The Summer I Turned Pretty Finale: This is what Susannah would have really wanted

After three summers of love triangles, heartbreak, and endless fan debates, The Summer I Turned Pretty (TSITP) closed its final chapter. If you haven’t watched the finale, hit that back button (or the close — depending on the device you’re reading this on) because this one’s full of spoilers. 

And what a finale it was. For "Bonrad" fans, it was everything we’d hoped for and more. For weeks, the internet was buzzing with theories: maybe we’d get a surprise double drop, maybe a twist ending, maybe more episodes to ease the pain of goodbye. Instead, Jenny Han gave us something better: a finale that tied everything together and finally gave Belly and Conrad their happily ever after.

If you’re Team Jeremiah (or Jelly, or Jellyfish), this is your cue to step away. This one’s for all of us who believed that first love mattered, who knew that Belly was always going to end up with the first boy she ever slow danced with, ever cried over. Ever loved. 

The build-up was excruciating. Each week, Wednesdays felt like both a gift and a punishment. We’d count down the days, only to be left screaming at the screen once the credits rolled. The finale was no different, it was exciting, agonising, and honestly, I didn’t sit through it calmly at all. I was yelling, clutching pillows, because my heart couldn’t take it. That’s what this show did to us. It made us feel fifteen again.

And then came the payoff. Conrad Fisher, the boy who had always stumbled over his feelings, found the courage to follow his heart. Isabel Conklin, once torn between two brothers, finally chose with clarity. She realised that no matter what, she’ll always love Conrad Fisher. Or like Belly herself put it “I had brown hair and I had freckles and I would always have Conrad in my heart.”

After three seasons of near misses, silences, and heartbreak, the conversation fans had been waiting years for finally happened.

The finale, At Last, was layered with callbacks and full-circle moments. The cherries in Belly’s Paris apartment. Her “coming back home” to Cousins with Conrad. Looking at her younger self, seeing if she has changed at all, showed us just how far Belly has grown and how, despite everything, she still loved Conrad in that all-consuming, true way you can only love the first time around. These full-circle moments were deliberate gifts to the fans who dissected every scene, every line, every Taylor Swift track that scored their story.

And then came the Christmas picture book epilogue. Not what was expected, but maybe the most quietly beautiful touch of all. After all, it all began again with Belly and Conrad’s accidental Christmas reunion. That moment cracked Belly’s heart wide open and reminded her that no matter what she told herself about Jeremiah, it was always Conrad. Knowing she stayed in Paris for another year, the post-episode pictures of Belly and Conrad spending Christmas together in her Paris apartment felt like the sweetest reward. Part of me still wishes we got a wedding, maybe even one last scene of the newlyweds running into the ocean, but I’ll take what we got.

Creator of the series Jenny Han also didn’t let Jeremiah fade into a villain. His heartbreak was real, his vulnerability raw. He deserved redemption, and he finally got it, which is why the ending felt inevitable. 

Still, I did wish the show had shown everyone finding out that Jeremiah cheated on Belly. And Steven’s reaction to it as the protective elder brother that he is. Would he finally apologise to Conrad for the way he treated him? That confrontation never really came, and maybe that’s a loose end fans will forever debate.

Outside the triangle, too, there was plenty of joy. Steven and Taylor (Staylor!) finally came together; it was so well-earned. Jeremiah found his own spark with Denise. These side stories made the world feel fuller, reminding us that love, in all its messy, surprising forms, is what TSITP has always been about.

Yes, Han deserves credit for her fingerprints all over this finale — the quiet intimacy, the details that fans obsess over, the music, especially Taylor Swift’s tracks. But above all, she gave us an ending that stayed true to the books while still surprising those who thought they knew exactly how it would end.

And then it was over. No more countdowns to Wednesdays, no more summers spent arguing over Bonrad vs. Jellyfish, no more screaming at the screen when Conrad looked at Belly like she was the only girl in the world. Just credits rolling on a story that’s been part of our summers for four years now.

For Bonrad fans, the finale wasn’t just a goodbye. It was proof that some love stories are written in the stars. Because in the end, this is what Conrad and Jeremiah's mother Susannah would have wanted too: Belly choosing love, Conrad finding peace, Jeremiah finding happiness, and the magic of Cousins living on.

The farewell will sting for a long, long time. But, as Han said, “maybe we’ll meet once again in Cousins.”