The Summer I Turned Pretty chose not to provide context only fans of the books would know before Conrad found out that Belly is engaged to his brother.
During the Wednesday, July 23, episode, Belly (Lola Tung) and Jeremiah (Gavin Casalegno) were preparing to tell their loved ones about their engagement. They started with Taylor (Rain Spencer), who wasn’t thrilled but came around. The plan then was to tell the rest of their family after an event honoring Jeremiah and Conrad’s (Christopher Briney) late mother, Susannah.
Things got a little more complicated when Conrad made a surprise appearance despite originally not planning to come. Belly and Jeremiah reconsidered ruining the day — until Jeremiah and Conrad’s dad embarrassed the younger Fisher brother at lunch by referring to him as a “super senior” and to Conrad as “the smart and selfless soon-to-be doctor.”
To show how proud she was of Jeremiah, Belly broke the engagement news — and let’s just say no one at the table was happy. Belly was forced to go home with her mom and Steven (Sean Kaufman), while Jeremiah went to his own house to convince his dad this was a good idea.
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Conrad, meanwhile, was left alone spiraling about his ex-girlfriend — who he is still in love with — now being engaged to someone else.
Most of the events in the episode were pulled straight out of Jenny Han‘s We’ll Always Have Summer novel, but those who read the book series before watching the show probably noticed the second half of the episode completely lacking Belly’s narration.
As a result, key context for certain scenes was missing, especially when it came to Belly and Conrad. For example, Belly didn’t just cut herself shaving while getting ready for the event. Han’s book highlighted how she was nervous over the possibility of crossing paths with Conrad again.
“Because I really did believe he was coming. If I didn’t, would I have taken extra care with my hair that morning? In the shower, would I have shaved my legs not once but twice, just to be safe?” read a passage from the final book. “Would I have put on that new dress and worn those heels that make my feet hurt if I truly didn’t believe he was coming? No. Deep down I more than believed it, I knew it.”
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Another section of the book notably revealed Belly “dreamt of Conrad” before they officially reunited again.
The other differences were mostly apparent in Taylor’s scenes with her mom, which weren’t explored in We’ll Always Have Summer. After Taylor and Steven officially broke up, her mother tried to meddle by asking him for help balancing her books. Steven, however, noticed a real problem with the salon Taylor’s mother owns, which is close to shutting down.
Before season 3 premiered on Prime Video earlier this month, Han teased that fans should expect certain moments not to line up exactly with how they were written in the book, which was published in 2011.
“There are going to be surprises,” Han told Entertainment Weekly in March. “There are the things that [readers] know and then there are things they think they know, and then there’s going to be, hopefully, things that surprise them.”
The Summer I Turned Pretty airs on Prime Video Wednesdays.
