which is close to the most insane thing he’s ever said on this show. He also apologizes for prom. Belly says she didn’t answer his letters because she was trying to move on. And did she? No! 

It’s suddenly very much on, to the tune of “Dress,” the sexiest Taylor Swift track. We’re making out on the street. We’re making out in the back of the cab. We’re making out in the stairwell. We’re reaching under the skirt (okay, Mr. Bridgerton!). Then we’re back at Belly’s enormous apartment and we’re getting very naked. We’ve waited a long time for a sex scene this good, and I, for one, was not disappointed.

It is only in the wee gray hours of the postcoital moonlight that the hardest-working ghost Wasp in show business makes her appearance. Conrad is literally ready to skip his whole Brussels conference in order to laze around in bed with Belly for the next several days, but Belly has cold feet. She asks if the only reason they love each other is because it’s what Susannah would have wanted. Yes, excellent question, Belly. I have been asking this question for three seasons of this show. Conrad scoffs that he does not love Belly just because his mother thought it would be cute if they got married. She’s not so sure, so she sends him packing. Is this it? Is this really the end of Bella and Edward of the East Coast? Don’t be ridiculous. No sooner has Conrad tearfully disappeared around the corner than Belly suddenly decides she has done quite enough growing and evolving for one coming-of-age story. “I have brown hair and brown eyes, and I love Conrad Fisher,” she says in voice-over. Cue the Taylor Swift! Again! Now we’re running through the streets. We’re running through the train station. We’re running through the train. And there he is. “I love you”s are exchanged. Tears are shed. Lips are kissed. All is well. Belly has chosen Conrad, and he has chosen her, and the wish cast in the first season of The Summer I Turned Pretty has finally been fulfilled.

There are very few series willing to treat this particular kind of teenage fantasy — what if the cute older boys you grew up crushing on fell desperately in love with you one summer — with such earnestness. In any other show, if the heroine’s ex-boyfriend suddenly shows up out of the blue the moment she has finally stopped hoping he’ll do just that, she dumps him with a fiery girl-power speech. The Summer I Turned Pretty lets that fantasy play out as the heroine (and all of us, at one point or another) originally fantasized. They come together in a blaze of passion and declare their devotion with little to no thought for the pedestrian realities of life. At this point, I am the only one still preoccupied with how in God’s name they are going to get through another family holiday.

But I really shouldn’t be. Because if there’s anything that three years of watching this show has taught me, it’s that eventually everything works out exactly as it’s supposed to — in this universe, at least. 

Good Luck, Babe

• And that picture-perfect ending will actually be depicted in a forthcoming movie about one last milestone in Belly’s life that has yet to be explored, which was announced today. I don’t think Belly and Conrad’s story can sustain one more breakup, so I have to assume the milestone is something slightly less sexy, like her first job or (God forbid) childbirth.

• Benito gave Belly an oversize, sexy photograph of her for her birthday, which is more than enough explanation for why they broke up. 

• Denise and Jeremiah got together for one kiss, but she’s still moving to California, so what was it all for? Was it for the line “I can’t believe nepo baby is kissing me!”? 

• It feels important to note that the summer Belly refers to as “the summer I turned pretty” is the one Conrad refers to as “the summer my mom got sick.” 

• The less said about the goofy “Christmas in Paris” photo montage, the better.