The Summer I Turned Pretty Season 3 Episode 10 review.
After last week’s more transitional episode of The Summer I Turned Pretty, I wondered how the show would wrap up its big storylines in the final two episodes. At least in the penultimate episode, the answer is a recap of the ten months after the train-wreck wedding of Belly (Lola Tung) and Jeremiah (Gavin Casalegno). The episode feels like a Part 2 of the post-wedding buildup leading up to the Belly and Conrad (Christopher Briney) reunion I’ve been waiting for, but I enjoyed this episode way more than last week.
In The Summer I Turned Pretty Season 3, Episode 10, Belly Is Thriving In Paris.
Plot Summary: The episode, titled “Last Year,” takes place about three months after Belly chose to stay in Paris after the Belle Rive graduation and internship summer. I loved the shots of Paris, the winter markets, the nighttime Eiffel shots. Tight shots of the Seine, cafés, and streets show how Belly is really learning the rhythms of the city. The Thanksgiving shots at her tiny apartment dinner table with cherry compote instead of cranberry? So perfect. But belly still scrolls ole photos at the back table of the apartment. She’s nailed school, but she secretly journals how summer smells linger.
The East Coast: Most of the episode swings back and forth to the East Coast, with Conrad and the East commentary shutting down Belly’s reveries. I won’t lie: The East Coast scenes– with the light boardwalk drag and the endless music camps tracking Belly the Monday after Thanksgiving– pull on all the cliche East Coast music list reverb. I wish belly had stayed with the winter Paris light and Notre Dame sound.
Constance and the others: Belly’s old crew, including Conrad and still-sorting-steege, pull in and out for quick, op-surfacing shop catch-ups. I read Conrad’s on-again, off-again tension as something formal, like the last frosty alarm signal. I tuned in for Belly honors the place– the Yellow laptops, holiday nat read, and espresso– while the rest of the summer catch fire like old arrivals at finales. Then, out of Paris 11 am, the episode skims like a date until right at the wire. I three-puff the much-setup Ep I had been.
Last Shots: The ending pat tall I buzz a mixed-chaos rhyme of rediscovery. Not a spoiler; I loved how they tied in the city sound MS plans the red bubble redote streamline gift receipt; her answer never lands because rue nens redlines my thing; still, sound channel overlay; snow, blood, and re Suicide finale packing. The East gruesome ache mh my song list kicking in like cricket. So! CIN a fresh East beats the highly Nordic riff to-the-skippers and the last fall Parismy, beat of via Paris toward endless.
Find Related Stories! The Summer I Turned Pretty Episode 10 Release Date & How to Watch the Finale.
Belly is not crouched away in some shadowy Paris apartment. You would think so, but the truth is she’s found a new crew, juggles two jobs, and tackles the ordinary with quiet confidence. Paris taught her a new beat to move to. After stepping back from four years of leaning heavily on Jeremiah, Belly is sampling every alley of her own heart. The honest parts. The funny parts.
The parts that know how to cheer for the tiny victories, like nailing that one tricky French idiom, or tossing together a New Year’s roof party for a messy, perfect parade of friends. The promise hanging in the air at the episode’s end? Belly’s extending her Paris lease for an extra year. She’s already eyeing two killer internships and an online learning route back to the sports psychology dream she parked to figure things out. Paris is not a hiding place; it’s a launchpad that’s becoming her entire skyline.
Taylor (Rain Spencer) flies in to celebrate New Year’s with Belly, and visiting them again was magic. Still, part of me wishes we’d seen Belly say a proper I’m sorry to Taylor for her bridal-day comments. Taylor then gives the pep talk of a lifetime and tells Belly to stake a claim on her Paris life, which pushes Belly to flirt with Benito (Fernando Cattori). Benito is a total sweetheart, but he appears more in friend-zone than Belly. The sweetgrey scale just isn’t wide enough for both, but I loved it, anyway.
In week three, the first postcards trickle into Belly’s apartment. Conrad’s pen is wild and sentimental enough to leave her a little dizzy, and she toss the stack aside, then remembers to send only one card back with her address, nothing more, nothing less. Belly is being responsible and forward in ways I didn’t expect, and I’m glowing with pride. I think I was sending her Magic 8 Ball vibes to say, yes, zero no equations, Paris is now. The Paris segment is officially happening, and I can’t decide if I’m giddier about Belt working the city yet or about the reunion with Conrad next week.
While Belly is off creating her new Parisian chapter, everyone else is quietly leveling up back home. Steven (Sean Kaufman) and Taylor still have their classic spark, and they’re eyeing a shared apartment as soon as she tosses her cap at Finch. Laurel (Jackie Chung) and John (Colin Ferguson) are also looking rather snug, yet the show wisely keeps the will-they-won’t-they off-screen, saving us some drama I’d honestly filed under, “not the favorite couple.” Christmas rolls in, so Conrad slides back into the house for the holidays, and he and Steven have a speed-run heart-to-heart. The sibling tilt wraps up faster than a holiday gift—with them leaving the living room on a fresh, solid note.
I had a great time watching this episode, but two things still bug me. First, the show is still babying Jeremiah way more than it earns. Second, Adam (Tom Everett Scott) hardly seemed to care when the truth about Steven’s and Denise’s (Isabella Briggs) secret company came out. I expected that twist to stir up a mini-storm, but Adam’s reaction felt more like a shrug than an explosion.
Sure, this isn’t Succession, but a little outrage would have felt more real. Honestly, the story about Steven and Denise breaking the contracts is juicy enough to deserve more than Adam just saying, “Oh, well—we’ll get a different sponsor.” Now the scandal is the perfect dramatic set piece, yet the biggest price appears to be losing out on one mouse-sized deal. That seemed way too light and left the tension deflated.
The scene actually manages to knock Jeremiah down a peg, which I guess is progress. Adam shuts him down mid-rant, the guys lightly-but-firmly call out his junk, and then he has to scramble to land his first real job. I’m glad it happened, but honestly, the show keeps handing him free passes, and I’m still steamed. So out of nowhere, he has a hidden gift for culinary arts, and the plot suddenly revolves around him whipping up fancy meals.
The supporting cast practically rolls out a red carpet, and I’m staring at the screen waiting for him to own the mess he still won’t own. Meanwhile, the storyline keeps nudging him toward a fling with Denise. You’d think she’d inspire him to get his act together, but nope—she just lowers her bar more and more. By the end of the hour, she’s making laughable deals so he can coast a little longer.
One thing we keep seeing in Season 3 of The Summer I Turned Pretty is the nonstop ache of Conrad Beck Fisher. This week gives him—and us—a much-needed breather. Conrad finally decides to rejoin the family. When he runs into Jeremiah at Susannah’s (Rachel Blanchard) grave on the anniversary of her death, he stands up for himself.
He tells Jeremiah that he’s never bothered to consider how Conrad feels, that he’s treated Belly like a trophy to win. Jeremiah needed to hear that. It gives him the space to back off and accept the olive branch that Conrad’s quietly holding out. Jeremiah goes on to give his “blessing” to Conrad to go after Belly. To me, that blessing isn’t worth much at all, but to Conrad it means the world.
In “Last Year,” Conrad, nudged by Agnes (Zoé De Grand’ Maison), decides to change course on his way to a medical conference in Belgium. Instead of boarding a direct flight, he veers to Paris to surprise Belly on her twenty-second birthday weekend, and the episode wraps with him standing at the airport.
Yes, the pacing felt a bit turbocharged and lurchy, yet the emotional payoff at the end is solid—almost enough to forget that only one more episode is in the tank. (Still, a little sad that next week will be our goodbye to the beach, the boys, and the summer feels.)
Mark your calendars: the series finale of The Summer I Turned Pretty drops next Wednesday at 3:00 A.M. EST, only on Prime Video.
