'The Summer I Turned Pretty' Season 3 Episode 4 Recap & Ending Explained

I didn’t realize how cringy The Summer I Turned Pretty was going to get in season 3, but I should’ve figured it out when I heard Belly thinking about calling her dad “daddy” for the first time after her engagement. The 4th episode of the TV show takes us through some emotional ups and downs. Well, not us, but Belly. We do get a glimpse of Conrad, though it majorly focuses on Jere and Belly trying to figure out their wedding stuff. Mainly trying to convince the one person who should really be around for Belly, Laurel. But for now, it looks like this wedding is still on, despite objections. The thing I don’t understand is why Jere and Belly can’t push this wedding to a few years later as a compromise and make everyone happy. This is definitely very immature of them. It’s not like life after their wedding is going to be so different from what it is now. Look, I’m team Jellyfish, but this kind of fighting is making me very exasperated, and honestly, if I were in either of their places, I’d have just decided to wait, because there’s no point in rushing things here.

Spoiler Alert

The Summer I Turned Pretty episode 4 begins with Jere wishing Belly a happy birthday from his new fancy internship with Steven. While he’s got Steven as a colleague, there’s still a lot of stuff he needs to learn before making it big in the company. For now, he’s simply an intern running lunch errands. We already know that Jere’s not an ideal candidate as a business owner, but he can be of some help. I do feel like every episode, things are specifically done to make him look worse, but here we are. Meanwhile, Belly’s saving up all her money for their wedding, and she wants to go dress shopping on her birthday. When she goes down, her parents are waiting for her with her Mickey Mouse pancakes and give her a special bottle of wine from her birth year for her 21st. Alcohol for the legal age, you know? But things turn sour almost immediately because Belly asks if Laurel will go wedding shopping with her, and she immediately says no. In this episode, we see a lot of John and Laurel discussing the wedding and what Belly’s doing. John is very calm and collected and tells Laurel that they need to be diplomatic to get through to Belly, or she’ll end up doing exactly what she wants anyway. She’s a stubborn kid, just like her mother. It’s a similar story with Jere because his dad isn’t interested in discussing the wedding at all. 

Belly feels devastated to know her mom isn’t coming along and doesn’t even eat her breakfast. She rushes to work and then asks Taylor if she’d come along for wedding dress shopping. Taylor is currently worried about her mom, though, but Lucinda is happy to join Belly because she’ll do anything to avoid her financial situation. But hey, the good news is that the second Jere asks Steven to be his best man, he’s immediately in, so at least someone from the family’s caved. 

During the wedding dress shopping, Belly feels terrible seeing Lucinda and Taylor together and misses Laurel dearly. She also has to basically get a random thrift dress, because bridal wear is too expensive for her. She then ends up calling off their dinner plans because she’s feeling too down. When Taylor and her mom leave, Belly takes a moment to cry it out and calls Jere about it. She asks him how they’re going to be able to do this with both their mums, and it’s honestly very cringy. This is when I thought it was time to try and figure things out rather than still pushing for marriage. But I guess Belly’s happy with her white slip dress. 

However, at night, Jere decides to show up with a cake and also gives Belly the keys to the Cousins’ house because, you know, she’s going to be family soon. And some flowers for Laurel, hoping to convince her about the wedding. But that doesn’t go as planned because instead of feeling emotional when Jere brings up Susannah and how she’d want this for Belly and Jere, Laurel gets more frustrated, and the mom and daughter have a massive fight, leading to Belly leaving the house (yikes). So now Laurel is not going to be a part of the wedding at all. 

In the second half of the episode, Belly and Jere go to the summer house, where they find Conrad, who has been avoiding talking to Jere. Even with both of them in the house, Conrad actively avoids talking to his brother and runs away, quite literally (on a run). Later, though, Jere finds Conrad and confronts him, saying he doesn’t give him any time anymore. They surf a little bit, and then Jere brings up the best man situation, to which Conrad calls the whole wedding plan ridiculous. I mean, he also agrees with the idea that it’s too soon, but this breaks Jere’s heart, and he swims off. Also, the shock in Belly’s “what” was too funny; I had to go back and watch it some 4 times just because it seems so animated. Belly then meets Conrad in the house and shows her disappointment. 

Meanwhile, John and Laurel have a word about the whole situation, and John finally gets some closure for himself. I did say he looked very down in the previous episode, but Laurel confirms that he is not the mistake she made, but the whole situation was. On the other hand, Steven is working on a Sunday and meets Denise there too. These two are definitely going to hook up at some point; it’s only a matter of time, but for the moment, they just flirt with their big brain energy. But Steven has a word with Taylor about her mom, and he tells her the situation is much worse than she thought it was, making her want to stay back and not go to New York for her exciting internship. This is absolutely ridiculous to me that both Belly and Taylor aren’t going to live their dreams. At least Taylor is doing it for her mom, but Belly’s reasoning is just that she doesn’t want to be apart from Jere after the wedding. This is very disappointing. 

Also, I don’t know about you, but I feel like Belly could’ve just worn her debutante dress for the wedding, but I guess you can’t wear something old for your wedding. We get a flashback of her with Susannah and Laurel in the bedroom Susannah made for her in the Cousins’ house. In the flashback, Belly didn’t want to sleep alone because the boys were troubling her that first night. So Laurel put her to bed, which made Belly cry in the present day. Conrad overhears her crying before leaving but knows it’s not right for him to comfort her. 

But, at the end of episode 4, Conrad tells Jere that he’ll be his best man and he’ll support the wedding, so this is him comforting Belly. More importantly, he also bakes some “dirt bombs” for her and even wishes her a happy belated birthday, which makes Belly so happy that she runs into his arms. The episode ends with Conrad thinking to himself, “What have I done?” Because obviously he’s still obsessed with her and will not be able to deal with his brother married to her.