EXPLOSIVE REVIEW: The Summer I Turned Pretty Season 3, Episode 8 shatters the love triangle — but the twist is NOTHING like fans imagined. ⚡🔥

👉 Secrets unravel, hearts break, and one choice changes EVERYTHING. This isn’t the ending you hoped for… it’s the one you’ll never forget.

Belly and Jeremiah’s wedding day finally arrives in The Summer I Turned Pretty season 3, episode 8, “Last Kiss,” but after all that build-up, I feel… disappointed. There was plenty of drama, certainly, as well as a few horrifying revelations, but I’m left with a hollow feeling where Belly (Lola Tung) is concerned. Why, oh why, is the show so intent on taking away her free will?

Once again, everything happens to her and around her, without her actually having any influence or say in the matter. Yes, she chooses to tell Jere (Gavin Casalegno) about Conrad’s (Christopher Briney) confession, and that’s one of the few decisions she’s made for herself in this entire season. Yet again, though, she was only thinking of Jeremiah.

As Taylor (Rain Spencer) helpfully points out to Belly (a little too late in the game, sadly), Belly and Jeremiah’s relationship is completely co-dependent. The writing choices made for Belly’s character this season, and more specifically, in this episode, undeniably support that claim, and I can understand where they’re coming from. Still, at this point, Belly doesn’t really feel like a person anymore. She feels like a plot device.

Has The Summer I Turned Pretty’s “Rage Bait” Gone Too Far In Season 3, Episode 8?

There’s a moment in The Summer I Turned Pretty season 3, episode 8, that reveals the ick-inducing truth behind Jeremiah’s infidelity. He knew about Conrad and Belly’s unplanned Christmas celebration, but instead of asking her about it outright, he waited for her to reveal the truth. When she didn’t, he picked a fight with her, flew to Cabo, and slept with someone twice without ever telling her the full story in return.

The Summer I Turned Pretty season 3 has painted Jeremiah in a bad light all along, and there have been several moments where I’ve felt the need to chuck the remote at my TV out of frustration with him. I haven’t read the books, so I’m not sure if this particular truth bomb is part of the original story. Even so, I was left wondering how much character assassination is too much.

I’ve said it before, but a love triangle dynamic is only as compelling as the characters involved. Jeremiah’s sleazy, whiny possessiveness, perfectly captured in TSITP‘s last episode, is now so overwhelmingly obvious that I’m finding it hard to digest. For a show like this, you have to suspend your disbelief a little and remember that these characters are essentially still kids, but still.

The issues with Jeremiah’s character aren’t made much better by the way the rest of the family treats Conrad. Laurel (Jackie Chung) is the only one who gives Conrad an ounce of support. Everyone else has turned on him completely, treating Jeremiah as a deserving angel instead.

Miscommunication and secrets can be effective storytelling tropes, but here, they feel abused.

The balance between the show’s three leading characters has never felt so askew. Jeremiah is a caricature villain, Belly is a shell of her former self, and Conrad is the family punching bag. At this point, I’d be more satisfied if they all finally went their separate ways, getting some much-needed distance from one another. That’s not how you want your audience to feel after such a monumental episode, though, is it?

It’s Not All Doom & Gloom In The Summer I Turned Pretty Season 3, Episode 8

The Summer I Turned Pretty is never better than during its most intimate, romantic scenes. While the romance has been overshadowed by overwrought dramatic tension, Conrad and Belly’s “goodbye” did genuinely make me feel something for both of them. Forehead kisses are always an effective romance tool, but Conrad’s vulnerability and Belly’s turmoil really shone through.

Briney and Tung make a compelling onscreen pair, and now that Jeremiah’s mostly out of the picture, I’m excited to see them (hopefully) work together more in the show’s last three episodes. There’s so much chemistry there; what will happen when they aren’t burdened by grief over Susannah or loyalty to Jeremiah?

I was also pleasantly surprised by Taylor’s character in this episode, as she finally called out Belly’s overzealous commitment to Jeremiah and the wedding. Someone needed to set Belly straight, and I’m glad Conrad and Taylor got to be the ones to do it. Those confrontations felt earned and satisfying to watch.

I’m hoping that the final three episodes, in which we cross into uncharted narrative territory, will finally give Belly her agency back. Now that her relationship with Jeremiah is seemingly over for good, it’s time for her to grab hold of her future again. Her buying a ticket to Paris at the end of The Summer I Turned Pretty season 3, episode 8, is at least a step in the right direction.

New episodes of The Summer I Turned Pretty season 3 premiere weekly on Wednesdays, exclusively on Prime Video.