Season 3, Episode 10 of The Summer I Turned Pretty (“Last Year”) is the calm-before-the-storm chapter where Belly finally stops living as a reaction to the Fisher brothers—and starts making choices that belong to her.
Set largely in Paris, the episode tracks Belly’s slow shift from heartbreak-and-survival mode to something that looks a lot like independence, even if it complicates everything that’s still unresolved.
Belly’s Paris life starts to feel real
When we drop back in with Belly abroad, the show doesn’t pretend it’s a nonstop fantasy. She’s lonely at times, dealing with cultural friction, messy roommate dynamics, and the reality of supporting herself while taking classes. But the point is that she’s doing it—working, studying, building a routine, and learning how to stand on her own without Cousins Beach as a safety net.
That’s the “takes control” part of the episode: Belly isn’t waiting to be rescued, and she isn’t waiting for closure to start living.
Taylor shows up, and Belly stops pretending she’s fine
One of the most grounding beats comes through Belly’s friendship. Taylor becomes a real anchor in Paris, giving Belly a familiar voice while she’s trying to reassemble herself in a new city. Their conversations make it clear Belly’s not magically “over it”—she’s just learning to carry it differently.
The episode uses Taylor as a mirror: Belly can’t hide behind performance when the person who knows her best is in the room.
Benito becomes a real fork in the road
Paris also brings a new romantic possibility: Benito. What starts as a connection and comfort shifts into something more direct as the episode moves through the winter and into spring. Belly shares a moment with him, and the show frames it less as a scandal and more as a marker—Belly stepping into a life that isn’t defined by old love triangles.
This matters because it isn’t “Belly rebounds.” It’s “Belly chooses.” She allows herself to move forward, not just haunted by the past.
Conrad’s letters keep pulling the story back to unfinished business
Back home, Conrad continues writing letters to Belly—emotional, reflective, and full of the honesty he struggled to deliver in real time. The letters become a kind of parallel narrative: while Belly is building a new life, Conrad is finally articulating what he feels and what he regrets.
Eventually, Belly responds—and that single act lands hard. It’s not a romantic declaration; it’s a door cracked open. She shares her new address, which is basically an invitation for the past to find her again.
The Fisher brothers finally confront the damage
Episode 10 also does something the season has been circling for a while: it forces Conrad and Jeremiah into the same emotional room.
The key reconciliation happens at Susannah’s grave, where they strip away the posturing and admit what their rivalry—and their grief—has done to them. It’s one of the rare moments where the series pauses the romance engine to underline the deeper family fracture underneath it.
Importantly, the show frames this healing as necessary regardless of Belly. It’s about who they are to each other when the love story isn’t the excuse.
Jeremiah hits bottom, and Steven draws a line
While Belly is learning independence in Paris, the episode contrasts that with turmoil back home. Jeremiah is shown trying to recover after everything collapses—without the structure he expected, and with new pressure from Adam. At the same time, Steven makes his own pivot, rejecting the version of adulthood that’s been laid out for him and moving toward something self-directed.
It’s the episode’s quiet theme: the young characters stop outsourcing their futures.
The closing move: Conrad heads to Paris
By the end, the episode points straight at the finale. Conrad makes the decision to go to Paris—rerouting his plans to surprise Belly—right as she’s settling into a new year abroad and a new rhythm with new people.
The cliffhanger isn’t just “will they reunite?” It’s sharper than that: Conrad is arriving in a version of Belly he hasn’t met yet—one who is actively choosing her life, even if it disrupts the story he’s been telling himself in letters.
