The Summer I Turned Pretty’s Jenny Han Revealed the Real Reason She Drastically Changed Belly & [Spoiler’s] Ending From the Books
The Summer I Turned Pretty is finally over, but did the book fans finally get the ending they expected? Fans of the Prime Video series created by Jenny Han know that after episode 9 of Season 3, the TV series strays away from the events that happened in the books.
In the third book, We’ll Always Have Summer, which is what the latest season is based on, Belly keeps up with Conrad through a series of handwritten letters sent to her when she was studying abroad in Spain. The two reconnect as she sees him at her graduation for the first time in a while, and in the epilogue, they have their wedding ceremony at Cousins Beach. Belly makes her dreams come true of having the last name Fisher and hangs up the letters in their living room.
Do Belly & Conrad get married in The Summer I Turned Pretty finale?
In a turn of events, Conrad and Belly do not get married in the finale of the show, which is a huge departure from what happened in the books.
After Conrad and Belly sleep with each other on the night of her 22nd birthday, the two talk about their feelings culminating up to that moment. In the end, Belly becomes super confused about how she feels about Conrad in the moment. Conrad leaves for the train to Brussels early in the morning, when Belly realizes that her childhood friend was the one from the beginning. Cue Taylor Swift’s “Out of the Woods.” Belly makes the run from her apartment to the train station and tries to catch up with him before he leaves for good.
She eventually spots Conrad on the train. She asks him, “Is this seat taken?” and says, “I choose you, of my own free will. If there are infinite worlds, every version of me chooses you in every one of them.”
In her last voiceover, she explained her happy ending. “I didn’t go back that summer. But eventually I did. Nothing beats coming home after a long, long time. And just as it always had, the beach house held a million promises of summer. And what just might be.”
Though it might be a happily ever after with Belly and Conrad’s endgame and the lack of nuptials, Jenny Han hinted that the story might not be over. “Thank you from the bottom of my heart for the love you’ve shown The Summer I Turned Pretty all these years,” she wrote. “Whether you’ve been with Belly since the very first book or joined us with the show I’m so grateful you’ve made Belly’s story part of your summer.”
Han continued, “We put our whole hearts into this show and we’re so thankful to you for coming along with us on the ride. Maybe we’ll meet again one summer in Cousins. Until then —”
As for why the big change happened, Jenny Han told People in an interview, “There are a couple of moments that people really love from the books that I knew that people were wanting to see,” she told the publication, saying that things “might not always happen in the way that you’re expecting.”
“I wanted to make sure that I was going to really service those fans who’ve been following the story for a really long time,” she said.
Han also told The Hollywood Reporter that she’s known about the ending being changed for a long time. “Seeing Belly (Lola Tung) go to Paris, seeing her growth in that time and stepping into her own and testing herself, those things I knew I wanted [to add]. It was just is a matter of how to tell that, but I always knew the shape of it.”
