The Summer I Turned Pretty has dropped it’s hotly-anticipated finale and fans have claimed the near ‘perfect’ final installment left them sobbing as it drew to a climax.
Fans have waited all series to find out which of the Fisher brothers Belly ultimately ends up with, after calling off her wedding to Jeremiah because she still has feelings for his brother and her ex-boyfriend Conrad.
Episode 11 – named At Last – reveals which of the siblings Belly’s heart really lies with, but it is not without its twists and turns and some viewers even claimed there was ‘one key scene’ missing from the finale.
But the supposedly ‘missing’ scene may hold a clue to the future of the show, along with a special note from its creator Jenny Han at the end of the episode.
The third series has left fans guessing over who Belly would end up with, showing her receiving letters from Conrad after moving to Paris, while also longing to hear from her jilted lover Jere.
The end of the previous episode showed Conrad changing his flight from Brussels to Paris in order to surprise Belly on her birthday, which they typically spend together.
The Summer I Turned Pretty has dropped it’s hotly-anticipated finale and fans have claimed the near ‘perfect’ final installment left them sobbing as it drew to a climax
The finale began with Conrad arriving on Belly’s doorstep after she gave him the address to her new apartment
The finale began with Conrad arriving on Belly’s doorstep after she gave him the address to her new apartment.
He spots her arriving back on the back of Benito’s moped, who unbeknown to viewers and Conrad, she split up with six weeks prior.
Belly remains composed as Conrad asks her to hang out, to which she agrees and says she will take his overnight bag inside, before losing all composure once she is alone.
Speaking to herself, she says: ‘What the f*** are you doing? Play tourguide for a few hours and then send him on his way.’
Across the Atlantic, Jeremiah and Denise are in their apartment and he says he knows Conrad has gone to Paris to see Belly. He says he is okay with it and the anticipation was actually worse than them reuniting
Denise then reveals than she and Steven are moving to California for their business but reveals that Taylor doesn’t know, before she walks in and overhears.
After showing Conrad some of the sights of Paris, he tells her: ‘I’ve spent a lot of time imagining your life here, and I’ll do anything, but I wish I could see Paris the way you do.’
Back in Boston, Taylor is having an extensional crisis about why Steven hasn’t told her he plans to move to San Fran and questions Denise if he is planning to break up with her.
Discussing them all leaving for San Francisco, Jere appears to have a realisation about him and Denise. He says he is kicking himself for not seeing it sooner before leaning in to kiss her
At the same time, Jeremiah is stressing because he has no venue to host his food event because the bar they plan to use has been forced to shut.
Denise suggests the ‘big beautiful house on the water’ in Cousins, but Jeremiah hasn’t been there since he and Belly called off the wedding.
After a few moments he reluctantly agrees to host the event there.
The next place Belly has chosen to take Conrad is a rooftop, which has breathtaking views across the city.
She tells him: ‘When I first got here and I was figuring everything out there were a lot of hours in the day, and the manager of the bar I work at, her name is Celine, used to work in this building and she is the one who told me about this rooftop.
‘There’s something about seeing Paris from here, all laid out, it just made things start to click for me. The way it all just beautifully comes together. In awe of it.
Conrad replies: ‘It’s like the human body, if you try to make sense of it, organ by organ, it’s a sisyphean task, it’s overwhelming, but if you take a step back and look at it as a whole. The body works together in concert and suddenly it makes sense. It’s f***ing miraculous. That’s not at all what you meant is it?’
Belly says: ‘No, yeah yeah. For a second you sounded like…
Belly introduces him to her friends and they all comment on how good looking he is
Over dinner, Benito confronts him over his intentions of being in France with Belly
Conrad recipes: Like a geek?
But she informs him: ‘Like 10-year-old you.’
Belly tells Conrad that standing on the rooftop she recalled him saying when he first saw the Pacific Ocean he felt like he was on another planet, like anything was possible. She tells him that Paris has become that for her.
Conrad tells her he always knew she could do it.
Belly asks Conrad if he wants to join her at dinner that evening and if he can get a late train, saying it would be nice to have an ‘old friend’ there.
Meanwhile, Denise, Taylor and Jere are at the beach house setting up the event and Steven arrives with supplies for the soiree.
Taylor doesn’t let on to her boyfriend that she knows he is planning to move, but tries to trip him up by saying she wants to find ways to make their apartment more ‘homey’. She suggests painting the living room and getting a cat.
Steven doesn’t them enthused and tells her to ‘take a beat’ on the pet buying. Taylor responds: ‘Yeah let’s take a beat you d***’.
In the next scene, Conrad is in Belly’s apartment and spots a photo of her and Benito while she is finishing getting ready in her bathroom.
When she comes out he tells her she looks beautiful and helps her with fastening her bracelet, they share a longing look before heading to the dinner.
Staring at him for several intense moments, she leans in to kiss him and then asks him to go come home with her
Belly introduces him to her friends and they all comment on how good looking he is.
Celine: ‘F*** me sideways you American s***. If this one’s this hot, what did the other one look like?’
His introduction with Benito is awkward as he tells him: ‘We’ve heard everything about you, you’re like a legend in Paris.’
Over dinner, Benito confronts him over his intentions of being in France with Belly.
Answering for him, Belly says that Conrad is over for a conference in Brussels but Benito quips back that Brussels is ‘not that close’.
It is revealed that Isabel has dumped Benito six weeks ago. He explains that he asked her to go to Mexico with him to meet his grandmother but she ‘shot him down’.
Belly says ‘you’ll always be the boy who taught me how to ride a scooter’, but Conrad insists ‘I’ll always be the boy who taught you how to ride a bike’.
Correcting Belly’s narrative about his stay, Conrad says: I’m not here for Brussels, I’m here because every year we would spend her birthday in Cousins at our summer house. But she’s here now so I thought I’d bring a little piece of Cousins to her.
Back in Boston Jere’s dinner is falling apart and so is Taylor and Steven’s relationship as he learns she knows about the San Fran move.
To add to the problems, Adam turns up with a case of champagne from Jeremiah’s wedding.
Things are going better at Belly’s dinner party as she opens gifts from her friends, including a joint from Celine which they pass round and share.
When she takes a toke, Conrad says: ‘I thought you said marijuana messes with white matter?’
Belly flirts back: ‘Do you memorise every little thing I’ve said?’
And Conrad says: ‘Yes’.
He later gifts her a vial of sand which he took from Cousins beach a few years ago on July 4th, when he realised he won’t be back for a while because he’s about to leave for college. He says the sand helps him feel less homesick.
Steven and Taylor talk about the move and she says she leave with him. He says he doesn’t want her to give anything up for him. But she says she isn’t.
Jeremiah and Denise are hanging out in the kitchen and she tries his food, he shares his insecurities about Conrad and she reassures him he’s a ‘ten’.
She adds: ‘You know you’re gorgeous.’
Discussing them all leaving for San Francisco, Jere appears to have a realisation about him and Denise.
He says he is kicking himself for not seeing it sooner before leaning in to kiss her.
Afterwards, Adam takes Jere aside and tells him how proud he is of what he’s achieved with the pop up dinner, but assures him that he isn’t surprised because he knows what he is capable of.
Adam tells Jere: ‘I’ve always been proud of you, I thought that went without saying. I guess I should have said so. I’m proud of you.’
In Paris, Belly and Conrad are walking home and he tells her he thought her move to France was about running away.
As Taylor Swift’s Out Of The Woods plays in the background, Belly heads out in pursuit of Conrad who has left to catch his train
But after seeing her life for himself he says he feels reassured that she has created something beautiful for herself and has only been happy to see it.
She says she has one more place she wants to take him. They arrived at the edge of a dimly lit canal and he asks her to dance.
Belly asks if he remembers the last time they danced together, at her prom, as she tells him she was a ‘brat’ about the night. They also joke about her telling him to ‘go to hell’ at Susannah’s funeral.
Belly tells Conrad she would read his letters ‘over and over’ when she was homesick and he asks her why it took her so long to write him back.
She says: ‘Because I had to move on. I had to let go of the past. I couldn’t do that if I was still holding on to you.’
Conrad: ‘And have you moved on?’
Staring at him for several intense moments, she leans in to kiss him and then asks him to go come home with her.
They are lying awake after having sex and Conrad says that he could delay his arrival in Brussels to stay for her birthday.
She tells him not to change his plans for her, because she won’t be changing hers for him because she ‘has a life here’.
Belly tells Conrad that he should take the next train out of Paris and he asks her if everything is okay.
She demands to know what he was planning by coming to see her and he tells her it’s because he loves her and wants to know if she still loves him.
Belly says: ‘I want to know if we love each other because we want to or because we were told to.’
He replies: ‘You think I love you because when I was six-years-old my mother thought we should get married?’
She questions: ‘What if you only love me because it’s what your mum wanted and then your mum died?’
When she finds him after boarding his train, she says: ‘Conrad. I chose you. With my own free will. If there are infinite worlds, every version of me choses you. In every one of them’
He defiantly tells her: ‘That is not why I love you, I have tried everything not to love you, for the sake of Jere, for the sake of not dragging you down with me and my grief. I have fought it, way before the summer my mum got sick. You’ve always been a precious person to me and I’ve always cared about you. At some point, I started to see you differently and that scared me because I didn’t want things between us to change but the way I feel about you, Belly, has nothing to do with my mom.’
‘If I met you for the first time tonight I would love you.’
She asks: ‘How would you know that?’
He says: ‘Because I’ve changed everything about myself and the one thing that never changes is that I love you.’
However, Belly can’t return the sentiment and she tells him: ‘Conrad I wish I could be as sure as you, but I can’t. Im sorry.’
Conrad leaves and Belly receives a text from her mother wishing her a happy birthday, creating a wave of realisation that she is not wrong for loving Conrad.
Belly’s narration says: ‘All this time I wanted to believe I changed, that I’m not the same girl I was. But I am still her, and was that girl so bad?
‘She followed her heart no matter what and despite all of her mistakes, I have to believe she is still worthy of love. I still love her. And I still love him. I have brown hair and brown eyes and I will always love Conrad Fisher.’
As Taylor Swift’s Out Of The Woods plays in the background, Belly heads out in pursuit of Conrad who has left to catch his train.
When she finds him after boarding his train, she says: ‘Conrad. I chose you. With my own free will. If there are infinite worlds, every version of me choses you. In every one of them.
She then shows him she is wearing the infinity necklace he gave her.
The episode then time jumps as Belly and Conrad arrive back in Cousins at the beginning of one summer, she says: ‘I didn’t go back that summer, but eventually I did. Nothing beats coming home after you’ve been gone a long, long time.
Viewers shared their thoughts after tuning into the final episode and admitted they couldn’t hold back their tears as they watched the rollercoaster ride
At the end of the episode, there is a letter from Jenny, dropping a hint that this won’t be the last fans see of Cousins
‘And just as it always had, the beach house held a million promises of summer. And just what might be.’
Viewers shared their thoughts after tuning into the final episode and admitted they couldn’t hold back their tears as they watched the rollercoaster ride.
Taking to social media to share their thoughts, they said: ‘Me? Crying because The Summer Turner Pretty has ended? Yes and’; ‘It was perfect. My emotions those last 15 mins lol’; ‘I’m already crying. I’M IN SHAMBLES JENNY’;
‘This episode did not disappoint Jenny. I love you. Thank you so much! I acc can’t stop crying like’; ‘My favourite episode and now I’m so sad it’s over!’; ‘IM CRYING SO BAD’; ‘The Summer I Turned Pretty is over… it was perfect’.
‘At Last, At Last we got the greatest version of communication and a love that lasts through ‘every infinite possibility’; ‘JENNY I LOVE YOU’.
While most loved the fairytale ending to the show, some argued that they were disappointed that they didn’t get a wedding scene between Conrad and Belly.
They said: ‘Sorry but the ending was not enough’; ‘But what does it mean!??!’; ‘Rushed ending… unnecessary scenes with Paris friends. No wedding. So saaaaad!’; ‘I just don’t get why we couldn’t get the happy ending of seeing them get married or at least engaged. Too much on wanting to prove Belly had evolved into this new persona…’
‘WHERE’S MY WEDDING. DROP IT RN THERE’S NO WAY I WAITED 2 YEARS FOR THAT JENNY’; ‘Season 4, here we come’; ‘We needed a wedding scene we waited three seasons it was a perfect ending maybe another 10 mins of them being engaged or getting married and the ocean would have been the best as ocean was there thing.’
Another said: ‘But but but… but what about the wedding dress, the ring, Susannah’s letter and and and…’
The exclusion of a wedding scene, which features in the epilogue of the third book, caused a stir among the fanbase.
However, it could be because there is more of the story to be told at a later date.
At the end of the episode, there is a letter from Jenny, dropping a hint that this won’t be the last fans see of Cousins.
It reads: ‘Thank you from the bottom of my heart for the love you’ve shown The Summer I Turned Pretty all these years. Whether you’ve been with Belly since the very first book or joined us with the show I’m so grateful you’ve made Belly’s story part of your summers.
Before dropping the biggest hint yet that the show will return, saying: ‘We put our whole hearts into this show and we’re so thankful to you for coming along with us on the ride. Maybe we’ll meet again one summer in Cousins. Until then – all my love always, Jenny.’
