Summer may be fading into fall, but the heat is just cranking up with The Summer I Turned Pretty Season 3. As of November 16, 2025, the third and final installment of Jenny Han’s addictive YA romance has wrapped its whirlwind run on Prime Video, leaving fans in a puddle of tears, screams, and endless “Team Conrad vs. Team Jeremiah” debates. Premiering on July 16 with a double-episode drop that broke the internet, this 11-episode epic adaptation of We’ll Always Have Summer doesn’t just unfold another love story—it detonates the one we’ve been shipping (or side-eyeing) since 2022. If you haven’t binged it yet, drop everything. This is the season that turns pretty into devastatingly perfect.

For the uninitiated (or those needing a refresher before spoilers hit), The Summer I Turned Pretty follows Isabel “Belly” Conklin (Lola Tung), a girl whose annual pilgrimages to the sun-kissed shores of Cousins Beach have always revolved around the Fisher brothers: the brooding, bookish Conrad (Christopher Briney) and the golden-boy charmer Jeremiah (Gavin Casalegno). Season 1 was all sunsets and first kisses; Season 2 ramped up the heartbreak with Belly’s impossible choice. Now, four years after that gut-wrenching finale, Season 3 catapults us into Belly’s junior year of college. She’s supposedly settled—happy, even—with Jeremiah, building a life that looks straight out of a rom-com montage. But as the official synopsis teases, “Her future seems set, until some core-shaking events bring her first love Conrad back into her life. Now on the brink of adulthood, Belly finds herself at a crossroads and must decide which brother has her heart. Summer will never be the same.”

What makes this season a cultural phenomenon isn’t just the will-they-won’t-they tension—it’s how Han and showrunner Sarah Kucserka expand the world beyond the beach. Gone are the awkward teen deb balls; in their place are college parties that pulse with Taylor Swift’s “Daylight” (a trailer mashup that had Swifties losing it), late-night confessions in dorm rooms, and a wedding planning frenzy that’s equal parts fairy tale and freight train. The episode release schedule kept us hooked: Episodes 1 and 2 dropped July 16, followed by weekly Wednesdays—Episode 3 on July 23 (“Engagement Reveal Ends in Chaos,” per fan recaps), building to the series finale on September 17, “All Roads Lead to Paris,” where Belly’s 22nd birthday spirals into a confrontation with her past. That last episode? Directed by Han herself, it’s a 90-minute emotional gut-punch that clocks in longer than most features, blending nostalgia with raw growth.

The cast? They’ve leveled up in ways that demand Emmy nods. Lola Tung’s Belly evolves from wide-eyed ingenue to a woman wrestling with agency—her quiet fury in Episode 5, when she snaps at Jeremiah over a forgotten anniversary, is the kind of subtle devastation that lingers. Christopher Briney’s Conrad, now a med student at Stanford, is a revelation: haunted but healing, his return in Episode 4 (titled “Shocking Truths”) feels like a storm cloud rolling in, all smoldering glances and unspoken apologies. Gavin Casalegno’s Jeremiah shines brightest in the lighter moments—think him serenading Belly with a ukulele on the beach in Episode 7—but his vulnerability cracks open in the back half, especially during a rain-soaked argument that echoes the books’ most iconic scenes.

Supporting players steal hearts left and right. Rain Spencer’s Taylor Jewel, Belly’s ride-or-die bestie, gets her own arc of messy hookups and heartfelt advice, culminating in a disastrous fight with Steven (Sean Kaufman) that spills over from Episode 2. Jackie’s Chung’s Laurel, Belly’s mom, steps out of the background for some of the season’s most tender beats—her heart-to-heart with Belly in Episode 9 about “high highs and low lows” is pure catharsis. New additions like Isabella Briggs as a sharp-tongued sorority sister and Kristen Connolly as a no-nonsense professor add fresh layers, while Kyra Sedgwick’s Susannah Fisher haunts the narrative through flashbacks that blend seamlessly with the present.

Visually, Season 3 is a love letter to transition: the golden haze of Cousins summers gives way to crisp fall foliage at Finch University, then the glittering chaos of a Paris getaway in the finale. Cinematographer Ben Kutchins captures it all with a dreamy filter that makes every frame Instagram-ready—waves crashing like heartbreak, fireflies dancing during a pivotal proposal, and that Eiffel Tower backdrop for Belly’s birthday bash, where “someone from home crashes the celebration.” The soundtrack? A masterclass in emotional manipulation, from Swift’s “Daylight” to a cover of The Lumineers’ “Ho Hey” that underscores a Fisher family reunion gone wrong. And let’s talk production value: Han greenlit a feature film extension on September 17 finale day, promising to “conclude the story” post-season, but fans are already petitioning for more.

Social media exploded from the jump. The Season 3 trailer, dropped in June, racked up 50 million views in a week, with #TeamConrad and #TeamJeremiah trending higher than the Super Bowl. One viral TikTok stitches Belly’s college montages with book quotes, captioning, “This is what adulthood feels like—pretty, but painful.” Reddit threads dissected every clue: Does the engagement ring in Episode 3 foreshadow doom? Is Conrad’s med school stress a metaphor for his unresolved grief? X (formerly Twitter) lit up with memes of Jeremiah’s puppy-dog eyes captioned “When you know you’re the backup plan.” Even purists who devoured Han’s trilogy praised the deviations—Belly’s Paris trip isn’t in the book, but it amplifies themes of escape and reckoning, making the ending feel earned, not inevitable.

Yet, for all its swoon, Season 3 guts you. It’s a story about love’s permanence and its pitfalls: How do you choose between soul-deep connection and everyday joy? Belly’s crossroads isn’t just romantic—it’s about family fractures (the Fishers’ post-Susannah dynamics hit harder this time), friendship fallout (Taylor and Belly’s rift in Episode 6 is brutal), and self-discovery. Han has said in interviews that this finale honors the books while giving Belly “agency she deserves,” and boy, does it deliver. Without spoiling the gut-wrenching twist in Episode 10, suffice to say: tissues mandatory, group chat notifications on blast.

As the credits roll on September 17’s finale, with Belly staring out over Parisian rooftops, whispering, “Summer will never be the same,” you’re left hollowed out but hopeful. The Summer I Turned Pretty wasn’t just a binge—it was a mirror for every messy first love, every “what if” that keeps us up at night. With the feature film in the works, who knows? Maybe Cousins Beach isn’t done with us yet. Until then, we’re replaying those beach scenes, debating endings in comment sections, and counting down to whatever Han dreams up next. Because if Season 3 taught us anything, it’s that the best stories don’t end—they evolve, just like we do.

We cannot wait for more. Or, honestly, we can—because this pretty summer turned us all inside out, and we’re still catching our breath.