The Summer I Turned Pretty season 2 finale recap: Belly makes her choice

Lola Tung in The Summer I Turned Pretty
Lola Tung in The Summer I Turned Pretty (Image credit: Courtesy of Prime Video)

NOTE: this post contains spoilers for The Summer I Turned Pretty season 2 finale, "Love Triangle."

The Summer I Turned Pretty season 2 finale has plenty of drama, heartbreak, happiness and love for our favorite characters as we say goodbye until season 3. It's definitely an emotional rollercoaster for fans regardless of who you like or ship. 

A night at a motel

After seeing Belly (Lola Tung) and Jeremiah (Gavin Casalegno) kiss, Conrad (Christopher Briney) rushes off. Jeremiah asks Belly to go after him, but it goes as well as you would expect. While she apologizes, he questions if this is what she wants or if it was an attempt to get his attention. Conrad pushes her away, telling her he doesn't want her anymore, even though that is very clearly far from the truth. He goes back to his dorm, finding the infinity necklace he gave Belly. It's enough of a push for him to finally meet her and Jeremiah at the car. 

The three start their trip to take Belly home, which is filled with awkwardness and many questions from Conrad, who has seemed to use the necklace as fuel to show how he really feels about the situation. 

Due to the weather, they stop to get snacks. Jeremiah confronts his brother, asking him if he still likes Belly, making it clear that he never stopped despite stepping aside for the former couple. 

The highway ends up shutting down so they have to stay at a motel for the night, which only has one room with a single bed left for the three of them. Conrad stays outside with the excuse of making some calls, leaving Jeremiah and Belly to discuss the fact Conrad is still in love with her. She keeps insisting everything between her and Jeremiah is real for her and nothing Conrad does or says will change that. 

While Belly takes a shower, Jeremiah goes to talk to his brother. Conrad tries to blow him off, but Jeremiah doesn't let him. Conrad confesses he does still love Belly. Jeremiah encourages him to tell her, saying they need to let her make the choice and respect whoever makes her happy. 

Laurel (Jackie Chung) calls to check up on Belly and the two have a heart to heart about falling out of love. Once she finishes in the bathroom, Belly finds the two boys eating whatever snacks were in the vending machine. Of course, they give her the bed and each of them sleep on opposite sides of the floor next to her. It's a perfect representation of the decision she is struggling to make. 

Naturally, she can't sleep and neither can Conrad, who uses the opportunity to tell her he didn’t mean what he said before and that he does still want her. It leads us into a flashback of Belly with Susannah (Rachel Blanchard), which might be the most heartbreaking moment of the series so far. 

Susannah is in the process of writing letters to the kids when she arrives. Belly and her talk about the breakup and Susannah begs her not to let her son push her away, telling Belly that Conrad loves her. With Taylor Swift's "Bigger Than the Whole Sky" playing in the background, she asks Belly to look after him and the two lay together in the bed. Jeremiah finds them like that only to excuse himself. Susannah apologizes for everything that's happened with the boys and promises the three of them will come back together eventually. 

Lola Tung and Rachel Blanchard in The Summer I Turned Pretty

Lola Tung and Rachel Blanchard in The Summer I Turned Pretty (Image credit: Courtesy of Prime Video)

The next morning, Belly puts on her Finch sweatshirt and searches for Jeremiah. He went to get breakfast and when he gets back, she starts to tells him about what Conrad said only for him to promise that no matter what they’ll be good and there won’t be a repeat of last year. She kisses him to "XO" by Beyoncé.

When she goes back inside the motel room, she and Conrad finally talk. He claims he only said those things last night to get between her and Jeremiah, and he takes it all back. They settle on friends and Belly "releases him" from her heart. He tries to give her the necklace, saying he does'’t want to keep it anymore. She takes it but it's a very different feeling than before. Conrad is planning to take a bus back to Cousins and tells Jeremiah to take his car for the rest of the trip. After asking his brother to get her home safe, Conrad leaves and breaks down outside.

Jeremiah drives Belly the rest of the way to camp and stays to see Belly play volleyball. In a voiceover, she says that while this isn’t how she pictured her things and a lot might still be unclear, it's her future.

Team Staylor

After getting back home, Steven (Sean Kaufman) shows up with flowers for his first "date" with Taylor (Rain Spencer). It's then that the two realize they're on opposite sides when it comes to Belly's love life. Steven is team Conrad while Taylor is team Jeremiah. They get into a debate on who is better for her only to settle on the fact that it's Belly's decision at the end of the day. However, the bickering does make Taylor leave. 

Steven tries to text her, but she never answers. The next day, he shows up to give her Belly's stuff for camp and she apologizes, explaining that she freaked out because she's embarrassed by how much she likes him and not having the power in their relationship is scary for her. He promises he's not going to hurt her and that if anything, she'll be the one breaking his heart. 

All episodes of The Summer I Turned Pretty are now streaming on Prime Video.  

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Sophia Soto

Sophia Soto has a passion for all things entertainment and currently writes for The Nerds of Color. You can see her work on What To Watch, Remezcla, Looper, Den of Geek, Young Hollywood and more. Some of her favorite shows include Grey's Anatomy, The Goldbergs, Riverdale and Roswell, New Mexico. She is a complete Marvel nerd as well!