The Summer I Turned Pretty Season 3 Episodes 7–8 bring Belly’s narration back into focus — but this time, with Conrad’s perspective woven in. Her voiceover isn’t just storytelling; it’s the emotional thread that grounds the series, shaping how we see her growth, her choices, and her complicated love for both Conrad and Jeremiah. With Conrad’s help, Belly’s narration highlights the deeper themes of memory, perspective, and how love can change the way we tell our own stories.
#TheSummerITurnedPretty #TSITP #TSITPSeason3 #BellyConklin #ConradFisher #JeremiahFisher #JennyHan #TSITPAnalysis #LoveTriangle #TSITPDrama
#TheSummerITurnedPretty #TSITP #TSITPSeason3 #BellyConklin #ConradFisher #JeremiahFisher #JennyHan #TSITPAnalysis #LoveTriangle #TSITPDrama
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00:00In season 3 episodes 7 and 8 of The Summer I Turned Pretty, something subtle but powerful
00:05shifts in Belly's narration. In my last videos, I traced how Belly's narration shifts from an
00:10exploratory, self-reflective voice in season 1 to a more infrequent and deceptively certain voice
00:16in season 3. But in episodes 7 and 8, we begin to hear a more honest narration from her. And for
00:22the first time, that authentic inner dialogue begins to spill into her actual dialogue,
00:27exposing the feelings she's been trying so hard to repress. And the catalyst for this change
00:32is Conrad's honesty. Once he bears the truth of his emotions, Belly can't keep holding back either.
00:39Let's talk about how. Everyone's joking about Conrad being delusional in episode 8,
00:43repeating the possibility of Belly and him being together. But no one is talking about how
00:48significant this is for his character development. Conrad refuses to back down from his feelings.
00:53No matter how messy or uncomfortable things get, he doesn't bottle them up like he has in the past.
00:59In the kitchen scene, he not only confesses his feelings to Belly again, but confronts her about
01:04what he knows she feels too. And later, when Taylor questions him, he says it loud and proud.
01:10He's always loved her and he sees them being together. He admits to Laurel his struggles with
01:14the wedding, hinting at his feelings. And he's upfront with Steven, that his strong feelings for Belly
01:20have kept him from returning home for all those years. If you contrast this scene with season 2's
01:25beat scene, where Conrad proclaimed,
01:27I thought you knew! I thought you knew!
01:30It's clear he's learned from that mistake. Back then, he assumed Belly understood how he felt about
01:35her. And now, he makes absolutely sure that Belly, and everyone else, knows exactly where he stands.
01:42He's not retracting his feelings, not hiding them, not pretending anymore. He even tells Belly outright
01:48that he won't pretend there's nothing between them anymore. This is a subtle but powerful callback
01:53to the motel scene in season 2, when he told Belly that he still wanted her, but then pretended to
01:59take back his word.
02:00Whatever I said, I didn't mean it.
02:02And in response, Belly pulled away from him too. Or at least, she pretends to. But now,
02:07Conrad refuses to repeat that mistake. That's why, Belly, mirroring his growth,
02:12finally admits the truth, that she still loves him. To herself, and out loud, to Jeremiah.
02:18Episode 7 marks the beginning of the shift from Belly repressing her feelings to finally releasing
02:23them, after she has an honest conversation with Conrad. After the almost kiss at the end of episode
02:286, the beginning of this episode sees Belly retreating into her false reality.
02:32The wedding's almost here, and Conrad's surfing accident feels like a distant memory.
02:37I realize it wasn't about him at all.
02:40Her narration explains away the moment of weakness, walking back her words from episode 6,
02:45when she admitted how deeply Conrad affected her in the peach scene and the bathtub scene.
02:49What did I almost do?
02:51This time wasn't like with the peaches. This time it was all me.
02:54She even tries to cut herself off from those feelings entirely by saying,
02:58It felt like a dream that happened to someone else. She tries to separate herself from that
03:04part of her that loves Conrad, as if she's a different person entirely. She's not willing
03:09to accept herself as she is, with all of her conflicting and varying emotions. This parallels
03:14episode 2's Christmas flashback, when, after admitting that a part of her will always love Conrad,
03:20she says, Nothing happened with Conrad. Nothing was ever going to happen.
03:24Even when she confesses something to herself, she immediately takes it back.
03:28But in episode 7, this lie comes full circle, when she reveals to Taylor, that
03:34Everything was fine until Christmas.
03:36Belly admits, to herself, and out loud to Taylor, that she lied when she said that nothing happened,
03:42because feelings did come up for her. Similarly, she tries to explain away her emotions after the
03:47almost kiss in episode 8, but it's evident that she's not being truthful with herself.
03:52Significantly, this conversation with Taylor comes after Conrad reveals he convinced Belly's mom to
03:58attend her bridal shower. Conrad doesn't tell her of his own volition, but when he's asked,
04:03he's honest about what he did for her. This is in sharp contrast to previous seasons, when he would
04:09bottle everything up or take back his words. And we can see this has a direct impact on Belly,
04:14with her confessing her feelings to Taylor shortly after this conversation.
04:18Just before Belly confronts Conrad about the bridal shower, we see her narration already
04:23beginning to open up, more honest and reflective than her earlier narration this episode.
04:28Conrad was always looking out for me. And maybe after all this time, he still is.
04:33For the first time, she's able to see Conrad clearly, even without him having admitted the truth
04:38yet, which allows her to begin seeing herself clearly too. This ties back to Conrad's season
04:442 beach admission. Just like back then, he's still loving her silently, but now Belly realizes it
04:50without needing him to explain. She figures it out on her own. And after Conrad confirms her suspicions,
04:57Belly's emotions flood through like a broken dam. You see it in her expression, then in the flashbacks
05:03while she's dancing, remembering, realizing that Conrad did love her in all those moments and maybe
05:09always cared the way she cared for him. That realization frees her to feel everything again.
05:15When she confesses to Taylor, it's the first time we hear Belly verbalize her feelings out loud
05:23and it's directly tied to Conrad's truthfulness. This confession also proves that Belly has been
05:29lying to herself all season. By claiming that the only thing she ever envisioned at her wedding
05:34was Conrad, she contradicts her earlier narration in episode 4.
05:38Girls are supposed to go wedding dress shopping with their mothers. That's the way it's supposed to be.
05:44I previously theorized that her focus on her mother's absence was a form of deflection,
05:48a distraction from her true feelings. She wasn't being honest with herself up until this moment,
05:54what was truly missing from her wedding. Because the largest problem with the wedding,
05:58as this scene reveals, was not that her mother was missing, it was that Conrad was missing.
06:03Episode 7 ends with Conrad's full love confession. He lays himself bare in total honesty and that
06:09moment triggers a turning point not just in Belly's narration but finally her actual spoken dialogue.
06:15Episode 8 gives us more narration from Belly than ever before in season 3 and almost all of it is
06:21about Conrad. Seeing each other after his confession, Conrad almost backtracks like he has in the past,
06:27but this time, he stands firm, repeating that he will always love her, even highlighting the
06:36moments they shared something intimate. Over Christmas, shopping at Michael's and the almost
06:41kiss in the bathroom, he makes it clear that he felt just as strongly as Belly did in those moments.
06:46In the past, Belly believed that her love was one sided, but Conrad proves that it was never just her.
06:53This forces Belly to re-evaluate her memories. We already know her memory is faulty, since she
06:58admitted in episode 6 that she remembered things incorrectly. So it scares me to think I got this
07:04one wrong. In season 2, she couldn't see the truth unless it was spelled out for her, like after she
07:09learned Conrad had asked Jeremiah's blessing to be with her, which led to the beach scene. She
07:14misremembered her time with Conrad and was never able to see the truth of his feelings for her, until he
07:19yelled it out. And once again, Conrad's candor shows her what she couldn't see on her own.
07:24After he announces that he won't pretend anymore in episode 8, Belly has to stop pretending too.
07:30She narrates,
07:30I never felt more alive. No one else had that kind of effect on me.
07:34She admits the depth of her feelings and that she'll never be able to let him go.
07:38This directly contradicts all the time she swore there was nothing left between them.
07:43She admits that she'll never be able to let him go.
07:45Suddenly I had this feeling that I was never going to be able to let him go.
07:49But Belly doesn't lean into this self-reflection for too long.
07:52There is still something pulling her back into that regressed state that tells her to repress
07:57her innermost emotions. I would be betting my whole life on him and I couldn't do it.
08:02She admits her feelings, but she still clings to the decisions she has made,
08:06going through with the wedding even if it doesn't feel right.
08:09This conflict comes out in the spa scene with Taylor, when Belly says,
08:13I need to get through this rehearsal and this dinner and then I can marry my best friend.
08:17This shows Belly clinging to her sense of false confidence,
08:21sticking to the plan at all costs even when she knows something feels off.
08:25The same thing happens later with Laurel. When she comes in to help Belly, Belly deflects,
08:30saying she's having problems with her hair instead of naming the real problem.
08:34She's afraid to admit that she's wrong, revealing that she's still naive,
08:38under the facade of being self-assured and a supposedly mature adult.
08:43There's also a book moment that parallels this. When Jeremiah returns for the wedding,
08:47Belly feels relieved, but she also admits that her panic isn't alleviated,
08:52signaling that Jeremiah's absence wasn't the problem, proving that she was marrying Jeremiah
08:57for all the wrong reasons. And throughout episode 8, her narration proves just how much Conrad affects her.
09:03When she sees him again, she thinks, Is he insane? Why is he even here?
09:08She's shaken by him. But when she sees Jeremiah at the rehearsal,
09:11there's no narration. At the dinner, still nothing. With Conrad, she can't stop narrating.
09:17I am painfully aware of him. But with Jeremiah, it's silence.
09:21Her narration becomes more honest to her inner world, which has always revolved around Conrad.
09:27When narration about Jeremiah does finally appear, it's still rooted in Conrad.
09:31I couldn't marry Jeremiah like this, with a secret that big between us.
09:36Her feelings for Conrad are the secrets she can't ignore. And by telling Jeremiah about Conrad's
09:41confession, she is inching towards her own truth coming out. So we see her sealing her fate in a
09:46sense here, laying the groundwork for her own confession to Jeremiah. Conrad's final goodbye
09:52forces Belly to be more honest with herself. She narrates,
09:55I always believed that we would find our way back to each other every time.
09:59That no matter what, we would be connected. Belly's building on her earlier confession
10:04that Conrad affects her unlike anyone else. And here, she finally admits that her feelings
10:09never went away. Every time she said there's nothing between them, she was lying. She never
10:14stopped believing that she'd return to him. And unlike season 2, when Conrad left after lying to her,
10:20this time he leaves truthfully. He lays his feelings out, doesn't retract them,
10:24and he lets her go. This forces Belly into being truthful with herself too.
10:29Her final narration brings it full circle. There are moments in every girl's life that are bigger
10:34than we know at the time. That whatever you do next, there will be an impact. Do or die.
10:39She knows that telling Jeremiah the truth means losing him. But that's the cost of finally being
10:44honest with herself. And for the first time all season, Belly is fully honest. With Jeremiah,
10:51with herself, allowed. She will always love Conrad. And of course, she does lose Jeremiah. But that loss
10:58shows why they could never work. Belly could never be her whole self with him. But by the end of episode
11:048, thanks to Conrad, she finally is. And here we have the turning point of the entire season.
11:10By finally admitting the truth, Belly breaks the cycle of denial that has defined her narration
11:16since the very beginning of this season. Conrad's refusal to pretend forces her to stop pretending
11:21as well. And in this, she takes her first step towards becoming whole. It's the catalyst from her
11:27inner dialogue moving from a state of avoidance to a state of acceptance and honesty. The next episode,
11:33as we saw in the trailer, will take her to Paris. Not as a girl on the run, but as someone stepping
11:39into an era of rediscovery. For the first time in a long time, Belly isn't repressing, deflecting,
11:45or hiding. She's questioning, wondering, and allowing herself to feel like she did in earlier seasons.
11:51Her honesty is what finally sets her free. To come back to herself, and ultimately,
11:56to Conrad. That's all I have for today, but stay tuned for my incoming thoughts on the final three
12:01episodes. And let me know what you think of my analysis in the comments below. Thank you for
12:05watching!
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