This piece was written during the 2023 SAG-AFTRA strikes. We stand with the SAG-AFTRA. Without them, the movies and television shows we cover would not exist.
There is no part of me that doesn’t feel conflicted over this episode of The Summer I Turned Pretty. I know that sentence will upset a lot of people, but it’s not in the way you think that I feel conflicted. It’s in the way that I have been a Team Conrad person forever and I still am. But however seeing this episode and hearing things from Jeremiah’s POV, for a moment, the dedication that I have felt to Conrad for a decade seemed to be something that I didn’t even think about. What I thought about in this entire episode was here was a boy that has been and continues to be totally in love and he’s hurting.
And we’ve all put that to the side for a bit.
At least all of us who have an allegiance to Conrad have. We’ve taken the moments to see Conrad’s pain and live with that and really embrace that he’s struggling and we haven’t seen that there are two different types of struggles. Ones that are internal and people don’t vocalize and ones that are put out there into the world with a voice and an attitude.
Jeremiah has always held his heart close to himself, not wanting to show that he’s in pain, struggling, and just trying to make it through. He’s put everyone before him and he’s just tried to survive.
And sometimes survival is all that one has to give.
Until there is nothing left.
WE SHOULDA KNOWN THEIR DAD WAS INVOLVED
The shock of what is happening at the beach house is too much for anyone to handle. At least that is how I feel about it. I feel like, yes, we know that there is something that Aunt Julia is hiding, and we’re all waiting for that to be divulged. But the truth is, no matter what is happening, the shock of what she did to the Fisher boys is unforgivable.
Seeing their pain, seeing everything gone, seeing Jeremiah’s face when he ran up to his Mom’s room… it broke me. The pain of loosing a parent, well, that’s a pain that I wouldn’t wish upon anyone. But loosing them twice… too much. That’s just too painful for anyone to have to go through.
There is something that happened between Julia and Susannah that we’re not getting and we need. Even though I despise Julia, it’s really something that I admire about her that she’s keeping it all close to her chest and not telling anyone what her sister and her fought about.
She doesn’t have a reason to hold whatever happened between her and her sister inside, but she does. It doesn’t mean what she’s doing is right, because what she’s doing is hurting the kids who are innocent in this whole thing.
But what makes it worse is that their father has something to do with this. Julia says that everything is in storage and that she made sure that they took care of everything. Their father and her had agreed that they shouldn’t drag this out.
What the hell is their father hiding. Because he’s definitely hiding something. Conrad and Jeremiah know that, but I do have to agree with Jeremiah that their Dad was there and Conrad is missing that right now.
Conrad and Jeremiah show their anger in different ways. They show their pain in different ways. It’s not up to us which one is right. But what I do love is that the two are finding a common ground and they aren’t going to allow each other to go through this alone.
THE COUNTRY CLUB
What I do love is that the group, again, finds themselves at a crossroads, but always finding a way to come together. Jeremiah has the idea of going to the country club to sleep for the night.
What we really need to talk about here is Jeremiah, because the real standout in this episode is Gavin Casalegno. His performance is something that is so special and so moving. This is his episode. This is his moment. He’s giving all of himself in this episode and he’s shining.
All of the flashbacks into Jeremiah’s life and thoughts are something special. I can’t even imagine what it would be like to be in love with the same person as your brother and know that you’re giving up everything to make him and her happy. But what you’re doing in these moments also is making decisions for Belly.
Look, I can see all of the things that people can say on both sides. I can see the side where it feels like Belly is trying to have everything her way. I can see the side where Conrad is in the wrong. I can the side where Jeremiah is being a martyr that no one asked him to be. I can see the side where both brothers should give Belly up.
BUT – I counter with this. Every love, every person, every feeling is different. There are so many things that can be said about peoples actions, but in every single one of those scenarios, someone is getting hurt. There isn’t anyone in this situation who isn’t going to be feeling pain.
I counter with that these characters are allowed to feel their feelings. In this episode, we’re focused on Jeremiah and his emotions. So lets start there. Jeremiah is a good man (and yes, I say man, because that’s what he is – he’s been through enough that you really can’t say that he’s not). But what he’s doing is really not giving all of the information to Belly.
She’s moving on from Conrad, and yes, there is still feelings there. There always will be. She’s living this life where she’s got no choice but to feel everything that she feels – emotions are heightened. She’s also giving every sign to Jeremiah that she wants to be with him.
But he’s holding back.
He’s holding back because it’s complicated. It always is. When they are playing truth or dare and you see the pain on his face that he wants to kiss Belly, but he also sees his brothers face. How can he not be there for his brother? How can he not make everything okay there?
And when Belly asks him about him not wanting to kiss her, the way that he looks at her…
The way he admits to her that if he starts kissing her that he’s afraid he won’t be able to stop…
I legit cried. I cried when we had the flashback of him with his Mom and her being sorry that he was hurting.
There is so much in this episode that you just have to see, but no matter what you take away from this episode, you have to realize that it is Jeremiah’s episode and the important thing is that we take note of that.
While other things are occurring, yes, that is true. We also need to remind ourselves that Gavin Casalegno has taken Jeremiah to new heights and you need to separate things from the book to the adaptation. There will be changes. There will be times where you hate it and there will be times where you love it.
What Jenny Han has done here has made you fall in love with the books, but also made you fall in love with the show. And TBH, if I had never read the books, and just watched the show, this episode would have made me Team Jeremiah.
That being said, as fans of the show fall in love with Jeremiah, we have to give credit where credit is due… Gavin Casalegno has given Jeremiah life in a way that he can and will convert you to Team Jeremiah.
OTHER THOUGHTS
- If Conrad and Jeremiah get a lawyer and sue for their trust fund I will love it and be like hahaha, fuck you Dad.
- Aunt Julia telling them the house is sold – fuck her.
- Skye standing up to her Mom and telling her it’s fucked up what she did, I applaud.
- I want Conrad Fisher to win against his Dad.
