NEED TO KNOW
This is probably a good time to check in on your Team Conrad friends.
Episode 5 of The Summer I Turned Pretty dropped on Wednesday, August 6, giving fans their first episode narrated by Conrad Fisher (Christopher Briney). After 19 episodes of Belly (Lola Tung) at the helm of the story — and a few moments of Jeremiah (Gavin Casalegno) taking over — the brooding older brother finally got his chance at the mic, and boy did he deliver.
If you weren’t already rooting for Belly’s first love to be her last, then it’s likely the latest episode is what swayed you to Team Conrad.
Conrad’s angst over how he let Belly go — and his denial of his true feelings in the season 2 finale — took center stage in the episode.
We finally got to peek inside Conrad’s brain, and it’s mostly consumed with thoughts of Belly — and hatred that his younger brother gets to be with her.
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Among the most famous lines from author Jenny Han’s third book, We’ll Always Have Summer, which season 3 is based on, sums up Conrad’s take on Jeremiah and Belly’s relationship: “I would rather have someone shoot me in the head with a nail gun repeatedly than have to watch him touching her like that all night.”
Getting to hear Briney deliver that line as Conrad, while watching Belly sit in Jeremiah’s lap, after she spent the day doing wedding prep with Conrad instead of her fiancé, who was too busy at work to show up for her, was, frankly, a better high than any drug could ever hope to be.
One of the most-anticipated scenes from the book came to life in an oh-so-delicious way.
I’d be remiss not to call out the arguable highlight of the entire episode: the peach scene.
Book girlies everywhere breathed out a sigh of relief, and then squealed at the TV, as one of the quintessential Belly-Conrad moments from book 3 delivered everything and more.
The lighting during the whole episode was gorgeous — and reflected the golden light that bathes Conrad’s world when he looks at Belly (Jeremiah, don’t even try to compete here, buddy) — but when Conrad pulled over to let Belly get a snack, and watched her eat not one, but two fresh peaches, before wiping her chin with his white t-shirt, the two of them getting closer than they’ve been in years, staring into each other’s eyes, book girlies around the world were struggling to catch their breath.
While creator Han, who also directed the episode, has continued to emphasize that some of fans’ favorite moments from the book “might not always happen in the way that you’re expecting,” in the case of this scene, justice was absolutely served.
Fans also got a surprise: an unexpected sex scene from when Belly and Conrad were still together.
In the book series, Belly hasn’t had sex yet when she decides to marry Jeremiah. In fact, that detail is part of what makes his betrayal — having sex with Lacie Barone during his spring break trip to Cabo while he and Belly were on a break (though, of course, he asserts they were fully broken up) — cut her so deep, because they haven’t had sex yet.
Han made a change to that storyline in season 2, when Belly lost her virginity to Conrad in front of the fireplace at the Cousins house.
In season 3, it’s assumed that she and Jeremiah are having sex, but what fans did not know was coming was a brand-new intimate scene between Belly and Conrad, a memory from when they dated, four years prior.
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The flashback hit Conrad while he ate dinner with Belly after she pointed out the similarities between the fake flowers at Michael’s and the artificial bouquet her mom kept in the guest bedroom of their house.
The mention reminded Conrad of a night when Belly snuck into his room and they hooked up — shoutout infinity necklace — which he said was the “last time we were ever together like that” in their relationship.
The guilt he carries about the deathbed promise he made to Susannah also finally came to light.
Conrad bottling up his emotions is nothing new, but in episode 5, we got a better look at why he’s keeping things so internal right now: his mom made him promise to take care of Jeremiah after she died.
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Going from the flashback of his emotional conversation with Susannah (Rachel Blanchard), to seeing him with tears in his eyes as he watched Belly and Jeremiah dance on the dock outside the beach house, and getting his point of view on the season 2 motel scene was like a triple-whammy of heartbreak.
The episode ended with a real punch in the gut, but Team Conrad, it can only go up from here.
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New episodes of The Summer I Turned Pretty season 3 drop Wednesdays at 12 a.m. PT/3 a.m. ET on Prime Video.
