Syracuse, N.Y. (NCC News) – The big lights were off in the Park Point living room, the only glow coming from an ambient sunset lamp and the TV screen. The five friends—Ally Goelz, Claire Martin, Elizabeth Riehl, Taylor Serrano, and Sophie Chaitovitz—had claimed their posts with precision, a formation perfected over weeks of watch parties. Three crammed together on the couch, one curled into the armchair, and the last sprawled across the carpet in a blanket cocoon. Nobody planned on moving for the next 77 minutes.
The Syracuse University students had been waiting all night, waiting for Serrano to get out of her ballroom dancing class, and now the moment had finally come: the series finale of The Summer I Turned Pretty.
Screams, tears, shushes, and jumping up and down erupted as the final episode played out. Like many fans, the girls were desperate for the ending book-readers had always known was coming: Belly and Conrad finding their way back to each other, even after Belly’s ill-fated engagement to Conrad’s younger brother, Jeremiah.
Since its 2022 debut, the series has rolled out nearly every summer, turning Wednesday night drops into a ritual for viewers across generations. For these students, it was a midweek checkpoint and a “way to come together during the chaos of college,” said Martin.
Jenny Han’s world isn’t new to these fans. Long before Prime Video picked it up, her trilogy—The Summer I Turned Pretty, It’s Not Summer Without You, and We’ll Always Have Summer—was already a bestseller on teenage bookshelves. The show, which Han also executive-produced, didn’t stick word-for-word to the novels, but it carried over the same mix of beach-town nostalgia, first love, and heartbreak that drew fans in more than a decade ago.
Chaitovitz had grown up with Han’s books, devouring them during middle school summers. “This was my childhood,” she said. “Watching it now, in college, especially with my friends, it’s been honestly magical. Like, I didn’t even watch the first two seasons at first. But then I realized this was a cultural moment. You couldn’t ignore it. It wasn’t just a show, it was everywhere.”
Part of that magic came from the release schedule. In an era where streaming platforms push binge-watching, The Summer I Turned Pretty made waiting feel worthwhile. “The weekly drops made it special,” Serrano said. “Even the filler episodes that annoyed me at first.”
Goelz admitted she had been skeptical about some of the pacing. “Every time I thought something dramatic would happen, they’d cut to Jeremiah in the kitchen,” she said, rolling her eyes. “I’m sad, though, because I love them all, but it feels like the story came full circle.”
Earlier that Wednesday, however, Han announced that the story wasn’t entirely over: Belly and Conrad’s ultimatum would get its own movie, expanding on what the books had already written. “I can’t wait for the movie and to see my personal and dear friends Conrad and Belly get married,” Riehl said.
Still, when the final scene of the series arrived, the room grew quiet. The last shot showed Belly and Conrad returning to their beloved East Coast summer house, set to Phoebe Bridgers’ “Scott Street.” The moment mirrored one from the first season, when the girls themselves were just entering their last year of high school, before they knew each other, before this ritual had taken root.
Claire, Sophie, Ally, Taylor, and Elizabeth explode in shock, tears, and laughter as the credits of The Summer I Turned Pretty finale roll. Photo by Megan Ebken.