Love and Grief: The Summer I Turned Pretty Season 2 review

It might contain spoilers.

The 2022 summer hit is back. Amazon Prime released the first three episodes of “The Summer I Turned Pretty” Season Two, based on Jenny Han’s books, and viewers watched the characters intertwine grief, love, pain and happiness while learning how to co-exist with opposite feelings.

The story follows the life of Belly Conklin (Lola Tung) who spends all of her summers at her mother’s best friend’s beach house, Susannah Fisher, who has two sons, Jeremiah and Conrad Fisher (Gavin Casalegno and Christopher Britney). Belly has been in love with Conrad since she was a kid, but in the summer before her junior year, she realizes there could be something there with Jeremiah. The first season focused on introducing the dynamic between the characters and on the confusion of teenage love. It was fun, light and bright. There were reasons to shed some tears, but they were rare and reserved for the end of the season.

The family dynamic was shaken when both families found out Susannah has cancer and is in a terminal stage.

Season one ends with Susannah promising the boys and Laurel, Belly’s mom, that she would try an experimental trial even if it was against her will.

A year ago when season one ended, there was hope.

A year ago, in this fictional world, Susannah was alive.

Now she is gone ( no spoilers, it’s in the trailer) and the characters will have to navigate their own grief in order to help the ones they love.

The first three episodes are a mix of the past and the future. Before and after Susannah’s death.

Conrad and Belly kissed in the last scene of season one after Belly had been hanging out with Jeremiah. Season two picks up from there and shows the development of Belly and Conrad’s relationship.

The two are madly in love like teenagers, but there is something mature in the madness. A feeling that crosses the screen of pure faith that the two should be together. Alongside that, we see Laurel going back and forth to Susannah’s house to help her best friend and the boys during a challenging time.

After Susannah’s death, the viewer sees Belly struggling to function and basically being a parent to her mom, who can’t even talk about her best friend. The Fisher boys are not talking to Belly and leave everyone wondering what happened in the spring.

When summer finally hits, Belly decides to call Jeremiah, only to find out Conrad is missing.

After some digging, Jeremiah and Belly find out Conrad is at Cousin’s beach and decide to go after her. The duo finds out shortly after their arrival that their summer house is being put up for sale, and Conrad is trying everything he can to not let that happen. The house becomes sort of their sanctuary. The place Susannah felt the happiest at was slipping through their fingers and with that, so was the tradition, the safe space, the memories.

The next episodes will show the group getting together to find a way to stop the sale while understanding each other’s way to grief and helping each other see what the light at the end of the tunnel could look like.

It’s hard to write a review without spoilers, but fans of this show are aware of the movement #TeamJeremiah or #TeamConrad, and for all those who haven’t watched season two but have picked a side in this war all I have to say is: