The Summer I Turned Pretty Season 3 Episode 8 Last Kiss
Added 2025-08-27 14:28:17 +0000 UTCReleased to all September 4th!!
Comments
CORRECTION!! I just listened to the audiobook and I am incorrect, Jeremiah did punch Conrad twice during their argument.
Jessie Dobbie Reactions
2025-08-27 19:35:41 +0000 UTCI agree with you about Laurel not extending as much compassion to Jere and not being as open with Belly as she is with Conrad emotionally, but I think it's been shown on the show and told to us in the book that their relationship is based on basically two things. 1. They're similar and feel like they relate to and understand each other which helps bridge their difficulty with expressing their emotions. Obviously, Laurel is better at expressing her emotions than Conrad is generally speaking, but she's also older and more experienced. It's shown that she shares that emotional unavailability tendency with Conrad though when Susannah dies. She refused to talk about it, wouldn't go on her book tour, stopped paying attention to the details of Belly and Steven's lives, etc. 2. She sees Conrad as more of an equal or more of an adult. Right or wrong, she feels like they're on closer footing because he's more serious and responsible compared to Belly and Jere who act their age. Not saying it's right that she doesn't extend that same emotional availability to Belly and Jere, but I think it makes sense for her and her relationship with Conrad. I think it would be nice to see more of her bond with Jere cause it even took me off guard when Jere said that Laurel had always wanted him as a son-in-law. I did a double-take cause I don't remember ever getting the impression that she thought Jere was a good fit for Belly. I do think though like you said, it's not just Jere that Laurel doesn't extend the same emotional availability to, it's Belly and Steven too really. In her head Jere is like Belly and Steven, and so he gets similar treatment I guess. Based on Jere saying he hadn't seen Conrad since Thanksgiving and Conrad literally on a flight on Christmas that got delayed to go skiing with Jere and his dad that Conrad has been coming home for at least some holidays. He's just avoiding Belly and Steven. That's my impression at least. Jere did punch Conrad twice in the book. “He punched me again. This time I fell to the ground.” Not to get into the whole Jere character thing, but for this small example you pointed out in the episode - Jere gets lobster rolls served at the rehearsal dinner which is thoughtful and nice and then he doesn't tell Belly about the job and so they can't let him have one thing. That "thing" isn't in the books. He isn't thoughtful and considerate in the books the majority of the time, not because he's a bad person, but because he's oblivious, at least from Belly's POV. She doesn't see him as being thoughtful and considerate in any of the practical day-to-day ways. In the books, Belly ordered a lobster roll and ate all of it because her dad was paying. The thoughtfulness of these little moments was given to Jere in the show which is why I've been pleasantly surprised by the difference all season. Even though he wasn't as involved in the wedding planning as Belly would have liked in the show, he was so much worse in the book. He had almost no interest and wasn't supportive of Belly at all. At least in the show, he's trying to be emotionally supportive. He didn't get that from book Jeremiah, so yes, I see how Jere fans don't like how true to the book some points are because Jere is awful in the books. Show Jere being better than book Jere isn't character assassination cause he's literally built upon the foundation of book Jere. The way I personally see it is that the foundation of Belly, Jere, and Conrad (individually and relationship wise) is the books and the book version of themselves are the worst versions of themselves. I think all of them are much worse in the books and so it's nice that the show made changes to make them more likeable, give more context and complexity. It doesn't change though who those characters are at their core and that's what the story is built upon. These books are all heart. There's little to no plot in each book, so the core of who they are needs to be followed in the show. You can change some details, make up events and memories, change timelines, who says what piece of random dialogue that fans get outraged over, etc. but those characters have to be, at their core, the same. Show Jere is a better version of book Jere and that's why it seems like character assassination. But it's not the show dragging Jere down, it's the show dragging him up that causes the conflict. My prediction is that Belly doesn't actually go over to Conrad. I think she turns around and gets on the plane to Paris without him ever knowing she was there. This is ironic to say but it sucks that the fandom side of this has influenced your reactions so much. I don't mean this is a negative way towards you or your reactions, but it's like you spend a big chunk of the reaction and the commentary fighting with what you've seen the fandom say or what you can imagine the fandom saying about this or that. When fandoms are toxic it's hard to not do that, I've certainly done it myself and even had some shows ruined for me because there was a little voice in my head filtering the whole show through the toxicity of the fandom. It just made it harder to enjoy on it's own and I kind of feel like that's what your reactions have seemed like this season. Again though, it's not a criticism of you. It just happens in this day and age I guess with social media.
Melissa
2025-08-27 18:56:27 +0000 UTC
