Extra episodes? A season 4? — The Summer I Turned Pretty fandom is spiraling in the hours running up to the finale
Nobody’s ready for it to end!
For all of you TSITP fanatics at work — we know it’s going to be a tough, TOUGH afternoon and evening trying your best to not open Instagram, X, Reddit and whatever other platform that stands infested by Jenny Han’s universe of teen drama sadism. We say sadism because getting through this season of The Summer I Turned Pretty has quite literally been a weekly torture ritual that the world has been religiously clocking into Wednesday on Wednesday for the past few weeks.
Jenny turning the show back to the OG weekly drop schedule, which let’s be honest, is exactly what turned fresh faces into generational heartthrobs during the 90s right through the 2010s, was a master stroke. The deprivation of what happens next and the sleepless nights (no we’re not exaggerating) wondering what next quest of stupidity Isabel Conklin will be embarking on sans any qualms, has been quite the global bonding experience. And the birth of Conrad nation? That goes without saying.
Now while things were following a largely predictable route in the first chunk of the season, given Jenny was shadowing the trajectory of her books (We’ll Always Have Summer) in an inspired fashion, the last push of episodes have put the fandom in no man’s land. From a filler episode pinged entirely on a promotional strategy for Coach and other sponsors to an empty episode meaninglessly tracing Belly’s Paris era — expectations from the finale have been dropping as the possibility of Bonrad (Belly + Conrad) being endgame is truly appearing bleaker by the second.
But then again, this might not be the end?
Chatter on the TSITP deep end of the internet suggests the very, very wishful possibility of a whole another season, the fourth in the franchise if true, to give fans the Bonrad timeline of their dreams. Other speculations suggest a two-part finale, two episodes dropping today instead of one and even a feature film-length goodbye to the series. Several (apparent) Easter eggs through the episodes and even on the Instagram stories of the star cast make these seem like pretty solid options.
Now through the noise, one thing seems pretty sure. Paris probably isn’t going to be the setting for the big Bonrad reunion everyone’s been counting down to. The most popular theory doing the rounds of the internet is how seeing Belly in her new life in Paris will lead Conrad to realise that he’s holding on to a ghost. Another time jump is being anticipated, following which a sudden health crisis for her father will bring Belly back to the United States, only to reveal Connie baby to be the doctor. Now will this be the point where they ‘begin again’? We wish we had the answer.
In a recent interview with LA Times, Jenny very matter of factly said, “He (Conrad) and Belly aren’t in the same place. She’s saying that she’s ready for something new this summer, and he’s something old coming back into her life. Are they going to meet at the same place in the road?”. Yeah that hurt to read, let alone type out.
As we hope and pray Jenny gives the fandom the wishful happy ending they’ve been rooting for, The Summer I Turned Pretty season finale is now live on OTT.
