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Congrats, Team Bonrad! The Summer I Turned Pretty season 3 finale recap: We'll always have Cousins

Congrats, Team Bonrad!

The Summer I Turned Pretty season 3 finale recap: We'll always have Cousins

Congrats, Team Bonrad!

By Sara Netzley

September 17, 2025 4:27 p.m. ET

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Lola Tung and Christopher Briney in 'The Summer I Turned Pretty' season 3, episode 11. Credit:

- Conrad and Belly's day in Paris starts awkwardly, but they relax enough that she invites him to her birthday dinner.

- Jeremiah throws a successful pop-up dinner, and he and Denise kiss. Steven and Taylor agree to move to California together.

- Belly and Conrad have sex that night, but her guilt and uncertainty have her icing him out the next morning.

- A text from Laurel reminds her of her own worth, so she chases after Conrad and professes her love.

It's the perfect episode title for the 79 minutes that see Belly (Lola Tung) and Conrad (Christopher Briney) finally grabbing their happily ever after.

But first, the bad news. If you were longing to see the band back together, I'm sorry to report that the season 3 finale of* The Summer I Turned Pretty* covers the same day as it unfolds in Paris and in Cousins. So let's first catch up on the stateside crew and save the main course (Bonrad, obvi) for last. (However, it looks like we'll likely get to see everyone come together again for the recently announced *The Summer I Turned Pretty *movie — yes, movie!)

Jeremiah (Gavin Casalegno) — the sexiest new chef alive, per Taylor's (Rain Spencer) TikTok — is prepping a four-course pop-up dinner for 30 food influencers but takes the time to assure Denise (Isabella Briggs) he's at peace with the Belly-Connie reunion unfolding across the ocean.

Denise, in turn, breaks the news that she and Steven (Sean Kaufman) are moving to San Francisco to launch their new business. Alas, Taylor overhears and freaks out because Steven hasn't mentioned it.

She's spinning out as poor Jere (and for the first time all season, I actually mean that — poor Jere!) struggles to find a new venue for his meal after a leak leaves his original location unusable. Denise suggests his disgustingly beautiful beach house, and although he balks at going back to the scene of his heartbreak for the first time, he agrees it's the best option.

The venue change causes a few hiccups, but they make it work, even when Adam (Tom Everett Scott) crashes the dinner with a case of leftover wedding champagne. We learn that Kayleigh dumped him, while Laurel (Jackie Chung) and John (Colin Ferguson), who *were* on the guest list, remain on excellent terms but aren't seeing each other anymore. Booo!

Sean Kaufman, Gavin Casalegno, and Rain Spencer in 'The Summer I Turned Pretty' season 3, episode 11.

When Jeremiah kicks a bickering Taylor and Steven out of his kitchen so he can finish the meal prep, the couple demonstrates their new and improved communication skills.

Steven didn't tell her about California to avoid being another person (**cough Lucinda**) asking her to give up something for him. But Taylor, who's no longer scared of loving Steven out loud, says she wouldn't be moving *for* him, she'd be doing it *with* him.  Plus, she can be the baddest bitch in PR in San Fran just as easily as she can in Boston.

With service underway, Denise swings by the kitchen to check on dessert, which looks incredible. Earlier, she talked Jere past his residual bad feelings about the house, and now she banishes his inferiority complex about Conrad, assuring him that he's model gorgeous and a total 10.

Jere, meanwhile, admits that he let Belly give up on Paris because he didn't want to be alone, so his friends moving to California will force him to figure that out. But when he and Denise end up kissing, it looks like the nepo baby might eventually follow everyone west. Also, Adam tells him that he's proud of him, and it's meaningful for the guy who just wished out loud that his mom was there.

Here's who Belly chose in 'The Summer I Turned Pretty' series finale and how it all ends

'The Summer I Turned Pretty' recap: Belly takes the wheel

Gotta say, I'm relieved that the complete personality transplant Jeremiah experienced this season seems to have been reversed in these last two episodes. Also, long live queen Denise.

Toasting at the beach house in 'The Summer I Turned Pretty' season 3, episode 11.

The night ends on the back patio of the beach house with twinkle lights, popped champagne, and everyone we've loved for three seasons happy, smiling, and looking toward the future.

So. That's the Cousins news that's fit to print. Shall we hop over to Paris?

Conrad's half agony and half hope as he waits on Belly's doorstep for her to come home, and when she does, it's on Benito's (Fernando Cattori) scooter.

Christopher Briney in 'The Summer I Turned Pretty' season 3, episode 11.

She's stunned to see him but manages a hug and a smile when he compliments her new hair, which is trés chic indeed. She reluctantly agrees to play tourist until that evening, when she'll leave for her birthday dinner and he'll catch a train to Brussels, where his conference starts the next day.

Y'all, it is *awkward*. Belly's remote and cold, and their conversations are stilted, although they sneak plenty of glances at each other as they walk through the Louvre and Versailles.

When Conrad asks to see Paris the way she does, she takes him to a rooftop with a glorious view of the city and finally starts talking. This view helped make Paris her home, and the doctor-in-training compares it to seeing the body as a whole instead of individual organs.

Lola Tung and Christopher Briney in 'The Summer I Turned Pretty' season 3, episode 11.

He never doubted that scrappy, competitive Belly (a feral alley cat, according to their mothers) would thrive in a new place. He *sees* her, and she in turn invites him to her birthday dinner.

As they get ready in her flat, Conrad drinks in her new life: the books in French, photos of people he's never met, including Benito. He nervously perches on the edge of her bed before immediately popping back up, only relaxing when he spots Junior Mint and the infinity necklace. As he's been doing all day, he flashes back to their shared past, this time of him winning the stuffie on the boardwalk.

Belly emerges looking beautiful in a little black dress, and they sneak more looks at each other as he fastens her bracelet for her.

Sidenote: I love that all the songs in these scenes so far have been in French. It underscores the difference in the life Belly's leading almost as much as the French conversations that flow around the dinner table.

Gemma (Corinna Brown), Max (Jahz Armando), and Celine (Isaline Prevost Radeff) are excited to meet "*the *Conrad," but Benito's far less pleased as he shakes hands with the elder Fisher. We watch Conrad's soul shrivel when he sees that Benito's gift to Belly is a framed photo of her, sexy, relaxed, rumpled in bed.

Fernando Cattori, Lola Tung, and Christopher Briney in 'The Summer I Turned Pretty' season 3, episode 11.

Over dinner, the women grill Conrad about his pre-wedding day love confession, and Benito declares, "In the movie, he is the villain." But Belly firmly calls herself the villain in that situation.

We then learn that Belly ended things with Benito six weeks ago. Phew! The show was playing it coy about that with Conrad and with us this episode.

So yeah, Benito may have taught Belly how to drive a scooter, but Conrad taught her how to ride a bike. And for her birthday, he brought her a vial of Cousins Beach sand that he took with him to California once it was clear that he wasn't going to be back much, thanks to the Jellyfish of it all. This time, it's Belly remembering their shared history as she makes a wish and blows out the candles on her birthday cake.

She's wearing Conrad's jacket as they leave dinner, and he asks if he should call her Isabel like her Paris friends do. Although she says Belly is fine, I'll love him forever for noticing and checking with her about it.

He gently prods her to admit that Paris started as a self-imposed exile and assures her that nobody in their love triangle was the villain. "We were kids. We weren't trying to hurt each other." Furthermore, Jeremiah knows he's in Paris and even wished him good luck.

Well, after all that, what choice does she have but to dance with him as the moonlight reflects off the Seine? We've switched to American music as Belly cracks the door on the life she left behind. (It's The Flamingos' "I Only Have Eyes for You," if you're keeping track).

They discuss prom night — "Not my finest moment. I yelled at you in the rain and ran off like a little bitch," Conrad says — and unpack their fight at Susannah's funeral, too.

Is this… is this a miracle? Is every person in the finale showing up as the best version of themselves, the ones we always wanted them to be?

Lola Tung and Christopher Briney in 'The Summer I Turned Pretty' season 3, episode 11.

Belly says she didn't write him back sooner because she needed to let him go. But when he asks if she's moved on, she answers by kissing him and kissing him.

On the bank of the Seine. In the taxi. On the stairs up to her flat — and wait, that's a *lot* more than kissing they're doing on those stairs.

It's even more heated once they're in her apartment, and okay, we need to talk about Conrad bending all the way down to kiss her while she's sitting on the edge of the bed undoing his belt, just like we should also discuss his "I want to do it" when she reaches for the straps of her dress.

Long story short, the sexiest sex scene this show's ever done is set to Taylor's "Dress," and if you listen to the lyrics, you'll agree that it was somehow written eight years ago for this exact scene.

In the moment, Conrad's murmured, "I dream about this, *you*," is perfect. But the next morning, his comment that she's stuck with him forever has her telling him it's time he heads to Brussels.

Thankfully, he straight-up asks her what's going on, and she confesses her fear that they only love each other because it's what Susannah wanted for them.

Conrad's careful with his words as he tells her, "I have tried everything not to love you," for Jere's sake and for her own so he wouldn't bury her in his grief. But after changing everything about himself, his feelings for her survived. "If I met you for the first time tonight, I would love you."

These are good, good words, but Belly won't let herself trust her own feelings. Conrad dresses in silence and leaves with a quiet, "Happy birthday," pausing outside her flat to brush away a tear.

Belly's alone when Laurel texts a photo of her as a kid, and she remembers that she used to follow her heart and believe she was worthy of love. This unlocks another fundamental truth: "I have brown hair and brown eyes, and I will always love Conrad Fisher."

Y'know, we've had some much-needed out-loud emotional processing from Conrad and Jeremiah and even Taylor this season, but I do wonder if Belly's ugliest feelings of guilt and self-loathing had been a bit more external at key moments (Conrad's pre-wedding confession, this devastating conversation), would the audience have understood the extent of the journey she needed to go on a little better? Not saying she was the villain, but she was a little frustratingly opaque this season.

Either way, she has her epiphany and races through Paris to board the train that's about to take Conrad away from her again.

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After a frantic search through the cars, she breathlessly tells him that she chooses him of her own free will, just like every version of her does in the infinite number of worlds where they both exist.

She rests her fingers on the infinity necklace around her neck, and Conrad stands and touches it too before kissing her like he never intends to let her go.

In a voiceover, Belly tells us she didn't go back to Cousins that summer, but she eventually did, with Conrad by her side. And the camera pans out on a shot of the two of them outside the beach house, with its promises of summer and the beautiful things yet to come.

**Kissin' cousins corner**

- How interesting to close the show with a montage of Belly and Conrad's Christmas-in-Paris photos and not (book spoilers!) their wedding. Also, who's taking those Christmas morning pics of Bonrad? Is it Junior Mint?

- If you're curious, the actual line from Jenny Han's third book is, "He was a part of my DNA. I had brown hair and I had freckles and I would always have Conrad in my heart." They're different, but they both hit.

- If you're planning a rewatch (and come on, you know you are!), pause on the birthday texts when Belly's hiding in the bathroom. Each one — from Anika, John, Steven, cousin Skye, and Taylor — are perfect. We love a production team that pays attention to details.

- That's it, friends. (Until the movie, that is.) Love triangle resolved, happy endings all around. Were you satisfied with this finale? The end credits included a note from Han saying, "Maybe we'll meet again one summer in Cousins." That appears to be a tease for the upcoming movie, of which we don't know much about yet, other than it "continues the final chapter of Belly's journey." Will it feature a Bonrad wedding? Let's hope so!**

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