Let’s talk about The Summer I Turned Pretty – Season 3, Episode 7

Before I jump into this post, I’d just like to brag about the fact that the release of the seventh episode of The Summer I Turned Pretty perfectly coincided with me freshly finishing We’ll Always Have Summer — the third and final book of the series. To be honest, that was definitely the main reason behind my excitement for this episode — I really hadn’t been so excited to watch a TV show episode in a very long time.

Past eagerness aside, there was nothing all too groundbreaking or extremely original about Jenny Han’s writing. I did completely power through all three books in this series within a week, so I feel like I’m entitled to speak my mind a little here. Now, don’t get me wrong. Books that read like crack don’t have to be well-written — and this whole trilogy is a testament to that.

The plot of the 7th episode of season 3

The seventh episode of this third season kicks off with a little time jump, as Belly informs us that we are now 3 days from her ‘big day’, Conrad’s incredibly intimate wound clean-up session can now be filed under ‘distant memories’ (LIES), and ‘Jellyfish’s’ friends and family are all set to be in Cousins for the wedding weekend.

Fans of the book — fuelled with the not-so-subtle hints from Jenny Han’s Instagram story updates — already anticipated that this episode would feature:

• the bachelor and hens night
• Conrad’s discovery of Jeremiah’s sleazy ass/infidelity
• and — of course — Conrad’s big declaration of everlasting love

All of which was nicely followed by the explosive fight on the beach. This is, after all, Belly and Conrad. (When have they not fought whenst alone on the beach?)

The fight, by the way, was 100% triggered by Belly’s inexperience — and, frankly, immature — response to realising that she made the biggest mistake by choosing the wrong brother; and that she now had to lie in the bed that she’d made. (And it’s a very messy bed.)

Not disappointing for fans of the book

I’m sure that we are all so accustomed to being completely let down when it comes to books to screen adaptations.

Personally, I found it refreshing that Jenny Han was at the forefront of ensuring that that didn’t happen to her faithful readers. Because this episode was a pretty perfect text-to-small-screen experience that fully instilled me with the confidence that Jenny Han would continue this satisfying streak of delivering deeply soul-impacting (impactful?) moments, be it good or bad.

I’m referring to the fact that the show perfectly captured Conrad’s pain and anger and immaculately showcased how overwhelming Belly’s realisation of ‘It was always Conrad’ was.

And let’s be honest here, inserting that Ariana Grande ‘We Can’t Be Friends’ Bonrad edit mid-episode was WILD. However, it just proved to us that the showrunners are the biggest fans of their own production — which is exactly how every project should be!

In addition to all of that, I suppose that I must also highlight how I appreciate that they fleshed out a lot more things in the TV show that really weren’t included in the books. For example, Steven and Denise were not a thing, Belly’s parents never got back together, and Kayleigh wasn’t even mentioned by name in the book. (In fact, Denise was listed as Adam’s assistant — the one who helped Belly plan the wedding.)

Another thing that I would like to point out in this episode is how Taylor finally backed down from pursuing Steven. It was nice to see her be the bigger person here and genuinely encourage Denise to shoot her shot because she just wished for Steven’s happiness.

The beach confession scene was better in the book

As gut-wrenching as the beach confession was in episode 7, I much preferred the execution of this scene in the book. Belly’s internal monologue really made every outrageous retort and ridiculous claim so much more palatable and understandable. I’m glad to see that Jenny Han has such unwavering faith in her readers — to think that Belly blurting out that Conrad treated her worse than Jere cheating on her would obviously be registered as our female protagonist doing her utmost best to gaslight herself, rather than Belly just being the nonsensical girl that does nonsensical shit like immediately agreeing to marry the douchebag that so readily threw away a four-year relationship for the chance to rail some random girl twice.

And without a doubt, Belly falling to her knees — completely breaking down — simply bore more weight in the books because she was in constant communication with the readers; we completely understood exactly what she’d done, why she did it and how she felt in the aftermath. Obviously, the minor fault of this not being perfectly executed on screen did not lie with Lola’s acting because the clip of her walking away from Conrad was simply too closely edited to her collapsing onto the sand — it felt disjointed and wasn’t exactly logical.

It would have been great if they had included Belly’s monologue after she fell to her knees on the beach (when she’s finally alone). After all, that’s how each scene for this series is executed. However, assuming the very best of the showrunners, I could see how they might have been trying to switch things up here. They might have overlooked the amount of interpretation required from non-book readers and abandoned Belly’s usual monologue in their attempt to sustain the serious tone of the scene. But I personally believe that they should have included the monologue. They would have been able to include a longer cut of her walking away — OUT OF CONRAD’S LINE OF SIGHT.

BUT I can also understand that having Belly intoxicated served as a way to highlight how genuine a person Belly is. On screen, we were able to see how, even drunk, she would still run out onto the beach to meet Jere — as promised. However, the same couldn’t be said for him, as he does a whole lot less than think twice about anything and ditches her after drinking himself silly.

Let’s talk about the flashback scene

That flashback scene was honestly a huge let-down for me. I absolutely loved this scene in the book and felt pretty gutted that Jenny trimmed out the most important aspects of this scene. I presume that she must have decided that they just needed to include enough of the scene to carry the audience to the point at which Belly horrifically blurts out “he got me the unicorn and he got me my mum” to a very confused Taylor. However, to me, the whole buying the unicorn for Belly because she was enamoured by the little glass thing meant absolutely nothing compared to the ABSOLUTE FEAR (turned anger) that young Conrad canonly expresses in the books.

Honestly, I much preferred the bicycle flashback in episode 5 compared to this episode 7 one.

Let me explain, in the book, Jeremiah and Steven are basically the only two to be found at the assigned meeting spot when Belly finally rejoins the group at the mall. Conrad is nowhere in sight. And Belly’s panic and guilt for losing track of time is met with complete and utter indifference — and even annoyance on Jere’s part — from the two boys.

Belly asks where Conrad is, and Jeremiah couldn’t give two shits, as he’s basically all: “I don’t know. He told us to sit here, and he went off to find you or something.”

The little shit’s practically filled with annoyance and is completely void of any worry for Belly. And then little prepubescent Conrad comes storming back to the food court — furious as he’s been so completely worried-sick fretting over where Belly had disappeared off to.

I think that the tiny Conrad in the show softened way too quickly. The showrunners could’ve pushed it a little further, allowing him to display a little more protective anger to really drive home the differences between the two brothers. But they didn’t even put little Jere in there.

My honest thoughts

In my honest opinion, I have to conclude that I much prefer how everything played out in the books. For example, Taylor was actually the one to reveal that Conrad convinced Laurel to attend the wedding and bridal shower. I just found this chain of events a little sweeter because it really punctuated the fact that Conrad was simply dedicated to being Belly’s silent guardian angel. That he didn’t do any of it for the credit, just for her happiness.

In the books, Conrad never sought out Belly to tell her about Jere’s infidelity. Our completely sober heroine ran to the top of the staircase as soon as the group of bachelors entered the beach house, completely drunk, noted down that her first love was nowhere in sight, caught his silhouette on the beach foreshore and then ran to him just to see what was up. Which was why … Conrad’s confession came out that way because Belly barged in on his solo reflection time. On the other hand, TV Conrad was fully aware that Belly was meant to meet Jeremiah on the beach — he knew that Belly would show up and that Jere was clearly too drunk to.

Plus, why was it such a crime to maintain that Conrad single-handedly hosted everything? Fans who exclusively viewed the TV series were completely duped into thinking that Jeremiah did half of the hosting work by having him tend to the barbecue by the pool on screen. The job was clearly done by Conrad, and Conrad alone, in the books. I don’t care if Jenny wanted to flesh out Jeremiah’s culinary pursuits on TV. Why should any part of Conrad’s character be sacrificed to accomplish that? Find another way, Miss Han.

I must insist that the book was better

In the books, Conrad never sought out Belly to tell her about Jere’s cheating. Belly went out to meet Conrad on the beach while the guy was just trying to think things through. It makes more sense that Conrad’s confession came out that way because Belly barged in on his solo reflection time. Whereas, in the TV show, Conrad knew that Belly was meant to meet Jere at the beach. He knew that Belly would show up.

HOWEVER, CHRIS’S ACTING WAS STILL GREAT. It was actually painful to see him cry like that. The book’s confession obviously delivered better, but Chris repeating phrases or sentences just sort of really drives home the fact that he’s just so completely overcome with emotion.

I like how it was so heavily emphasised in the books that Conrad judged Jeremiah’s friends. “These are your friends?” (Chapter 46). Plus, Book Conrad was single-handedly hosting everything. Not only did he plan Jere’s entire bachelor night, but he was also doing all of the barbecueing for their little backyard pool party. The show was honestly NICE to Jeremiah.

HOWEVER, I did like how in the TV series, Jere laughed unapologetically at his friend while the baffoon was recounting his night with Lacie.

Overall, I definitely preferred the book over the TV series (as always), but I undoubtedly found myself squeaking and pausing season 3 episode 7 more than a handful of times — because credit where credit is due, it was a pretty damn good execution of the novel’s events.