Belly is still caught between Conrad and Jeremiah on season 3 of Prime Video’s The Summer I Turned Pretty — but who did the character end up with in Jenny Han’s book series?
The popular show started as three novels about a love triangle between Belly (Lola Tung) and brothersConrad (Christopher Briney) and Jeremiah (Gavin Casalegno). The Summer I Turned Pretty served as the inspiration for season 1 while It’s Not Summer Without You was the basis for season 2.
Viewers were expecting season 3 to rely heavily on the events in Han’s third and final book in the series: We’ll Always Have Summer. Han, however, had other plans and has hinted that she wouldn’t be sticking strictly to the source material for the show’s conclusion. She also didn’t rule out a fourth season of the hit Prime Video series.
“Never say never. If the story is there, then I’m there. As a storyteller, you just get hit with inspiration all the time,” she told Entertainment Weekly in June. “If I had a really great idea that I was excited by, that I wanted to keep telling the story, and if [the stars] were excited to do it, then I would be so pumped. It really depends on if I feel like there is more story to tell.”
Vernon Sanders, who is the head of television at Amazon and MGM Studios, meanwhile, appeared to shut down the idea of expanding Han’s fictional universe, telling Deadline one month later, “That was probably wishful thinking for me at the time, and Jenny has stayed really focused on getting these seasons right.”
The executive noted that he hoped to continue to collaborate with Han on other projects.
“We’re pursuing new and different things with Jenny right now,” he noted. “She’s presented some other things that are related to this.”
Sanders concluded, “So once the full season is launched, we’ll get into conversations, and we’ll ask her to pick from the many things that she’s surfaced. But we’ve moved away from those conversations.”
Beware of spoilers if the show does follow the ending of the book series and keep scrolling for a breakdown of how the book series concluded — including whether Belly chose Conrad or Jeremiah.
Belly Conklin
In We’ll Always Have Summer, which was released in 2011, there was a two-year time jump from the last book where she had started dating Jeremiah. (The show jumped four years ahead.) Similar to the series, Belly learned Jeremiah hooked up with someone else on spring break — but later accepted his marriage proposal.
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While the book depicted Belly as a little more hesitant about the engagement, the reaction of Belly and Jeremiah’s family was similar in the book and the show. And because of her issues at home, Belly ended up at Cousins — with Conrad. Cue the emotionally-charged moments that stir up old feelings and we find ourselves at the end of the book where Belly realized she wasn’t over Conrad. Luckily, Conrad was also still in love with Belly, which he confessed to her the night before her wedding.
Belly ultimately didn’t go through with the wedding. Instead, her and Jeremiah ended their relationship and she chose to study abroad. After two years without any contact between Belly and Conrad, she received letters mostly until her college graduation where they reunited.
Conrad and Belly dated for two years before he proposed and the final scene in the book was their wedding day at Cousins.
Conrad Fisher
We’ll Always Have Summer gave Us Conrad’s perspective in addition to Belly’s. His narration revealed that he lied about not having feelings for Belly after their initial split. After staying away from Belly for two years — and living his own life in California — Conrad reunited with her at Cousins. Conrad attempted to support her engagement by convincing her mom to mend their rift and running wedding errands with her — all while trying to fight his own feelings for Belly.
The night of Jeremiah’s bachelor party, Conrad found out that his brother cheated on Belly on spring break. He tried to tell her — only to find out she already knew. This led to an argument where Conrad broke down and told Belly about his feelings for her, which she shut down. Conrad and Jeremiah fought the next morning and weren’t able to figure out their issues.
In the epilogue, Conrad contacted Belly for the first time two years after the events in We’ll Always Have Summer. They start dating after her college graduation and get married two years later at the beach.
Jeremiah Fisher
The last book is tough for Jeremiah, who admitted to cheating on Belly. He then proposed to show his remorse and spent the summer planning to marry Belly. But Belly and Conrad living together at Cousins created more problems between Jeremiah and Belly. The morning of his wedding, Jeremiah found out that Conrad confessed his feelings to Belly and Jeremiah went MIA.
Jeremiah and Belly ultimately break off their engagement and are on better terms by the epilogue. The younger Fisher brother is seen at Belly and Conrad’s wedding with a girl as he and Belly share a moment of understanding after their past ups and downs.
