We don’t want to be harsh on Belly. She had a difficult summer in Season 1 of The Summer I Turned Pretty, no matter how romantic it might have looked on the surface. To be honest, we ourselves don’t understand why we are annoyed, except that we are. As Season 2 of this well-loved series starts, with that fateful day on the Cousins beach when Belly and Conrad finally get together, their lack of chemistry is making us wonder whether it was one big mistake. Regardless, this is the recap of the first episode, and we are as intrigued as we are disappointed.
Spoilers Alert
What Happened After Belly And Conrad Got Together?
As Belly and Conrad are celebrating finally being able to be together, Belly confesses that she had been with Jeremiah a few times during the summer. Conrad was clearly unaware of this, despite knowing that Jeremiah was taking Belly to the debutante ball. It is appalling just how much he had taken for granted that he would be the singular person in Belly’s life, no matter what he did. Either way, Belly talks to Jeremiah about her relationship with Conrad, and he is understandably upset, not wanting anything to do with her for a while. As for Belly, she decides that she and Conrad should wait a while before they get together since that would ensure that Jeremiah’s feelings are not further hurt. Conrad is reluctant but agrees, knowing that this is indeed the best solution for now. This pact doesn’t last long because within six weeks of it, Conrad and Belly start talking again, and this is when they really get to know each other. When Conrad tells Belly how he discovered his dad’s affair and had to keep quiet about it for a long time, we start getting a glimpse of what makes Conrad such a serious person. Emotionally, he takes on a lot more than he can chew, and we believe that his tendency to not confide in others probably started at this point when he saw how he simply couldn’t talk to anyone about things without there being terrible consequences. On a phone call later, Belly opens up about how her mother, Lauren, could never quite love their father, and she admits that she couldn’t be with someone who didn’t make her feel butterflies. This is something common between Belly and Conrad, and these mythical butterflies are really ruining their lives. Frankly, it is these conversations that give us our first glimpse of what Conrad is like as a person, and what we see is a boy who would do better in life and relationships if he learned to communicate more. The fact is that when you invest so much in a story, it becomes hard to keep sight of the fact that the characters are still teenagers and they have a lot of growing up to do. We want to criticize Conrad a bit more, and even Belly for that matter, when she so easily accepts that Jeremiah was over her and she and Conrad could now be together. After Conrad told her that, why did she not want to talk to Jeremiah, who was her best friend, and why did she just let the thing sit so uncomfortably in the background? This is another way in which Belly and Conrad are alike: they will make big resolutions and follow them halfheartedly for their own selfishness. Either way, Conrad and Belly were definitely in a relationship before things fell apart for some reason.
What Is Belly’s Present-Day Situation?
It has been six weeks since Susannah passed away, and from what we gathered, everything has changed. Belly’s grades have already been falling throughout the year, and her chances at a good college also look bleak ever since she quit volleyball. Contrary to her situation, Steven has graduated as the valedictorian, and the entire house is up in celebration, while Belly continues to miss Conrad and keeps holding onto the necklace he gave her. Taylor really tries to cheer up Belly, and it looks like she wants to move on; therefore, she agrees to go to Milo’s concert after the graduation party. Milo is Taylor’s boyfriend, who plays music and talks philosophy out of context. Steven rolls his eyes every time Milo opens his mouth, and it is clear that he hasn’t forgotten his kiss with Taylor at Belly’s birthday party last summer, even though he doesn’t address it.
On the other hand, there is a growing distance between Lauren and her children since Lauren has let some things go since Susannah passed away. Belly and Steven haven’t complained since they loved Susannah just as much, but they were both equally affected by it. Unlike Lauren, who wrote a book about her grief titled “It’s Not Summer Without You,” Steven and Belly had no such outlet, and everyone, especially Belly, is dealing with the new reality.
Why Does Belly Call Jeremiah?
When Belly is at Milo’s concert, she is desperately missing Conrad and remembers how their entire relationship had started and the things they had gotten to know about each other. She remembered how Conrad had told her that he would never be able to get over her and how Bella had mirrored that sentiment. At the party, she tries to move on by talking to a guy named Cory, whom she thought was interested in her. He had previously asked her about her Hunger Games book, which was printed in the French language, and had similarly talked to her a few times. We think he was simply around her, and Belly read him wrong. When she tried to talk to him about astronomy, a topic she had connected on with Conrad, she didn’t find much success with Cory. Regardless, she tried to make a move on him, and to her embarrassment, she found that he was interested in someone else. Belly just wanted to leave the party, but she had to drive Steven home. When she was unwilling to wait, the siblings got into a huge fight where Belly called Jeremiah unfeeling for not being sad enough about Susannah’s death, and he called her selfish for stringing along the two brothers. At the end of episode 1 of The Summer I Turned Pretty Season 2, when Belly goes back home, Lauren is ready to talk to her about her performance in school, but Belly simply calls her out for being an absent parent. She goes to her room and being hurt and upset, she decides to call Jeremiah, probably in the hopes of reconnecting with him, and that is when she comes to know that Conrad is missing. Jeremiah couldn’t get in touch with him, and he was worried.
Final Thoughts
This is enough of a cue for Belly to get back into the Fisher brothers’ lives. We are most curious about Jeremiah’s feelings about the whole situation. After all, he is the one who has lost the most despite always doing the right thing, which is more than we can say for Belly or Conrad. The first episode of Season 2 is on a more sober note than Season 1, yet it promises a lot, which we will see in future episodes.
