'The Summer I Turned Pretty' Recap (Seasons 1-2): Story So Far

The teen drama for “Millennials” is finally returning for its 3rd and final season, and if you’re too busy hustling and don’t have the time to rewatch 16 hours of content, let me help you remember all the details you need to know before jumping into season 3. The show, which is based on a series of books written by author Jenny Han, tells the story of Belly, a teenage girl who’s been spending her summers for years with the Fisher brothers at their vacation home in Cousins. As you can imagine by the title of the show, one summer, this girl, Belly, finally finds herself looking different and feeling more grown up, ready to face the love of her life, only for him not to care that much at all. Except, does he actually care? This back and forth is essentially the core of The Summer I Turned Pretty but with some additional characters. What I do enjoy a lot about it, though, is that it also focuses on the moms and their relationship, showing us that friendships can be deep when you have kids and in your late 40s, too. With that said, though, let’s jump into the recap of seasons 1 and 2.

Spoiler Alert

Let’s start with a family tree to make things easier. Laurel and Susannah are mums who have been best friends for ages. Laurel has two kids, Isabella, Belly for short, and Steven, the smarty pants. Laurel’s also a writer. Meanwhile, Susannah has two sons, Conrad, the brooding older one, and Jeremiah, the golden retriever of the two. Taylor is Belly’s best friend, and she’s eager for her to finally get a boyfriend. Also, they’re both great at volleyball and on the school team. At Cousins, Belly gets invited to a bonfire party, but she’s only 15, so this is obviously not allowed. Meanwhile, Susannah asks if she’d be interested in becoming a “Debutant,” but the boys mock her for it, and her mom certainly doesn’t think it’s something she’d be interested in. At night, Belly goes to the party, but it doesn’t go as planned; she embarrasses herself after seeing Conrad with a girl named Nicole. But this entire thing is important because she ends up meeting “Cam” Cameron, a sweet boy who recognizes her here. Cam and Belly share a kiss at the end of this party, meaning they’re going to be a new item, before the cops show up at the house and Laurel learns of her sneaking out. 

Belly decides to do the debutante thing, and that bit really feels quite fever-dream-y. She gets to buy new clothes, a very fancy dress for the ball too, and then gets to possibly make new female friends at Cousins. Nicole is actually quite nice, and now that Belly has Cam, she seems to be okay. On the other hand, Steven is smitten by Shayla, a super-rich girl, and they hit it off. On Belly’s 16th birthday, she gets the same pancake stack as cake as always, and she’s reminded of when Conrad told her about the infinity symbol back when they were kids. This is significant to their pairing because, later, for her birthday, Conrad has an infinity necklace for Belly, which he doesn’t give her immediately. 

Cam and Belly are sweet, but Belly knows her heart’s not into it. Jeremiah starts to act all nice to Belly because, surprise, surprise, he likes her too. Meanwhile, Laurel hooks up with Cleveland, a rival writer. Also, Conrad is helping him with some boat stuff, so I guess he also acts as a father figure for him. At a party, Nicole is extra nice to Belly, making her blow out birthday candles, and Taylor, who has come to visit, doesn’t appreciate it. In her boredom, she ends up making out with Steven, but Belly sees them together and is disgusted. 

See, Conrad’s obsessed with Belly too, but he’s wasting Nicole’s time instead. He’s also been having panic attacks because he knows that his mum still has cancer. Susannah also tells Laurel about her cancer, but she tells her that she doesn’t want to do chemotherapy anymore because she’s tired. On top of that, we learn that Adam, Susannah’s husband, cheated on her while she was having chemo, and nobody knows, but they’re basically separated. However, Laurel invites him over for the big 4th of July party, Susannah’s favorite bash, and it turns into a massive mess. Belly gets drunk and tells Shayla about her best friend Taylor and Steven making out (yikes). Shayla forgives him, though, because what’s a make-out? Oh, boy, does she know. Long story short, Steven is too insecure to be with a person like Shayla, so they eventually break up, but we don’t see it on screen for some reason. To make matters worse, Belly accidentally pushes Susannah when she has the cake in her hands and makes a big mess of the whole thing. Hey, 16-year-old broken hearts, I guess. 

Here’s the really important thing, though. Belly and Jeremiah end up making out in the swimming pool, and Belly tells Conrad she’s done waiting for him when he tells her he’s interested in her, too. Conrad has a panic attack while with Cleveland because, guess what? He knows about his mom’s cancer but hasn’t told anybody because that would make it too real. But Susannah asks him to take Belly to the ball, so he asks Belly out of the blue, which obviously doesn’t look great. 

At a volleyball tournament, Belly teams up with Taylor, Jeremiah, and Conrad because she has to win, and when Conrad and she win, Susannah lets on that she asked Conrad to take Belly to the ball. Belly hates this and later asks Jeremiah to take her instead. But there’s a whole thing involving Conrad, and Taylor and Belly’s clothes and Nicole stealing them because, you know, kids and skinny-dipping jealousy. Anyway, Nicole and Conrad end up breaking up, of course, but at least he makes an actual apology. Finally, Conrad gives Belly the infinity necklace because he wants her to have it, despite her telling him to stop texting her and that it’s too late. Later, for the ball, Laurel and Susannah get Belly her dream dress. Oh, also, Taylor is team “Jellyfish,” i.e., Jeremiah and Belly, while Steven is disgusted by the idea. At the ball, Belly ends up without a partner, and it has to be Conrad who swoops in to save the day, but there’s a sad reason for Jeremiah’s disappearance. 

The season ends with Jeremiah learning about his mom’s illness through an email about a trial treatment, and he loses his mind after realizing Conrad already knew. Honestly, I think Conrad makes poor decision after poor decision, but anyway. They end up having a physical fight, and Susannah breaks it up. They admit to knowing about her cancer, and Belly realizes that she’s been super selfish this summer, only thinking about herself and not realizing who was hurting. There’s a touching moment when Laurel, Steven, and Belly share a hug on the bed, very, very sad. At the same time, Conrad and Jeremiah tell their mum they need her and she should try the trial for their sakes. But the real kicker is that after all of this, Conrad and Belly kiss at the end of the episode, which is apparently exactly what she still wanted after making out with Jeremiah a few times? 

The second season begins with a rift between Conrad and Jeremiah because the latter is left heartbroken thanks to Belly’s finicky behavior. I’m going to try and do this chronologically because the show jumps back and forth way too much. While Belly and Conrad like each other, Belly wants to tell Jeremiah about it herself. So she goes through with it, and he’s extremely hurt, but to make matters worse, Conrad later asks him for “permission” to date Belly. Jeremiah has no choice but to tell Conrad to go ahead and date Belly, seeing as they’re in love with each other. 

At first, it’s marvelous; they talk on the phone all the time, he’s at college, and she’s back home. They drive to Cousins in the winter and end up sleeping together, but it all comes crashing down on prom night. He doesn’t bring the corsage, he’s distant and disconnected, and he doesn’t even ask her to dance, and then he asks Belly if they can just go out and talk rather than be at the prom, even though that was what she was there for. When they go out, Belly just feels too upset and thinks Conrad wants to break up, but she just does the job for him. The next thing we know, Susannah’s dead, and they’re at the funeral where Belly sees Conrad with another girl, which she finds out much later was because she was helping him with a panic attack. But at the time, Belly embarasses herself and Conrad, too, because she couldn’t hide how she felt. 

It feels like nothing much really happens in the second season if you compare it to the first one, mainly because of the non-linear storytelling, but in the present timeline, Jeremiah and Belly go searching for Conrad, who’s gone missing from university. Turns out he’s in Cousins because Susannah’s sister is selling the beach house, and he thinks, as a college student, he can fix it all by himself (yes, I know you can tell which team I’m on). Belly, of course, invited herself on this trip after a fight with her mom, but Jeremiah and she are not doing okay because she wasn’t there for him when Susannah died. On the road, their car breaks down, and Belly tells Jeremiah that she can help him change the tire, but it’s a fail, and they end up lashing out at each other. This is when she finally apologizes for not being there for him, and Jeremiah cries, which was very sweet. They seem to be doing okay. 

When they get to Cousins, Conrad’s there but obviously uncomfortable with Belly being there. Jeremiah and Belly think it’s a good idea to talk to the aunt about how much the house means to them so that she reconsiders selling it. She doesn’t like the house because Susannah and her relationship with it were entirely different. Susannah lived in a dream world, and they were stepsisters, so Julia never liked Susannah’s mom coming into the picture and what that meant for her family. Julia is choosing to sell for selfish reasons, but her kid, Skye, is eager to understand their point of view and help out. In the meantime, Laurel has finally published her memoir about Susannah and is asked to go to New York to talk about it amongst other writers. She’s quite lost, doesn’t want to feel her pain anymore, and the reason she’s fighting with her daughter is that she’s not willing to deal with her pain. But Laurel makes the kind of decisions she’d often use Susannah’s help with and truly works through her pain before coming to the rescue when Belly needs her the most. 

At the house, Steven does something to the AC, which means no open house for Julia, but free time for the kids to enjoy a typical summer out in Cousins. They end up having a wonderful time playing games and also get joined by Cam as the host. Skye starts off shy but soon understands why this gang is so tight. After the whole thing, they say they’ll talk to their mom to see if she can reconsider. But when they get home, everything is already gone, and Skye tells their mom that this was a low blow even for her, and that they can’t support it. Oh, did I mention that in the middle of all of this, Belly is feeling feelings for Jeremiah again? On the other hand, Conrad’s gotten into Stanford, but he doesn’t want to leave because Brown is close to the school Jeremiah’s picked. 

Jeremiah thinks they can use their trust fund to buy the house from Aunt Julia, but their father is against this, too. So, as kids, they do what they think is best and throw a party one last time in this house. At this point, Steven is fully turning Taylor away from her rapper boyfriend, Milo, because he’s obviously not the right guy for her, but Steven is. At the party, Steven and Taylor even do a dance to “Party In The USA,” and Milo shows up unannounced, resulting in a breakup and Taylor immediately getting together with Steven. But hey, we already know this is endgame, right? Probably. 

Meanwhile, Skye and Cam share a romantic moment, which is adorable. I would love to see more of them in season 3. But things aren’t looking so peppy for Belly, who gets drunk and sad yet again. This is after she learns that Conrad asked Jeremiah if he could go out with Belly. The boys argue it out a little bit about who was there and not there for their mom. Belly goes off to the beach, where Conrad finds her, and she asks him why he didn’t tell her about the conversation with Jeremiah. She says that if she knew he cared so much about them, she’d have fought for them, but now she thinks they don’t love each other. The night ends with Belly drunk dialling her mom, spilling the beans, and asking her to come and fix everything. 

Laurel does show up immediately, but instead of helping, she’s furious and tells Belly they need to leave immediately. She even slaps her when Belly tells her that she’s not going anywhere and that she thinks Laurel can’t stand her. Later, though, Laurel takes Cleveland’s advice and shows her vulnerability to Belly, which is very sweet. She then speaks to Julia and learns that Julia tried to come to the funeral but just couldn’t do it because she realized it was too late to fix things with her sister. Laurel reminds her that it’s not too late, and by keeping the house, I guess, everything would just miraculously be fixed. It works; the kids have the house still, and they will see each other there again on the 4th of July. Later that night, Belly, Steven, and Jeremiah help Conrad study for his exam so he can pass it and then possibly transfer to Stanford. Steven goes back home with Laurel, while Belly joins Jeremiah and Conrad to take him to his exam. 

While Conrad is writing his exam, Jeremiah shows Belly around his own campus, and they’re thrilled and thinking about their future there together. But all hell breaks loose when, somehow, Conrad shows up when Jeremiah and Belly are making out in front of the car (after much hesitation on Jeremiah’s part). Somehow, Conrad thinks this is Belly trying to get back at him, and she clarifies that it’s not. Conrad certainly acts like an immature child on the way back, because that’s just how he can deal with the pain, I suppose. 

The three of them get forced to share a motel room because of the rain on their drive back. When Jeremiah and Belly get some time alone, he tells her that she needs to talk to Conrad because he knows he still loves her, but Belly doesn’t believe it. At the end of the day, though, choice is hers, which Jeremiah explains to Conrad, too. All he wants is to see both of them happy (as individuals, of course). While they’re sleeping, Conrad is finally honest with Belly, and the next morning, she tells Jeremiah who her choice is: him, yay! 

But it’s not over yet. At the end of season 2, Conrad tells Belly he didn’t mean what he said; he was just being spiteful, but he wants her to be happy with Jeremiah, blah blah, and he gives her back the infinity necklace, which he’s been holding onto since the breakup. Turns out Taylor’s liked Steven for a long time, too, and they’re now officially a couple. Finally, Belly returns to the volleyball team and takes accountability for messing everything up for the last year. She’s been taken back on the team. Everyone is happy, but is this it? Will Conrad and Belly never be a thing? We’ll have to wait for the final season of The Summer I Turned Pretty to find out.