“The Summer I Turned Pretty” has managed to surprise longtime fans.
In the newest episode of the popular Prime Video show, released Wednesday, Aug. 6, Conrad (Christopher Briney) and Belly (Lola Tung) get closer than ever despite Belly’s upcoming wedding to Jeremiah (Gavin Casalegno).
Although many of the scenes are straight from creator Jenny Han’s book trilogy of the same name, including one where Conrad sensually wipes Belly’s chin with his hand after she eats a peach, some moments from the new episode never took place in the original novel.
One of those moments comes when Conrad and Belly appear during a flashback from their last night together before their split.
The pair gets sexually intimate, marking a surprising contrast between what unfolds in the “We’ll Always Have Summer” book that the current season is based on and the show itself – especially because the original novel makes it clear that Belly never got intimate with Conrad or his brother, Jeremiah.
Han, who serves as co-screenwriter and executive producer of the hit Prime Video series, teased back in May that there were “definitely changes” between her final novel of the trilogy and the show’s third season.
“There are surprises,” she told Entertainment Weekly. “And there are things that aren’t exactly like the books.”
As for the beloved show’s highly anticipated finale on Sept. 17, Han promised that it would be a “satisfying” ending for everyone, whether they are familiar with her original trilogy or not.
“A successful love triangle is one where, no matter what happens, people are going to be devastated and heartbroken,” she teased. “Because if the answer feels really clear and easy, then there’s no real conflict. No matter what you do, someone’s going to be hurt by it.”
The first season of “The Summer I Turned Pretty” premiered in June 2022, 13 years after Han released her book of the same name.
Following the dramatic love triangle between Isabel “Belly” Conklin and brothers Conrad and Jeremiah Fisher, the current and final season sees Belly finally choose between the siblings.
Tung, 22, admitted that she was “very emotional” shooting the final season after playing Belly for so long.
“I cried, naturally, many, many times,” the actress told Entertainment Weekly in July. “I was 18 when I was first cast, and I just finished my first year of college, and I was 22 when we wrapped this year.”
“I really, really do feel like I have grown up a lot on the show… it’s just been such a big chapter of my life — in a very important part of my life,” Tung added. “It felt very special, very emotional, and [I’m] very proud and just happy with how everything’s gone and how the story’s been received.”
As for Han, she said that she “definitely cried” watching Tung, Briney, 27, and Casalegno, 25, bring her characters to life one last time for the final season of “The Summer I Turned Pretty.”
“It was, in some ways, surreal,” the author told the outlet. “I remember Lola was like, ‘You’re not crying that hard,’ and I was like, ‘I’m always going to know you, and it doesn’t feel like goodbye to me.’”
“Lola is so special and dear to me,” Han added. “This is such a moment in time, but this girl, I’ll see her soon.”
