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- #thesummeriturnedpretty
Why Belly’s Narration Matters Again (with Conrad’s help) TSITP S3 Ep 7–8 analysis
#thesummeriturnedpretty
#thesummeriturnedpretty
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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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