The Summer I Turned Pretty recap: Fun and games and stuffed polar bears
- Oops!Something went wrong.Please try again later.
- Oops!Something went wrong.Please try again later.
- Oops!Something went wrong.Please try again later.
You've gotta hand it to Aunt Julia; she's crafty. (She also needs to share the name of her moving company because they work fast.)
But that's the end of this week's episode. "Love Game" opens with Steven (Sean Kaufman) talking Conrad (Christopher Briney) through a panic attack caused by his admission notification from Standford, a dream he and Susannah (Rachel Blanchard) shared.
Steven, undoubtedly glad to be there for his friend, assures Conrad that he's always been the coolest person he knows. But Connie feels like he's failing everyone, which might explain why he plans to turn down Standford. He wants to stay at Brown to be close to Finch, where Jeremiah (Gavin Casalegno) plans to go.
Things haven't improved much by morning. Aunt Julia (Kyra Sedgwick) arrives at the house to try to kick out the teenagers or, failing that, to keep them from eating the muffins she bought for the open house.
Prime Video Kyra Sedgwick, Elsie Fisher
Cousin Skye (Elsie Fisher) attempts to mediate things, asking the Fisher brothers how they're coping and softly suggesting that this is hard for Julia, too. Conrad in particular isn't receptive to this argument, pointing out that Susannah picked out every item in this house and planted every flower outside. But Julia can't afford an expensive house on the other side of the country, so the open house is happening.
Until the air conditioning breaks, that is. It's too hot for prospective buyers, so Julia sends the kids to the boardwalk while she gets a repair person in. Sadly, Steven changes out of his comically small little-kid pajamas for the occasion.
Belly (Lola Tung), meanwhile, is happy to ignore Taylor's (Rain Spencer) advice not to get sucked into the Fisher family drama, but at least she's doing it with a stolen muffin in her stomach.
At first, ice cream on the boardwalk leads to happy memories of past summers, but Skye again points out that Julia's not the total villain here, just like Susannah wasn't always a saint.
Conrad and Jere don't wanna hear it, and yes, it's a perspective they probably ought to consider, but they did just lose their mom and are facing the sale of her house, so their hostility is understandable.
Prime Video Lola Tung (Belly), Gavin Casalegno (Jeremiah), Christopher Briney (Conrad)
To banish the rising awkward, Belly suggests a return of the Great Boardwalk Showdown, their cutthroat childhood game tournament that Laurel eventually banned for getting too competitive. Even introvert newcomer Skye agrees to participate, although they warn that nobody should expect them to hug or trash talk or offer high-fives.
The games begin with a slow-mo hero walk through the arcade to the laser tag arena, where Steven and Taylor flirt their way through the course and the Fishers team up to take down Belly and secure the win.
After that, it's on to the climbing wall, where the group reunites with Cam Cameron (David Iacono), who's working at the arcade this summer and not on a fancy whaling boat as Nicole reported to Belly in episode 2. He becomes the referee and emcee for the rest of the competition.
Skye's doing some refereeing of their own, trying to navigate the hard feelings between their mother and the Fishers. The boys remember Julia and Skye leaving before their big Christmas breakfast the year their grandpa died, but Skye explains that they left when Julia wanted to clear the air with Susannah, who refused to let anything ruin her picture-perfect holiday. The sisters never had a chance to reconcile, and Skye clearly regrets losing this time with their aunt and cousins.
Is Skye making any headway with the stubborn, grieving boys? Maybe. But it's time for Steven and Taylor to race up the climbing wall. Steven clinches the victory, and Belly uses her team's underdog energy to carry her to victory over Conrad in the Shoot Your Shot basketball game while Jere watches her with heart emojis in his eyes.
We then jump back to Belly's first heartbreak, which happened at the boardwalk when she was 13, sporting pre-pretty glasses and braces as Conrad (also in unfortunate eyewear) flirts with the ring-toss girl in front of her.
Trying to be nice, he gives Belly the prize he won: Junior Mint, the sunglasses-wearing polar bear we saw in season 1. "I'd rather have had the giraffe, but thanks," a hurt Belly tells him.
In the present, Belly claims her Shoot Your Shot prize, ignoring Conrad's suggestion that she get a bear friend for Junior Mint in favor of a giraffe. He seems to recognize the meaning behind that choice.
Belly's flying high now, and she and Taylor bust out their volleyball moves as they head to the next challenge. Conrad pulls her aside to suggest a side bet: loser has to ride the Tower of Terror, which puts the fear of God into both of them.
Seeing him so light and happy reminds Belly of why she used to love him, although I'm sure him referring to her as his girlfriend that morning when the open house realtor gave her a hard time helped jog her memory.
She tells Jeremiah that competition's the key to making Conrad happy, then lists Jere's happiness requirements when he asks: cheeseburgers, Ariana Grande, and correcting bruschetta eaters who pronounce it "SHetta" instead of "SKetta."
Everyone's mood is high as Skye unexpectedly trounces Jeremiah in a Dance Dance Revolution-style faceoff. Get after it, cousin Skye!!
Outside the arcade, Belly's sadness comes rushing back when she sees a mermaid photo-op cutout where she, Laurel, and Susannah once took a picture together, and after a moment of hesitation, she texts it to Laurel (Jackie Chung)…
… who's at her signing event in New York, where she haltingly tries to explain to an attendee that her book isn't about grief, but friendship and love. She's clearly miserable until Cleveland Castillo (Alfredo Narciso) rolls up. Hi, Cleveland! This sweet man reached out to Conrad before Susannah's funeral and then came to the signing just to see Laurel.
At first she tries to claim that she's fine, but Cleveland says it's okay to not be okay and tells her that the friends who helped him through a bout of depression were the ones who crawled into that hole with him, not the ones who tried to pull him out.
He offers this advice when Laurel blows off his suggestion that she let Belly know how much she's also struggling with Susannah's death. It's good advice; earlier in the episode, Belly scoffed at Steven's suggestion that Laurel was nervous about the signing.
Laurel comes heartbreakingly close to opening up in reply to Belly's text, typing "I miss her so much," before deleting that in favor of, "Busy. Call you later." Ma'am. MA'AM. I'm very much Team Your Ex-Husband here: get to counseling. Help yourself so you can help your kids.
Okay, back to the boardwalk, where Belly gives her team a barn-burning go-get-'em speech before the boys prevail at go-karts and take the whole series. Although she takes this as a sign that she shouldn't return to volleyball, Taylor and Skye assure her of her solid leadership skills.
The boys win the grand prize of an enormous bag of candy, which Skye offers to purchase with the money they made shorting Bitcoin. This delights me and Taylor both. Then it's off to the Tower of Terror.
Because he's sweet as pie — tan, mop-topped, startlingly blue-eyed pie — Jeremiah offers to ride it with Belly, holding her hand and her gaze as they ascend and then hurtle back to earth.
And here we have another flashback to the summer of Junior Mint when Jere kept Belly company when she's stuck at the beach house with a summer cold. Then he ends up catching it, and she sticks around to cheer him up.
It's a nice memory, and once they're safely on the ground in the present, Taylor sums up the vibe between Belly and Jeremiah with one word: "Iiiinteresting."
Belly doesn't dwell on it, instead inviting Cameron back to the house with them and confiding that she feels guilty for having fun today. (It's a theme for the season, apparently.) Also, did Cameron just… quit his job? He hung out with his friends all day and is now leaving with them. What are the arcade's vacation policies?
Conrad's broodiness lifts on the drive home when Steven says he noticed a vibe between Connie and Belly. And really, the poor guy's entitled to a good day after all the hard ones he's had.
When they get home, Conrad rescues Mildred the giraffe from her tumble out of Belly's car. When he asks why Belly didn't want to get a friend for Junior Mint, she replies that she's not 13 anymore, which gives him something to think about as they walk into the house.
The empty, echoey house.
Yep, Julia used their fun boardwalk day to remove every piece of furniture in the place, like some kind of summertime Grinch out to destroy Whoville Beach.
Kissin' Cousin corner
We agree with Taylor that Steven sabotaged the AC, right?
Speaking of Steven, it's pretty cool that he and Belly spotted someone reading their mom's book in the wild! Too bad they're lying about their whereabouts and can't send her proof of her popularity.
I loved the gentle pronoun correction among the teens. There's no drama or grand pronouncements; all it takes is a quick, "Them" and a "Right, thanks."
Pop culture check: head-cold Belly's watching The Hunger Games, which confirms her assertion in episode 1 that she can read it in French, and Steven's a Brando Sando fan. Meanwhile, the soundtrack veers between Gen X bangers "Sweet Child O' Mine" and Cake's "Going the Distance" and Gen Z tunes "Players" and bbno$'s "edamame." And then there's Taylor Swift, the epic handshake meme between these two demographics.
Belly may have smelled a comeback for her team, but I'm smelling something different: the return of the love triangle. See you next week for episode 5!
Related content:
