SPOILERS AHEAD
No matter whether you’re on Team Conrad, Team Jeremiah, or Team Belly needs to go to therapy, this past season of The Summer I Turned Pretty was quite the emotional rollercoaster. Season two picks up a year after the start of Season one. Belly is just about to finish her Junior year of high school but finds herself distracted from her goals of volleyball captainship and college applications by flashbacks from the past year. Make sure to grab some tissues and a pint of ice cream because the first couple of episodes are brutal. We find out that Susannah succumbed to her battle with cancer in the winter, and soon after Belly and Conrad’s relationship fell apart.
After causing a scene at Susannah’s funeral, Belly finds herself on the outs with both of the Fisher brothers and her mom Laurel. If that isn’t quite heart-wrenching enough, don’t worry, it gets worse. Conrad and Jeremiah find out that their mother’s beloved beach house was actually willed to their spiteful Aunt Julia who plans to sell it.
Not willing to accept that the house that held so many memories could be taken away, Conrad ditches finals week at Brown and runs to the beach, which prompts a desperate Jeremiah to reach out to Belly for help. Wanting to make things right, Belly, her brother Steven, and her best friend Taylor return to Cousins Beach and she finds herself right back in the middle of her love triangle with the enigmatic Fisher brothers.
The group is joined by old and new friends including Belly’s former flame Cam Cameron and the Fisher’s cousin, Skye, as they scheme to save the beach house from being sold. While waiting on news about the house, the gang competes in boardwalk carnival games, breaks into a country club for a sleepover, and throws a killer house party complete with roller skates and disco lights. At the beginning of the season, a devastated Belly believed she would never get past her love for complicated, unpredictable Conrad, but to her surprise, she begins falling for easygoing and flirtatious Jeremiah.
Over the course of eight episodes, Belly wrestles between her past with Conrad and her possible future with Jeremiah, and like all good love triangles, it is agonizingly hard to pick a side. There’s also a completely adorable subplot that sees Steven realizing his feelings for Taylor who he hurt earlier in season one, and them rekindling their romance. The scene at the party where he remembered her middle name when her own boyfriend didn’t, is proof that it’s truly the little things that make all the difference.
Ultimately, the beach house is saved, Belly repairs her relationship with her mom and Conrad manages to achieve his dream of transferring to Stanford after completing his finals at Brown. With everything finally settled, there’s only one choice left for Belly to make, Team Conrad or Team Jeremiah? At the end of Season two, Belly finds herself more drawn to Jeremiah, who had been a constant support to her throughout the season, and they seal the deal with a jaw-dropping, instantly viral kiss (oh please, don’t act like you haven’t watched it a hundred times).
Personally, I believe that this season of The Summer I Turned Pretty was all about the messy nature of grief and the evolution of first love. Sometimes life doesn’t work out as planned, sometimes tragedies alter our sense of reality, and sometimes your dream person turns out to be just that, a dream. While I think that Belly and Conrad have history on their side, I think Jeremiah is exactly what she needs as she adjusts to a life without the presence of her beloved Susannah and where loving Conrad is no longer the center of her universe. Jeremiah encourages Belly to do the things that bring her joy, whether that’s volleyball, going on a boardwalk ride, or dancing around the house.
During times of upheaval, doing things for yourself is the best defense you have against falling victim to heartache. Will Conrad prove himself in the upcoming season, or is it Team Jellyfish all the way? Only time will tell, but you can bet my friends and I will be there with tissues and popcorn to watch it all unfold.