By Leah Hoyle, Third Year, English
Season three of The Summer I Turned Pretty (2025) should be renamed as ‘The Summer I Turned the Show Off’. Despite episode five looking up, this season has been the cringiest one yet and we can credit this to Belly and Jeremiah’s budding romance. Between the lovey-dovey bedroom scenes to Jere’s man-child strops, the first four episodes were certainly a hard watch.
The new season starts with a big four-year time jump following Belly’s (Lola Tung) move into Finch college, where Laurel’s (Jackie Chung) brief talk with Belly is potentially the most sense that will be spoken in the whole season. The maternal encouragement for Belly to spread her wings had me screaming at the screen for Belly to listen to her mother and spread her wings well away from Jeremiah (Gavin Casalegno).
To be honest, I am confused by author/screenwriter Jenny Han’s portrayal of Belly and Jeremiah’s relationship this season and this led me to question whether it is intentionally written to not sit right with the audience. With montages of their happy moments sprinkled into the show it makes it hard to think we’re supposed to dislike Jeremiah, after him being the underdog for Belly’s affections in the past two seasons. With his devotion to Belly (other than in Cabo, eek) and his doll-like looks, on paper we should be supportive of this seemingly superior Fisher brother but, despite this, the collective feeling of the audience is one of discomfort.
Whilst I do believe Jeremiah always has the best intentions, he does not seem to complement our protagonist’s personality and his immaturity becomes a great hindrance to their relationship. The main issue I have with their dynamic isn’t the insane wedding, because quite frankly it just seems too ridiculous to be true, but with Belly’s year abroad and how the couple go about this. With Belly too scared to tell Jeremiah at first, Paris quickly creates a childish and selfish image of Jeremiah. Being too wrapped up in his own mistakes to celebrate his girlfriend’s achievements, makes us think Conrad would never.
As the season progresses this only worsens with Belly deciding not to go and live her dream just because she wants to stand by her ‘fiance’. Possibly the worst decision yet and unsurprisingly Jeremiah encourages this, consolidating the audience's perception of him as irritatingly immature.
If there’s one thing to address, however, it’s the manipulative proposal OUTSIDE A HOSPITAL that follows the traumatic discovery of Jere’s cheating and her brother, Steven’s (Sean Kaufman), accident. The pipeline none of us saw coming. Perhaps the most unsurprising case of cheating, followed by the most underwhelming proposal approximately 40 minutes later, is something so inherently insane that even ‘Team Jeremiah’ can’t justify it. This action shows that Jeremiah doesn’t view Belly as a valuable partner in life but more so an achievement, something that finally shows he’s beaten Conrad at something. The total disregard of respect for Belly is dreadful, the only thing worse is the fact that she accepts it.
The real star of the show this season is the subplot. Taylor (Rain Spencer) becoming a much richer character is a breath of fresh air. Jenny Han elevates her character from being Belly’s selfish best friend, to a complex young woman, who many of us can relate to much more than the female lead this season.
Marianne Chatburn
The dynamic between Taylor and her mum, Lucinda (Kristen Connolly), is an interesting relationship that is a strong addition to the show. A dysfunctional mother-daughter relationship that we have all either lived or seen amongst friends’ families, in which we really feel for Lucinda, but our heart pulls for Taylor. The childish mother and the motherly daughter, who is forced to pull her socks up, act as a foil to Laurel and Belly. This is the storyline that really shines due to its display of real life issues of money and not prioritising family, contrasting to Jeremiah’s fluffy issues of chocolate cake with raspberry coulis and a mirror glaze (we’ve all seen the memes).
The range of mother-child relationships in this show is so interesting, specifically the mother-daughter ones in this third season. Laurel and Belly both pushing each other away reveals a lot about their personalities, and that they are far more similar than they both want to believe. This is what drives a wedge between them. John (Colin Ferguson) tries to make Laurel see this similarity in one of the sparsely good scenes in episode four, where they talk vulnerably about getting married too young. This offers a fresh perspective on the divorce that shaped Belly and Steven and their views on love. This parallel between Belly and Laurel gives the audience a look into Belly’s future if her marriage with Jeremiah goes forward – Laurel is full of regret and worry as she watches her daughter about to make the same mistakes as her.
Featured Image: IMDB / The Summer I Turned Pretty
What did you think of season three of The Summer I Turned Pretty?
