Belly Conklin got a happy ending in The Summer I Turned Pretty Season 2 as she settled the love triangle with the Fisher boys by decisively choosing Jeremiah, rejoined the volleyball team, and seemed ready to look to the future rather than continue dwelling on grief and loss. That said, there were moments in the Season 2 finale that set up some inevitable complications in Season 3. After rewatching that episode with my Amazon Prime subscription, I found myself having a big issue with Susannah.
Is it fair for me to have an issue with a character who is already dead? I think so, given that TSITP relies on flashbacks, the core characters have a long history together, and the origins of my issue go back to Season 1. So, let’s get into what happened and why I think Susannah – even though she was a loving and lovely person – has made the love triangle much worse for Belly, Jeremiah, and Conrad!
Susannah's Deathbed Request Of Belly
One of the most emotional scenes of the finale came via flashback, when Laurel brought Belly to visit Susannah, whose time was clearly running out. From context clues, the scene wasn't too long after Conrad and Belly’s prom disaster, as Susannah said that she’d heard that “prom didn’t go as we’d hoped." After establishing that Conrad doesn’t tell her anything, Susannah said to Belly:
Don't hate Conrad. He’s having a really hard time with all this. Please don’t let him push you away. He needs you. He loves you, you know? He does.
Belly was on the verge of tears and couldn’t bring herself to answer when Susannah asked if she loved Conrad too. Susannah went on to make her request:
Will you do something for me? Look after him. Will you do that?
Belly tried to say that Susannah would be able to look after him herself, but both characters clearly knew that there was no hope. Susannah held Belly close, and Jeremiah appeared briefly before leaving again. After Susannah said that they'd "come back together," Belly had to ask if she meant Conrad or Jere, and Susannah responded with "all of you, to each other."
The scene ended with Taylor Swift’s “Bigger Than The Whole Sky” playing, and I’ll admit that I was tearing up myself at Lola Tung and Rachel Blanchard’s performances. But all the Taylor Swift in the world can’t make me overlook that Susannah asked a crying and grieving 16-year-old girl to look after her son – who was presumably 18 or 19 by this point in the story – basically as a deathbed request.
That is a lot of pressure to put on a teenage girl, who was already an emotional mess from the breakup and whose grades had been slipping all year. Conrad certainly deserves help and support, but couldn’t that request have been made of Laurel, an adult? I can't help but feel that Susannah's last request will be a burden on Belly's mind in Season 3, which already has a big problem after how well Season 2 set up Jeremiah as the right choice for the leading lady.
Speaking of Jeremiah, his cameo in Belly’s scene with Susannah just reminded me of how his mom has been biased toward Conrad.
Susannah Favored Conrad For Belly
For all that Jeremiah said that his mom was one of the only two people who really understood him, Susannah certainly picked a side when it came to her sons and Belly, and it wasn’t in favor of her “sunshine boy.” His brief appearance in her Season 2 finale scene with Belly was a reminder that Jeremiah was close by, but she only made the deathbed request that Belly look after Conrad.
And if we look at the timeline, this finale conversation wouldn’t have happened too long after her heart-to-heart with Jere while Conrad was taking Belly to prom. In that flashback in Jeremiah's POV episode, Susannah acknowledged that her younger son still had feelings for Belly and that she could see through his attempts to seem like he’s fine. She clearly knew that he wasn't okay.
Susannah had a history of prioritizing Conrad and not being particularly sensitive to Jeremiah with Belly. In her heart-to-heart with Jere, she pointedly referred to him as Belly’s “best friend” after Belly and Conrad chose each other, which… while not entirely inaccurate, was clearly the last thing he needed to hear right at that moment.
Looking even further back to Season 1, Susannah specifically told Jere that he was such a good friend to Belly that he was “like a brother.” Given that Cam Cameron and Shayla suspected something between Jeremiah and Belly, and Conrad was alarmed enough by the rumor that they were hooking up to take action, Jere wasn't so good at hiding his feelings for her that nobody noticed. Susannah could have if she'd wanted to.
Plus, in the Season 1 finale, Susannah even brought up Conrad when she was praising something that Jeremiah had done. Ahead of the deb ball, she told Belly:
Just hold on to Jeremiah’s arm. He won’t let you fall… You know, I still can’t believe you got him to go with you. He swore up and down he’d never go to one of these things… He’d do anything for you. They both would.
Couldn't Jeremiah get some credit without Conrad being brought into it?! I’m not suggesting that Susannah didn’t love Jeremiah as much as Conrad, and she may indeed have favored him to make up for Adam preferring their eldest son… but two seasons of scenes show that she was biased against him when it comes to Belly. That preference could still cause some problems even after her death and what she asked Belly. After all, she asked Jeremiah to make her a promise about not letting anything come between him and Conrad as well.
How Susannah Set Up The Love Triangle
I’d be remiss if I didn’t bring up the moment from Season 1 that first made me question whether Susannah was too invested in the idea of Belly with one of her boys. In Episode 5, Jeremiah confessed his feelings for Belly, and she said “yes” when he started to ask if she could ever feel something for him. As they went in for the big kiss, Belly said this via voiceover:
Susannah told me that when I was born, she knew I was destined for one of her boys. I always hoped it would be Conrad, but here I am, about to kiss Jeremiah Fisher.
That's weird, right? The point of the scene was obviously Belly locking lips with Jeremiah and kicking the love triangle into gear, but I was immediately struck by how strange it was for Susannah to tell a young girl that she was destined for one of two boys. Since that conversation didn't happen on screen, Susannah presumably told her this during a previous summer, when the oldest Belly could have possibly been was freshly turned 15.
Would Belly have been as hung up on Conrad for so long if Susannah hadn’t declared there was a 50/50 shot he was her destiny? Would Belly have given Jeremiah the green light the way she did in that pool if Susannah hadn’t presented him as an option? Would she have more seriously pursued a non-Fisher romance? And did Susannah dream up and idealize a relationship between Belly and Conrad as much as Belly did? (I'd say yes to that last one.)
Why Susannah Keeps Me On Team Jeremiah
Susannah pushing Conrad as the one for Belly and overlooking Jeremiah's feelings – even after recognizing his tendency to put on a happy face – just made her another person not fully understanding him. Jere of course wasn't entitled to Belly loving him back and Susannah certainly had problems of her own, but the teenage boy desperately needed some emotional support in a difficult time, especially with 1) Adam preferring Conrad overall, 2) Steven preferring Conrad for Belly, and 3) Conrad not taking Jere seriously until the end.
The Summer I Turned Pretty turned the younger Fisher son into the underdog, and if a TV show establishes an underdog, kicks that underdog, isolates him to lick his wounds alone, and then finally gives him a win, how am I supposed to root for him to lose? Susannah being on Team Conrad for Belly makes me support Jeremiah even more, and that could be a problem if TSITP wants to reignite the love triangle, which I assume is the case.
Do I think Susannah is a villain? Of course not, but her best intentions could have some unfortunate consequences. It may be some time before Season 3 arrives on Prime Video due to the WGA writers strike. For now, you can always check out our 2023 TV schedule for more viewing options. And check out these shows like The Summer I Turned Pretty in the meantime.
