Your favorite journalists are back!! We’re here again to give our hot takes on the long-awaited The Summer I Turned Pretty finale. Jenny Han gave us over an hour’s worth of craziness and there is definitely a lot to be said.
Episode 10 ends with Belly at a hair salon asking for a big change. The final episode starts off by revealing her new bob cut, and…her hair has definitely seen better days. This change felt a little overused as we’ve seen in several other TV shows that when a female character goes through a change, her first instinct is to get a new haircut. We all agreed that it was kind of unnecessary and didn’t affect the plot at all. Although her look fits her new European persona more, this hair choice was definitely not the move for her. Is it just us, or does the haircut make her look more like her mother?
As the season comes to a close, a new relationship sparks: Jeremiah and Denise. Jeremiah has been living with her for the past few months, but they didn’t show much chemistry in their “romantic” scenes together. However, when Denise confesses her feelings in a casual way, Jeremiah jumps at the opportunity. Does he know that there are other people in the world who haven’t made their way through his loved ones? Jeremiah would be much better off if he looked for someone original rather than taking the leftovers. We find their relationship to be extremely forced, rushed, and very random. It seems like Jenny Han was just putting the last two single people on the show together. They don’t really compliment each other, and Jeremiah should focus on working on himself. His entire life was spent living off his dad and paying all of his attention to Belly and it’s time that he focuses more on himself and his future, not on a new girlfriend.
Taylor and Steven are still going strong, but they run into a minor conflict. Luckily, after some tense scenes, they talk it out. This was the perfect place to end their story, since it also leaves room to imagine what their lives will look like together. The two of them getting back together was a good decision and very unproblematic. We are so excited that the best couple got the best ending–Steven getting his dream job and both of them living happily ever after.
And finally, the couple we’ve been waiting 3 seasons for is finally endgame. In this episode, Conrad has a conference in Brussels, so he stops to visit Belly in Paris which coincidentally happens to be the day before her birthday. Isn’t that practically fate? Towards the end of the episode, we see Belly and Conrad get into a fight because Belly thinks that Conrad only loves her because his mom died (like, what???) and then Conrad decides to leave. Clearly Belly needs to wake up, and she did… 3 minutes after he left (which didn’t make sense, but we’re not complaining). While the end of the season was a bit rushed, at least Belly didn’t choose herself. Belly ends up chasing Conrad onto his train and professes her love for him. The ending scene shows them together at the beach house with the song Scott Street by Phoebe Bridgers playing over it (whoever made that decision needs a raise). Overall, the three of us are very happy about the wholesome ending and it was definitely the best way to end the show of the summer. Team Conrad finally won!
Although the third season has come to a close, a new door is opening: The Summer I Turned Pretty: The Movie was announced the day that the finale came out. All three of us are very excited to tune in to more content of our favorite couples. Hopefully it comes out before we graduate so we’ll be able to review it, but even if it doesn’t, be sure to check back in for our next Hot Takes.