First things first, the playlist of the second season of The Summer I Turned Pretty is beautiful. It’s not quite the Taylor Swift we were expecting from the trailer, but it works. Additionally, the episodes are wonderfully edited, giving us a clear view of the characters’ minds and the emotions they are going through every second. Let us see what happens in the episode through the recap here.
Spoilers Alert
Do Belly And Jeremiah Make Up?
As Belly prepares to meet Jeremiah so that they can both go looking for Conrad, some of her older memories of the Cousins beach house start coming back to her. She remembers how she had snuck out of her house with Conrad and spent the night with him at the beach, where they had seen snow and had some hot chocolate. Right now, a morose-looking Belly is traveling by bus to meet Jeremiah, who is frantically making calls to figure out where his brother is. He calls up everyone, from his ex-girlfriends to his past friends, but no one has heard from Conrad.
Jeremiah and Belly reach Conrad’s dorm room to see if he is there, but his roommate, Trusky, tells them that he took off a day or two ago and had asked him to take notes for his bio lab. Trusky tells them that he had a major fight with someone on the phone. Another girl, Sophie, mentions that Conrad said something about him going to the beach, which finally tells Jeremiah and Belly where Conrad might be. Trusky and Sophie also recognize Belly as the girl whose photo Conrad used to stare at on his phone, and they know that he took their breakup pretty hard. Trusky tells them that Conrad has to be back by Thursday for his exam, so Belly and Jeremiah take his books and laptop for him to study. Belly sees the necklace Conrad had given her, which she must have returned during the breakup.
As Jeremiah wonders what Cody must be going through, Belly offers to go with him to the beach house, but Jeremiah tells her that it is simply not needed. He wants to take care of the matter on his own, and Belly thinks that it might be because of what happened at the funeral. We have yet to know what it is, but Belly has not driven out here simply to find Conrad. She wants to repair her relationships, and letting her ego get in the way due to Jeremiah’s harsh words is simply not how to get what she wants. Therefore, she decides to go to the Cousins beach house with Jeremiah.
As they both set off, they hit a roadblock, and their car has a flat tire. Belly tries to fix it using what little she knows, but when that doesn’t work out, the two are out of options. This is when the confrontation happens, with Belly apologizing to Jeremiah for the funeral, but he is mad about something entirely else. He is angry that when he was with Susannah in her final days, Belly hadn’t bothered to be there for him the way she had been there for Conrad. Belly and Jeremiah were best friends, and in the complications due to their love triangle, she had completely forgotten that they had a relationship outside of the dating sphere. Whatever happened at the funeral, Jeremiah doesn’t hold it against her, but her not being there was very hurtful. Belly makes a heartfelt apology to him and asks to be friends again. This is all Jeremiah needed, and they make up.
Back at home, Steven and Lauren go out for a breakfast date since Belly has told them that she is spending the night at Taylor’s because she broke up with her boyfriend. Steven encourages her to go on her book signing tour. He also wonders whether he was really wrong for celebrating the way he did, so close to the tragedy in their lives. Even Lauren has been affected by Belly’s words, and she assesses her entire year, reconsidering how much she might have neglected Belly. Steven says that Belly’s grades have always been average, but it can’t be denied that she has never let her academics go completely the way she has. The biggest blow of them all was her being cut from her volleyball team, and it is that exact thing that is affecting her chances at a good university.
As Lauren goes shopping for a dress for her book signing, she runs into a saleswoman, and we get the impression that after Susannah’s death, Lauren is hesitant to respond to new friendships. Belly had mentioned how her mother had always been an emotionally steady person. But emotionally steady usually means guarded, which often indicates a hidden sensitivity in the person. Lauren always starts talking about Susannah but backtracks when she feels it is reaching a sensitive point.
Meanwhile, Steven runs into Taylor, and he instantly catches on that Belly might not be with her. Taylor is not really a good liar when it counts, and Steven is too much of a detective. When she leaves, he texts Belly, and she replies that she is with Taylor at the moment, which Steven knows is a lie. That is why he shows up at Taylor’s house, demanding to meet his sister. Taylor has no choice but to tell him everything, and Steven is confused. He knows that Belly is not on speaking terms with Jeremiah or Conrad, so he doesn’t understand how this came to be. Taylor asks him to let Belly sort this out by herself and not interfere since he already blamed Belly for the way things were. Steven agrees, but he wants to keep a check on Belly through Taylor, to which she agrees.
Do Jeremiah And Belly Find Conrad?
Belly and Jeremiah are okay now and are able to smile and talk to each other. But the shadow of their past relationship is still there between them. Belly realizes that things will never completely go back to normal or be easy again. When they make a stop on their way, Belly runs into Nicole, someone she knew from the debutante ball last summer. As they both catch up and Nicole asks her to stay in touch, Belly knows that it is not likely to happen. They had a happy time together, but everything that followed was full of sadness. What would they even talk about once they stopped reminiscing about the past? At the end of episode 2 of The Summer I Turned Pretty season 2, Belly and Jeremiah finally reach the Cousins house, and they can hear Conrad’s voice from one of the rooms. He is still fighting with someone on the phone, and he claims that the house cannot be sold and he won’t go back to college until he does something about this problem. So that is why he left college without telling anyone. But Jeremiah is furious that he wouldn’t take his calls at all and would go completely missing this way. We doubt Conrad bothered to explain himself, but when he saw Belly, he was mad about her presence. This man has some serious audacity.
Final Thoughts
The mystery of the funeral needs to come out ASAP. Also, we detect some heartbreak on the cards for Jeremiah and a lot of heartburn for everyone else. Elsewhere, since Lauren is going to New York, maybe Taylor and Steven will show up at the beach house, making it similar to last summer. Also, who is buying the house, and what can these kids do to evade this situation? This is going to be the premise for the upcoming episodes.
