On Sept. 17th, 2025, the beloved three-season show, “The Summer I Turned Pretty”, released its last episode. Throughout the years of 2022-2025, we were all left with this big question: Who is Belly, the love interest, going to choose? After the show ended with Belly choosing a partner, many are wondering what the future holds for the characters.
“The Summer I Turned Pretty” has sparked conversations of controversy, debates and speculations. It has taken over the internet in full force, spreading theories and disputes into further action, even taken to author/producer Jenny Han and the entire cast. The whole show is a topic that no one could get bored of.
One fiercely debated subject: whether you are team Conrad or Jeremiah. Conrad, the older brother, is hopelessly devoted and desperately in love with the main character, Belly. Jeremiah, the younger brother, also loves Belly. As this love triangle unraveled itself, the internet’s opinions were one you truly could not miss.
The fans were a big part as to why the show was such a big success. Their thoughts and speculations had created the ever growing fan base’s massive following. In a sense, they became detectives, hanging on every clue that could lead to conclusions about who Belly would choose.
The show was built around the subtle Easter eggs that Han had so graciously provided. Every episode gave new hints, theories and conclusions that the fan base could feed off of. Each song played as the background soundtrack had a deeper meaning. Even Belly’s color of clothing were based around the different love she had for one of the brothers.
There had been many occurring parallels throughout the third season, including references from “The Notebook”, “Bye Bye Birdie”, “Titanic” and “Sabrina”. Fans had pointed out that its recurring scenes were too familiar to not recognize.
Many references were made in the music standpoint. These were all made because of Han’s critical importance of the Netflix show soundtrack and how it contradicted the whole show. There’s one thing that you can learn from all of it: everything is connected.
At the closing scene of the episode, Han had left a note to her fans.
“Thank you from the bottom of my heart for the love you’ve shown ‘The Summer I Turned Pretty’ all these years… Maybe we’ll meet you again one summer in Cousins. Until then–”.
This one message left fans questioning: Was this love triangle really over?
Hours later, it was released on Han’s Instagram that there would be a movie. Everyone was ecstatic after feeling unfulfilled that the ending was different from the books. In an interview for TODAY, Han was asked about the movie.
“There is going to be another big milestone for Belly,” Han said. “So we will continue with that journey for now.”
We might have said goodbye, but surely it is not forever. There’s still more to come with the elated, crazy trek that we were led on. Yet, what will truly happen? We’ll have to find out!
