'The Summer I Turned Pretty' Creator Jenny Han Dishes On Book-to-TV Changes in Season 2 Finale (Exclusive)

Jenny Han talks exclusively with PEOPLE about Belly's love triangle and that big Taylor Swift musical moment

Warning: This post contains spoilers for the season 2 finale of Prime Video's The Summer I Turned Pretty.

Belly (Lola Tung) makes some pretty big decisions in the The Summer I Turned Pretty season 2 finale, but it doesn’t happen exactly like it does in the books.

After Belly and Jeremiah (Gavin Casalegno) shared a passionate kiss on the Brown University campus in episode 7, the finale picked up right after Conrad (Christopher Briney) walked up on them. Following the awkward interaction, the trio had an even more awkward car ride together as Conrad taunted them about the kiss from the backseat.

As fans of the book know, this scene played out a bit differently in It’s Not Summer Without You as Belly noted that Conrad completely ignored her the whole car ride after her kiss with Jeremiah.

Speaking exclusively with PEOPLE, author and series creator Jenny Han notes that subtle change is supposed to show how Conrad is still fighting for Belly at that moment.

“In his own way, he's still in the fight,” Han says about Conrad’s snarky behavior towards Belly and Jeremiah. “He sees that [infinity] necklace and he's like, ‘I'm not letting her go. I'm still here.’ Otherwise, he wouldn't have gotten in the car. Even with him being a jerk to both of them, he's still basically saying, ‘Look at me. Don't look at him.’ It's almost like he is still asking for her attention.”

Related: Meet the Cast of 'The Summer I Turned Pretty': All About Their Lives Beyond Cousins Beach

Han continues, “In a way, it's more active than we've seen him be in a while because he can tend to shut down and go within himself throughout his grief.” Case in point: Conrad pushing Belly away following his mother’s death.

“He wasn't really sharing in that with Belly. I think that's part of the downfall of them is that he couldn't let her be there for him,” she adds, noting how Jeremiah has acted differently this season.

“Jeremiah is very open, he's like open arms and he can ask for help and he says, ‘I really needed you and you weren't there.’ It's very moving to me because that's what Belly wants to hear is how someone really feels and Conrad hasn't been able to do that," Han explains. "So I see the karma movement and it's one of my favorite parts of the episode. In his own way, he's not giving up and that's the turn for him that he's not ready to let her go.”

Related: Where Was 'The Summer I Turned Pretty' Filmed? All About the Real Locations Behind Cousins Beach

That said, Belly and Conrad didn’t get a happy ending, and their emotional goodbye in the motel room at the end of season 2 was a pivotal moment from the books Han wanted to get right.

To do that, Han perfectly scored the scene with Taylor Swift’s haunting breakup ballad “Exile” from Folklore. “Sometimes I know exactly what the song's going to be well in advance, even before the script. Sometimes in the script, it's going to be a placeholder,” Han shares. “Sarah Kucserkaa, who is my co-showrunner, wrote the finale episode. When she was handing it to me, she was like, ‘I put some songs in here. You may not like my choices, but just let me know what you think.’ And I saw ‘Exile’ and I was like, ‘That's it. It's perfect.’”

“It scores the moment beautifully,” she says. “I love that it's two perspectives and I love the heartbreak we get as it carries us through the end of that scene. And I think it's a perfect musical moment.”

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By the end of the season, Belly did make a choice between the Fisher brothers as she decided to give her relationship with Jeremiah a real try — a big change from the book, which left her decision a bit more open-ended.

For Han, that tweak was a conscious move to show that Belly is in the “driver’s seat” as they head into the recently announced third season. “She calls the shots and she's making a clear decision in the moment,” she says. “I think that's important for her growth as well. Because of the fact that we introduced the love triangle earlier in the story than in the book, there is a trickle-down effect in terms of what happens when.”

Related: ‘The Summer I Turned Pretty’ Season 3: Everything to Know

As for the upcoming third season, Han is keeping things close to the vest about how everything will play out for Belly and the Fisher brothers — including how it will differ from the book's ending. However, she notes that she originally “went into the show with an open mind” about how she could “explore new stories” while still honoring book fans.

“To me, the fun of the show is to watch it and be able to experience it as the story is meant to be told, which is where you're not sure of the ending,” she explains. “It's kind of the pain and the pleasure of storytelling is when I go to the movies, I don't want to know the ending. I really want to be surprised and I want to be on that journey, even though it does cause me anxiety as I'm watching. So I know that it can make the fans crazy, but I'm really always trying to preserve their experience and for them to have the best possible experience as the audience.”

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The Summer I Turned Pretty season 2 is currently streaming on Prime Video.

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