Season 2 of The Summer I Turned Pretty is over — but the show has already laid out the groundwork for the next chapter.
During the season 2 finale, which started streaming on Prime Video on Thursday, August 17, Belly (Lola Tung) remembered the last time she saw Susannah (Rachel Blanchard) before her death.
While visiting the Fisher home with mom Laurel (Jackie Chung), Belly reunited with Susannah for the last time amid Susannah’s battle with cancer. When Belly entered the room, Susannah was writing letters in bed. After Laurel removed the letters from her lap, Susannah tried to fix the mess by putting the letters into envelopes — and eagle-eyed fans noticed the major narrative nod.
As readers of the third novel know, Conrad (Christopher Briney) mistakenly gives Jeremiah (Gavin Casalegno) a letter that their mother wrote for him — and the mishap plays a big part in how the love triangle plays out.
Viewers quickly took to social media to point out the Easter egg, with one person tweeting, “One thing about jenny han…she’ll remind you how this story really ends 😭 she showed us susannah writing the letters and dropping them which most likely lead to the mix up!”
Meanwhile, a second fan was excited at the potential for season 3. “Susannah mixing up the letters really confirmed that the S3 script will stay EXTREMELY consistent with the book plot.. bellyconrad is endgame🤭,” the commentator wrote via Twitter.
The Summer I Turned Pretty, which debuted in June 2022, is based on a book series of the same name by showrunner Jenny Han. In the original trilogy, Belly finds herself in a love triangle between Conrad and Jeremiah before making her final choice in We’ll Always Have Summer.
Fans may be hoping to see season 3 play out similar to We’ll Always Have Summer — but Han, 42, might have different ideas.
“I really had to weigh what the fans are expecting with where the show is going creatively and find that balance,” the author told Variety in June 2022 about adapting the book for Prime Video. “My priority has always been that I want fans of the book to feel really satisfied by the story we’re telling, but also for them to know that this is an adaptation in a new medium, so it’s not going to be exactly the same. I think those are sort of the two things that are always in my head.
Han added: “I don’t want to spoil too much but the books have been out for a while. You never know what could happen with the show. I was open minded going into it. I was considering a lot of different possibilities.”
Meanwhile, Casalegno, 23, has also not ruled out a shakeup for the show’s endgame couple. “I do feel like there’s a strong chance that that’s a possibility,” he exclusively told Us Weekly in July when asked if season 3 could stray from events in the book series.
The actor noted that he wasn’t too focused on future challenges that his character might face.
“I try to keep it as real as possible in that regard. Obviously, I know where he ends up going and what ends up happening. But I don’t emphasize on that. Because I think Jenny writes it so well that I’m able to kind of get there naturally without having to force it a certain direction,” Casalegno told Us. “So even though I know where he is going, I try to play it day by day because that’s all we can do. [We can] just live in the moment and make the most of our time right.”
Casalegno went on to say that he was thrilled with how season 2 showed more of Jeremiah‘s perspective, adding, “It was so rewarding. Because I think [in] all of season 1 and even season 2, you get so much of Belly’s inner dialogue. You get so much of her thoughts, and you’re able to love Belly because of it. For Jeremiah, it’s the same. I feel like people are going relate to him and understand him better and really get to love the person he is because he has such a big heart for everyone around him.”
The Summer I Turned Pretty has been renewed for season 3.
