The Love Triangle On The Summer I Turned Pretty Raises Some Pretty Weird Questions - Here's Why

Love triangles are, at this point, an essential part of young adult pop culture. "The Hunger Games" features a dystopian love triangle, "Twilight" has a supernatural love triangle, and "The Summer I Turned Pretty," Jenny Han's book series that was adapted into a hit series for Amazon Prime Video, centers around a love triangle that keeps it in the family, so to speak.

Before I go further, I need to make one thing abundantly clear. This isn't a "Game of Thrones" thing, or even a "House of the Dragon" thing. None of the three characters in this love triangle — specifically, Isabel "Belly" Conklin (Lola Tung) and brothers Conrad and Jeremiah Fisher (Christopher Briney and Gavin Casalegno) — are actually related to each other. Now that we've gotten that out of the way, the love story is still ... weird. Why? Before Belly "turns pretty," as the show's title clearly tells us, she has a very platonic, sibling-adjacent relationship with both Conrad and Jeremiah, due to the fact that Belly and her mom Laurel Park (Jackie Chung) always spend their summers at the Fisher family beach house in the fictional Northeastern town of Cousins Beach with the boys and their mother Susannah (Rachel Blanchard). As a result, when Belly, again, "turns pretty" — Lola Tung is already extremely gorgeous, so in this universe, that basically just means she gets her braces off and stops wearing backwards baseball caps and overalls — both boys notice, fulfilling the rom-com trope when a guy sees a girl take off her glasses and realizes she's actually beautiful. This time, though, two guys realize Belly is actually beautiful.

This only gets weirder when, throughout "The Summer I Turned Pretty," Belly basically only dates either Jeremiah or Conrad, as if no other boys have ever existed in the world. (When Belly's eventual college roommate Anika, played by Sofia Bryant, realizes Belly has only ever "been with" two guys and they're brothers, she is appropriately baffled.) So what's the full story of Belly, Conrad, and Jeremiah on "The Summer I Turned Pretty?"

After Conrad and Jeremiah realize that their lifelong friend Belly is, in fact, pretty — even though her parents did saddle her with a truly bizarre nickname — they start vying for her affection in season 1 of "The Summer I Turned Pretty." Despite Belly's long-simmering crush on Conrad, which she's been nursing since she was just a little kid, she can't help but consider Jeremiah when he unexpectedly confesses his own feelings for her. Behind all of this is Susannah, who, even after she passes away from cancer between seasons 1 and 2, casts a shadow over the love lives of her two sons and, consequently, Belly's love life as well. How? Well, according to Belly's narration, Susannah was always convinced that Belly would end up with one of her boys, so I guess this is all Susannah's fault. Despite sharing a kiss with Jeremiah in the beach house's pool, Belly and Conrad seal their budding relationship with a kiss in the season 1 finale, even as he heads off to study at Brown University and she continues high school outside of Philadelphia.

Belly technically dates neither brother for most of season 2; instead, her relationship with Conrad is seen in flashbacks. As Susannah's health declines, Conrad, unwilling to accept Belly's emotional support, ends their relationship, and most of this season is honestly devoted to a legal battle over Susannah's beach house after her death. At the very end of it, though, Belly "chooses" Jeremiah, even though Conrad also tries to win her back, and she's happily dating the younger Fisher brother when we see Belly again in season 3.

When the third and final season of "The Summer I Turned Pretty" begins, we get a time-jump to Jeremiah's final year at the fictional Finch College (Belly is a junior). Even though the two have now been dating for two years, Jeremiah cheated on Belly during a "break" with fellow student Lacie Barone (Lily Donoghue), leading to a breakup. Then, when Belly's brother Steven (Sean Kaufman) is injured in a car accident, both of them lose their minds and Jeremiah proposes. Belly accepts, but their wedding is ultimately derailed. Why? Conrad, of course.

As Belly and Jeremiah's wedding approaches, Belly can't help but wonder about her choice. When she tells Jeremiah that she and Conrad spent Christmas together alone at the beach house — even though nothing romantic happened — the younger Fisher brother implodes. It definitely sucks that he ditches Belly on their wedding day before they agree to call it off, but at the very least, this gives Belly the opportunity to hop a plane to Paris for the study abroad program she planned to attend before Jeremiah's impulsive and frankly stupid proposal.

The program is full, but thanks to some new Parisian friends and a go-getter attitude, Belly ends up thriving in Paris, starting off with a tiny room in an apartment with three rude roommates and two crappy jobs before eventually snagging a gorgeous one-bedroom apartment with views of the Sacre-Cœur basilica and finally feeling at home in the French capital. That's when Conrad reappears — but this time, it's a good thing. By the time Conrad, who has Belly's new address after sending a series of unanswered letters to her old one, appears on her cobblestone street in Montmartre, Belly has finally grown up. Not only does she have a kicky bob and a fabulous French wardrobe, but she has a better sense of self than she ever did in her previous relationships with either Conrad or Jeremiah.

By letting Conrad and Belly grow up, evolve, and figure out their own lives before they end up together, "The Summer I Turned Pretty" concludes with a pretty poignant message: even if you do meet someone when you're very young or spend years apart, you can still form a romantic partnership with that person as long as you've put work into your own life first. Despite a weird start, Conrad and Belly's relationship at the end of "The Summer I Turned Pretty" is fully earned, and you can experience it for yourself on Amazon Prime. If you've already watched the whole thing, try one of these similar shows.