21 hours ago
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If you’re still reeling from the final moments of the two-part Season 3 premiere of The Summer I Turned Pretty, the show wastes no time in reacquainting us with the huge decision that Belly and Jeremiah make. Only this time, in “Last Supper” (Season 3, Episode 3), Jeremiah properly gets down on one knee on the floor of his frat house room (romantic) and presents her with a tiny, dainty ring. Ecstatic about their next chapter, the lovebirds decide that they’ll wait to tell their families at the same time at Susannah’s dedication. But as soon as they make that decision, Jeremiah announces their engagement to the Finch College campus by screaming out the window, which foreshadows just how well this whole thing is going to go.
Belly can’t keep this entirely to herself, so she confides in her BFF Taylor. The voice of reason, Taylor is immediately skeptical, reminding Belly that she told her to reconsider the break-up, not dial the relationship up to 100. Her words seem to affect Belly, who seeks validation from her roommate Anika before they move out of the dorms for the year. She doesn’t explicitly tell Anika the current status of their relationship, but Belly asks her whether she judges her for getting back together with Jeremiah. Anika is supportive, saying she trusts that Belly will make the right decisions for herself, but I wonder how that reaction would shift if she knew the whole truth.
Once they’re back in their hometown, Taylor comes over and apologizes to Belly about her initial reaction, though she throws a few appropriate digs at the “tin foil” ring. Belly asks Taylor to be her maid of honor, and in making amends, she brings over a scrapbook from their childhood about their dream wedding and declares herself Team Belly no matter what. But Taylor’s main motivation is to test the waters with Steven, who is recovering from the car accident at his mom Laurel’s house, and his feelings about his future with Taylor haven’t changed.
She dejectedly goes home to her mom Lucinda, who takes it upon herself to concoct a plan for them to interact. Lucinda asks Steven to come over and take a look at the accounts for her salon business, which is something her ex-boyfriend used to handle for her. Steven sees right through her request but plays along, asking her to email the files. But when he actually does the work and discovers that Lucinda’s business is in trouble—like, might not last until the end of the month, kind of trouble—he calls Taylor to break the news. Taylor is horrified by both her mom’s meddling and the state of her business and says, “thanks but no thanks” to Steven’s offer to help her get a loan.
Steven’s recovery is otherwise going better than expected. Though he’s mostly confined to his bedroom, his work laptop is never too far away and his workaholic nature seems to be getting the better of him. The show is clearly setting up some sort of relationship with Steven and his antagonistic coworker—their tit-for-tat arguments seem to excite him, and when Adam (Conrad and Jeremiah’s dad, and Steven’s boss) hands him a “get well soon” card from the office later, Steven is tickled by her dry humor.
Laurel is busy fluffing Steven’s pillows and monitoring his screen time as her penance for being MIA in the immediate aftermath of the accident. Her guilt-driven actions also extend to her ex-husband John: she shuts down his flirty advances and doesn’t fight him when he opts out of attending the dedication. John is taking L’s left and right. Before he leaves, he pops into Steven’s room and is concerned that Adam hasn’t given him any time off to recover. But Steven snaps back at John, saying he doesn’t understand the cutthroat nature of the VC world as a lowly history professor. Ouch.
In California, Conrad is still planning not to attend his mom’s dedication, even after being fired from the clinic job that served as a solid excuse. He’s considering a lab job instead, but that’s not a good enough reason to skip the event for his new bestie Agnes. She calls it like she sees it: Conrad is avoiding his family—and really, Belly—because of his residual feelings for her, which will continue to make the situation bigger than it actually is. She cites her own experience of overcoming big feelings for Conrad, suggesting exposure therapy as a way out.
He takes her advice. After a GRWM montage set to Sabrina Carpenter’s “Please Please Please,” Belly, Laurel, and Steven head out to Cousins for the big day. Belly has her engagement ring in her dress pocket, but after she and Jeremiah see Conrad in the flesh, they rethink their decision about announcing the engagement at the dedication. Jeremiah says he wants to keep the day about his mom and would like to tell Conrad first, while Belly claims she doesn’t want to announce it without her dad being present.
But, of course, nothing goes according to plan. At dinner following the dedication, Adam and Laurel go around the table toasting each of their respective children. Well, almost. Adam’s mean streak continues (he called Belly Conrad’s “little sister” earlier in the episode) and after praising Conrad’s selflessness and strength, the only thing he can say about Jeremiah is that he’s a supersenior with no concrete plans for his future. Belly can’t sit back and let her future father-in-law speak to her man like that, and she blurts out their news: Jeremiah has a future—a marriage to Belly. In fact, she tells them, they plan to get married in Cousins in August.
Everyone is appropriately shocked. Belly hasn’t even graduated from college yet, and Laurel is justifiably concerned that this will change her future plans significantly. Even Steven thinks this is crazy, and Adam questions how his son could afford a ring. The only one who doesn’t say anything is Conrad, but his eyes convey just how shocked and hurt he is by this development.
Belly and Jeremiah book it out of the restaurant, and Belly apologizes for spilling the beans. Jeremiah only seems sad that he didn’t get to tell his brother first, but he’s not mad at Belly for jumping the gun, even though their news has ruined the whole weekend for everyone else. Laurel drags Belly back to their house instead of their planned stay at the Cousins beach house, while Conrad continues to say nothing, seething. Soon everyone except Conrad has peeled out of the parking lot and he’s left standing there with his thoughts, probably regretting taking Agnes’s advice.
Radhika Menon (@menonrad) is a TV-obsessed writer based in Los Angeles. Her work has appeared on Paste Magazine, Teen Vogue, Vulture and more. At any given moment, she can ruminate at length over Friday Night Lights, the University of Michigan, and the perfect slice of pizza. You may call her Rad.
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