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Sean Kaufman and Gavin Casalegno also share their thoughts on whether Steven confronted Jeremiah about Lacie Barone. The Summer I Turned Pretty stars don't thin

Sean Kaufman and Gavin Casalegno also share their thoughts on whether Steven confronted Jeremiah about Lacie Barone.

The Summer I Turned Pretty stars don't think Steven was too harsh on Conrad this season

Sean Kaufman and Gavin Casalegno also share their thoughts on whether Steven confronted Jeremiah about Lacie Barone.

By Sydney Bucksbaum

Sydney Bucksbaum

Sydney Bucksbaum is a staff writer at **. She has been working at EW since 2019 and is a published author. Her work has previously appeared in TV Guide Magazine, E! News/E! Online, The Hollywood Reporter, Mashable, Bustle, IGN, DCComics.com, Inverse, The Daily Northwestern, and more.

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September 19, 2025 1:01 p.m. ET

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Sean Kaufman, Gavin Casalegno, and Christopher Briney on 'The Summer I Turned Pretty'. Credit:

Erika Doss/Prime

**This article contains spoilers for *The Summer I Turned Pretty* season 3 finale, "At Last."**

Team Conrad vs. Team Jeremiah? Nah, *The Summer I Turned Pretty *stars are all Team Steven.

Throughout the final season of creator Jenny Han's teen love triangle drama, fans criticized Belly's (Lola Tung) brother Steven (Sean Kaufman) for being way too harsh on Conrad (Christopher Briney) — especially compared to how he treated Jeremiah (Gavin Casalegno). Conrad was finally being honest about his feelings for Belly — sure, his timing could definitely have been better, but Steven raked him over the coals for it. However, Jeremiah cheated on Belly during Spring Break in Cabo (or at least acted inappropriately, depending on whether you think they were broken up or just on a break) and we never saw Steven confront Jeremiah about it. Where's the Fisher brother parity here?!

It's easy to see why fans are so upset, but when speaking to * *the day after the series finale red carpet event, the stars all defended Steven's treatment of Conrad. Yes, even Briney — Connie baby himself!

"This is the first I'm hearing of it," Briney tells EW of fans thinking Steven was too harsh on his character. "I mean, Steven is her brother. I feel like it's his job, or maybe he feels like a responsibility to be protective, you know? He's an older brother, obviously there are things that both brothers could be [yelled] at for. But they're homies, I feel like they talk honestly, so there's room for that, but I don't know."

Sean Kaufman and Rain Spencer on 'The Summer I Turned Pretty'.

Erika Doss/Prime

Tung actually thinks that the fans are being "a little hard on Steven" over how he acted toward Conrad this season.

"Because he didn't know about the Lacie Barone situation until much later," Tung points out (all together now ... *who the f--- is Lacie Barone?!*). "And at that point, everything had kind of fallen apart already. But in his eyes, Belly's his sister. He found out about what happened the night before the wedding. He hadn't seen Conrad in four years."

"Right!" Briney agrees. "That's pretty f---ed."

Tung continues, "Conrad has kind of ghosted him too a little bit, just to remove himself and he's probably a little bit hurt."

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Kaufman jokes that all you have to do is meet Briney in real life, "and then you'll understand why I was yelling at him." (Kaufman and Briney are best friends in real life.) But as he seriously considers the topic, he adds that the entire discussion is "interesting."

"Steven just has a lot of love for his sister and he looks out for her more than anybody," Kaufman explains. "Well, almost more than anybody. I had to remind myself that Steven is the main character of his own story, and I think a lot of the times, looking at that whole triangle over there, his perspective is like, 'That s---'s a mess, bro.'"

According to the actor, Steven's main priority aside from his sister's well-bring is his recently rekindled relationship with Taylor (Rain Spencer). "My focus is on her and on her alone," Kaufman adds.

Sean Kaufman as Steven on 'The Summer I Turned Pretty'.

It also makes more sense when you learn that the stars think Steven did actually confront Jeremiah over what happened in Cabo — they just didn't get to film that conversation. Kaufman "absolutely" believes that happened, and that Steven would never let Jeremiah off the hook so easily over something so important.

"There's a little bit of a time jump, he was crashing at his apartment," Kaufman points out. "If they didn't confront each other, it'd be ludicrous. I didn't feel as if the fans needed to see it, but I knew for myself what story I created and that conversation that was had."

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Casalegno loves how the final season explored Jeremiah and Steven's friendship further in scenes at their office, showing their lifelong bond that was always talked about but never truly shown. And that's why he also believes Steven held Jeremiah accountable for sleeping with another woman.

"It would be crazy, with me crashing at his place, to not have had that conversation in some capacity," Casalegno agrees.

Maybe the show should now be renamed *The Summer Steven Held Jeremiah Accountable.*

Original Article on Source

Source: "AOL TV"

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