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The Summer I Turned Confused: Why Is TSITP Struggling to Make a Case for Either Romantic Endgame?
Thus far, The Summer I Turned Pretty Season 3 has been an unusual ride.
Personally, there’s still something “off” about the execution of what’s transpiring. The time jump hasn’t served the storyline well, and possibly even hindered it.
The characters don’t quite feel like themselves, and as we’re nearing the halfway point of the season, I still don’t know where it’s going or how I’m supposed to feel.
Is TSITP Intentionally Undercutting Its Own Love Triangle?
However, for a series that prides itself on a coveted love triangle and often sacrifices much of the narrative to it, it’s the first time since the series began where I’m left uncertain about what the game plan is.
As previously noted, the only reasonable way the series can write itself out of whatever they’ve done thus far is for Belly to choose herself in the end.
Given its current state, the series is not doing a great job of setting up a Belly endgame with either guy. Some concerning aspects are unfolding this season, making it difficult for me to see the forest through the trees as it relates to Belly choosing between the Fisher Boys.
Right now, I don’t see how a romance serves any of the characters well beyond it simply happening because people want it to, and that’s something that has become glaring as the season progresses.
The irony of that isn’t lost on me. It’s the time in the series where everything should be coming into perspective, and we should be hurtling toward Belly finally making a clear-cut choice.
I envisioned a season where Belly would still waver, have some uncertainty, and fluctuate. Still, she’d eventually have an epiphany (whatever it is and for whomever) and everything would click into place.
By the midway point of the season, I assumed that things would be shaping nicely, and there would be some comfort in knowing that Belly was steady in her resolve.
Instead, there are flags on the play everywhere you turn.
TSITP Presents Belly and Jeremiah’s Engagment as a Coping Mechanism
I don’t have the emotional bandwidth to unpack whatever it is they’re angling to do with some of the characters and their respective traits, however bizarre they’re coming across.
But we have Belly and Jeremiah together at the moment. The infidelity/breakup fiasco still feels like a contrived plot point, and now it hangs over their heads like the Sword of Damocles as we have to wait yet again for more fallout from that.
The strong reactions to this engagement have veered into an uncomfortable excessiveness that only highlights some of the flaws within the characters, and the series more than serves as a decent narrative conflict.
I don’t actually understand why Belly and Jeremiah are trying to rush a wedding, and they don’t actually give them the narrative space to discuss it beyond “because plot.” The series is trying to give them the Romeo and Juliet treatment without grounding the stakes in any meaningful way.
But while it’s evident that they genuinely love each other and have been happy for the past four years, what’s been more alarming is seeing the undercurrents of codependency in their dynamic.
As the season progresses, and their families rally against them as if they’re committing some cardinal sin, the pair understandably are clinging together even more.
Except, now, it doesn’t become a story about a happy couple who want to get married and have to overcome the odds of the disapproval of their loved ones.
Comfort, Grief, and Security — Belly and Jeremiah’s Dynamic is Complicated
Instead, the series, whether intentionally or not, frames their relationship like the colloquial (because it’s not actually the textbook definition) version of a “trauma bond,” or, more aptly, their love has become a coping mechanism for both of them.
They begin the season highlighting how Belly seemingly makes Jeremiah her whole life while in college, which is the very opposite of healthy for any dynamic.
And they’ve since leaned into it further when it becomes evident that Belly doesn’t know where to go or who to lean on when she clashes with her mother.
Belly’s entire life thus far has revolved around the Conklins and the Fishers, and she’s planning a future where, regardless of who she ends up with, the outcome would be the same.
Jeremiah’s appeal to Laurel was heartbreaking, not just because he was desperately trying to get her approval and knew it was what Belly wanted and needed, but because he openly admits that his mother used to be his “person” and now, Belly is.
It’s this deeply vulnerable admission that makes you ache for a young man who still misses his mother and hasn’t processed her death. His world hasn’t been stable since Susannah’s death, and for him, Belly has been a grounding force and some stability.
If Belly & Jeremiah Aren’t Ready for Marriage, Doesn’t It Mean Neither Are Ready for Any Romance Period?
She’s also the only person in his life who validates him. This admission lends credence to Laurel’s concerns that the rush to the altar stems from trauma — just not the one she initially assumed (Steven’s accident).
And on Belly’s part, one has to assume (because frustratingly, the season doesn’t give us access to what’s really going on in her head), Jeremiah is her comfort and security.
For a young woman who may be cautious about actually entering the world on her own, being with Jeremiah makes her feel safe and grounded. She can also hide behind or within him.
In framing their love story this way, it only highlights how much growth they need to do as individuals before they can take these significant steps together as a unit.
As a result, their romance becomes less the focal point as wanting these two young adults to go to therapy, break free of the confinements of their families around them, and figure out their lives.
Love should be comforting and make you feel safe. But there are some much deeper issues to work on, and even if the goal is to have them be with one another one day, it’s evident with how the narrative is unfolding that they aren’t ready for this right now.
Overcorrection Undercuts Belly & Conrad’s Potential, Too
But neither is Belly and Conrad.
The series has always shown its hand when it came to preference, which is why it’s not always the most rewarding love triangle. Without the balance, it’s like playing a rigged game, and it can often suck the enjoyment and wonder out of things.
But to its detriment, the season is overcorrecting. In an attempt to tip things back into Conrad’s favor, it has come at the expense of Belly’s own maturity and growth.
She feels like a stunted character, perpetually stuck at 16, no closer to processing her feelings than she was before. And somehow, they’ve aged Conrad — highlighting it too much via Belly’s teasing — making their dynamic feel like they’re lightyears away from one another in placement in life.
At this point in the narrative, Conrad and Belly feel like they’re in a different stratosphere. It makes the chemistry between them strange to the point where I’m unsure how they can redirect it if the intention is to reunite them by season’s end.
There’s this unusual regression with how Belly feels in the narrative this season. They’ve laid the groundwork to validate Laurel’s concerns about how she doesn’t want Belly to repeat her mistakes.
Laurel’s fear is that she doesn’t want Belly to sacrifice herself and her future before she’s had a chance to know herself or experience anything. It’s a perfectly reasonable take.
But it’s also something that Laurel should’ve been instilling in Belly for some time. Since we’ve known Belly, she’s been the girl who loses herself in those around her, and while that’s something that she could have worked through as a teen, it grows more concerning as she’s gotten older.
TSITP Sacrificed Belly’s Evolution for the Love Triangle; Now It’s Backfiring
Because, as it stands, Belly doesn’t properly align with Conrad right now either.
If anything, the overcorrection of having Conrad evolve offscreen during the time jump and Belly regress or feel stagnant makes them feel more incompatible than ever.
What often stood between Conrad and Belly was his emotional repression and detachment clashing with her vulnerability and emotional openness. Now, Belly’s emotional vulnerability comes across childlike and naive, and subsequently, Conrad’s reaction feels oddly paternalistic.
I don’t know what I’m supposed to gather from that. Because by TSITP’s attempt to catapult Conrad into a more evolved person, the chasm between him and a jarringly immature Belly feels just as wide, if not wider now.
Despite their moments and Conrad’s longing looks and pining, because Belly doesn’t actually feel like her own realized person, placing her into a romantic relationship with Conrad doesn’t feel fair to either of them or narratively satisfying either.
It’s also one of the many ways the season feels so “off.”
And that’s an unusual place for the series to be in right now, given the fact that we should be leading to an endgame revelation, no?
Can TSITP Actually Pull Off an Endgame By the End of the Season?
At this rate, it would likely require either Belly to take a beat from relationships to figure herself out first, which could be a controversial choice for a series that hinged on a love triangle.
Otherwise, it may require another time jump for Belly to revisit her love for the Fisher boys and make a decision with the maturity and clarity it requires.
Hey, the final season could pull this off, and Belly and whichever Fisher brother of her choosing may prevail at the end.
I don’t care how it ends, I just want to enjoy the journey.
But I also want it to be narratively satisfying, and right now, it feels like they’ve written themselves into a corner, and coming out of it has become a testy experience. Maybe they’ll pull something out of their hats. I’m curious to see!
Agree? Disagree? Have a theory or speculation? Have at it in the comments below. Be kind. Be respectful. Thank you! Watch TSITP Online
Hit the comments, or share this article with someone who will want to debate about it. Entirely up to you!
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