“The Summer I Turned Pretty” returned for its long-awaited third and final season on July 16. With its release schedule of one episode every Wednesday, with the exception of the premiere which released two, fans are kept on their toes due to the show’s notorious history with cliffhangers.
For people unfamiliar with the show, “The Summer I Turned Pretty”, based on the book series by Jenny Han, tells the story of main character Isabel “Belly” Conklin as she is caught in a love triangle betweenwith two brothers, Conrad and Jeremiah Fisher. Fans of the show pick a side — being part of either “Team Conrad” or “Team Jeremiah” based on which brother they want Belly to end up with. With the release of Season 3, there was a large increase in the show’s fanbase. The fanbase also began bringing more memes and opinions to social media platforms, invigorating fans’ analysis and perspectives on the show’s characters, plotline, and soundtrack.
The biggest meme to come out of the show’s run this year was undoubtedly the Jeremiah hate. Jeremiah Fisher, the younger of the two brothers, started off the season in a relationship with Belly. His immature, reckless, and outgoing personality lands him in unfavorable situations (including cheating on Belly…twice). Team Conrad fans have found an endless amount of ways to hate on Jeremiah: criticizing the size of the engagement ring he gave Belly (the infamous SHEIN ring), throwing shade at his obsession with the mirror glaze cake (“Look, the whole flavor profile depends on the bitterness of the dark chocolate and the sweet tartness of the raspberry 😛”), and his childish comments (“Can we just cuddle??”). Jeremiah hate is definitely one of the most iconic jokes to come from Team Conrad fans this year, but it remains unfortunate that Team Jeremiah has not been able to come up with anything to counter it.
“The Summer I Turned Pretty” is known for having a very expensive soundtrack, featuring top songs by artists such as Tyler, the Creator, Ariana Grande, Olivia Rodrigo, and even older artists like Fleetwood Mac and Radiohead. A standout among fans is praise for Taylor Swift’s inclusion. Some Taylor songs featured this season were “False God”, “loml”, “Cardigan”, and “You’re on Your Own, Kid”. Avid fans have analyzed the significance of these songs, seeking a deeper symbolism within them that might reveal the directors’ plan for the finale. One notorious theory involves the song “Red” which was played in the season’s trailer. A lyric from the song says “Losing him was blue like I’d never known/Missing him was dark gray, all alone/Forgetting him was like tryin’ to know somebody you never met/But loving him was red”. Fans theorize that the inclusion of this song was to show Jeremiah as “blue”, meaning that Belly was meant to lose him. Predictably, “red” refers to Conrad, who was the first person Belly had loved.
Fans have also thrown criticism at this season’s inclusion of multiple cheating plotlines. While the Jeremiah cheating storyline remains true to the books, Han and the directors added a new plotline involving Steven Conklin, Belly’s brother, and Taylor Jewel, Belly’s best friend. Steven and Taylor have had an on-and-off relationship since season 1. At the start of season 3, Steven and Taylor were revealed to be in their own separate relationships, but cheating on their respective partners with each other. Fans complained that the writers’ have taken things too far and ruined the characterization for the sake of more drama/adult storylines in the show.
Overall, Season 3 has delivered more than what fans expected. In spite of how Team Conrad and Team Jeremiah fans are constantly waging online wars against each other, the show has managed to achieve commercial success.
