As Wednesday, Sept. 17 finally rolled around, The Summer I Turned Pretty fans popped their popcorn and gathered their friends for watch parties, as the long awaited series finale was finally set to air. Some opened their computers in their beds, while others, too busy to watch, got off of Instagram and TikTok to avoid spoilers until they did have time to watch the episode.
Originally a three-part book series written by Jenny Han in 2009-2011, the T.V. adaptation has finally come to an end. Some fans are satisfied, some are bitter and some are upset about the cumulative time and energy they’ve put into a show that is arguably terrible.
The final episode opens with Conrad arriving at Belly’s doorstep in Paris unannounced, and they proceed to spend the day together as she shows him around her city while pretending to not have feelings for him anymore. The day goes so well, she invites him to her birthday dinner to meet her friends. At this dinner party, it is revealed that Belly and Benito, her new love interest in Paris, had broken up a couple weeks back.
Finally, finally, after many episodes of yearning and pretending they don’t want to, Belly and Conrad kiss beside the river Seine. Great. So that’s it, right? Not quite. They have an intimate night that ends in a conversation about their future at 3 a.m. (the best time to talk about such things). It becomes clear that Conrad is all-in and Belly remains unsure.
So, Conrad leaves to catch a train and Belly spirals for maybe five minutes before realizing she’s being stupid. Enter: the classic airport scene, or in this case, a train station. Belly chases him all the way to the train station where she confesses her love and comments on the multiverse.
“Conrad, I choose you out of my own free will. If there are infinite worlds, every version of me chooses you in every one of them,” she breathlessly says.
They kiss on the train while the rest of the passengers mind their own business.
Was this the finale people hoped for? A lot of Bates students said yes. “I liked the ending, I just thought it was a bit rushed; they should’ve done it in two episodes,” Robin Song ‘28 explained.
“It was good in a way that Hallmark Christmas movies are good,” Kyra Buckley ‘28 added.
“Overall, I’d give it an 8.5 out of 10,” concluded Michelle Htut ‘27.
Harrison Yeomans ‘27 felt the ending was well put together yet “a bit slow.” However, he said that he “felt all the emotions [he] was supposed to feel.”
This nostalgic sentiment is notable for many audience members of TSITP. Current Bates students are the target audience for this media. Many of us read this series in middle school, and even if you didn’t, the plot still has a wistful pull.
Hannaford reflected on the popularity of the show as it relates to modern relationships. “As a generation, we’re all jaded and fed up with modern dating. So, to watch a show where all of these people met in person – it’s refreshing. Maybe a part of us all yearns for that.”
In the age of dating apps and low-commitment flings, the feeling of replaceability is rampant. It feels as though people get over each other with ease and move on to the next within weeks. It’s exhausting – and borderline impossible – to be a romantic in 2025.
One of the main appeals of Conrad Fisher as a love interest for Belly is the multi-year span of yearning for her despite her engagement to his brother or living in Paris and not responding to his letters. It’s easy to root for him because all he wants is her. How realistic is this?
I’m not sure we could find a sane, real-life man in the modern day that has wanted the same girl as honestly and truly as Conrad did for nearly five years. Yearning is hot on screen, but in real life, it’s just sad and no longer socially acceptable. We have dating apps now – if one person doesn’t want you, it’s on to the next.
Leah Belber ‘26 (a digital editor for The Student) proposed theories about how aesthetics of the show played a part in its popularity. She noted that TSITP “coincided with the rise of the preppy-coastal-grandmother aesthetic” popular in the northeast, and notably seen around Bates campus. “It definitely appealed to that sort of summer Brandy Melville vision of baby blues and beach houses.”
Gemma Soukas ‘28 noted that the music also played a role in the show’s popularity: “People I was watching with freaked out every time a new song came on.”
With popular artists like Taylor Swift, Noah Kahan, Olivia Rodrigo, and Chappell Roan, fans were excited when they knew the words and could even sing along to the soundtrack.
Alternatively, many other Batesies were not necessarily “Team Conrad”: “I kind of wish Belly had found someone that was not in that family, like Benito. But I have to admit that she and Conrad have better chemistry than anyone else in the show,” a first year student said.
Belber agreed, noting that “The intimacy coordinator in Paris did a good job.”
Back in Cousins, Jeremiah has kissed Denise, Steven’s work friend. He is still insufferable, but now also into soufflés? He’s doing just fine.
James Hillers ‘26 commented on Jeremiah’s plotline post-Belly. “…it feels like they just threw that in to make [Jeremiah] have something at the end…I guess I didn’t see the rest of the show… but I thought it was kind of weird.”
“I hoped his relationship with Denise would show some character growth in that he could just be friends with this woman, and that he’s learned from his old habits, but we see that is not true,” Hannaford added.
Another notable moment from this episode includes the development of Taylor and Steven’s relationship. After getting in a small fight, the two agree to move to San Francisco, California together. This news made a lot of viewers happy: “I’m watching the show for Taylor and Steven. They are endgame,” Livi Sonne ‘27 said.
Ultimately, The Summer I Turned Pretty was entertaining and harmless. It didn’t say anything about the current political climate, but maybe that’s just what we wanted every Wednesday night – to forget about war, famine, and our crumbling democracy, and sit down with friends to relive the glory days of your adolescence when all that mattered was who Belly ended up with.
So, whether it was the soundtrack, the style/aesthetics, or the nostalgic distraction in a time of political turmoil that made this show a “cultural zeitgeist” as Hannaford put it, we’ll never know. We do know that Belly will now hold a special place in our hearts.
With the finale over, we sat back, satisfied with the happy ending and mildly sad that the Wednesday night watch parties would be over. We thought that we wouldn’t hear from Belly again, and we were content with that. Then, Jenny Han left us another surprise: The Summer I Turned Pretty: The Movie. Is this just another capitalist ploy to squeeze in more viewership and thus make more money? Probably. Will we be watching it? Absolutely!
