Does Belly End Up With Conrad Or Jeremiah? The Summer I Turned Pretty Ending Explained

Based on a series of books by Jenny Han — who also wrote "To All the Boys I Loved Before," which became a series of original Netflix films — "The Summer I Turned Pretty" centers around Isabel "Belly" Conklin, a young woman who is forced to choose between two brothers but knows that, whichever brother she chooses, she'll still get a sweet beach house out of the deal. (That's only sort of a joke.) Each summer, Belly and her mom, Laurel Park (Jackie Chung), spend their time at a beautiful beach house in the fictional town of Cousins Beach with Laurel's lifelong best friend Susannah Fisher (Rachel Blanchard) and her two sons Conrad (Christopher Briney) and Jeremiah (Gavin Casalegno). Throughout her entire girlhood, Belly is head-over-heels in love with the brooding future doctor Conrad, even though he appears to only see her as a sort of little sister, and she shares a truly touching friendship with the goofier, more irreverent Jeremiah, but after she "turns pretty" — which, in this universe, just means she gets her braces off — both brothers view her in a different light.

So who does Belly end up with years after the titular summer where she turns pretty? To be clear, her only options are ever really Conrad and Jeremiah, despite the briefest of dalliances with Cousins Beach local Cam (David Iacono) and a more adult relationship with Mexican artist Benito (Fernando Cattori) when she moves to Paris towards the end of the series. (We'll circle back to the Paris situation before long, but rest assured that it bears absolutely no resemblance to anything that happens in, say, "Emily in Paris.")

Despite the inherent weirdness of Belly choosing between two brothers with whom she was raised as a sort of sibling, "The Summer I Turned Pretty," under the direction of Han herself (who served as the showrunner of her own adaptation), manages to make both of Belly's relationships with Conrad and Jeremiah surprisingly sweet and real. Here's who Belly ends up with at the end of "The Summer I Turned Pretty" — and why.

Throughout the first two seasons of "The Summer I Turned Pretty," the love triangle between Belly, Conrad, and Jeremiah shakes out as follows. After Conrad finally realizes that he loves Belly back, the two get together, only for them to break up after Susannah dies from cancer (largely because Conrad, in his grief, completely closes himself off to Belly and all of his loved ones). After an extended battle over ownership of the beach house that culminates in a huge house party where Belly furiously tells Conrad that he should have fought for their love, he prepares to transfer from Brown University to Stanford University to study medicine, and Jeremiah and Belly, who had a dalliance in season 1, grow closer again. By the end of season 2, Jeremiah and Belly are in love again and back together, sending Conrad into the beginning of a massive mental health spiral.

This brings us to the season 3 premiere, which establishes that Belly enrolls at the fictional Finch College with Jeremiah (who's roughly a year older than she is) and then jumps through time to Jeremiah's senior year. Though Belly learns that she has the opportunity to study abroad in Paris for a semester and is set to take it, she's beset by a series of unfortunate events; first, she finds out that, during an extended argument between them, Jeremiah cheated on her during a spring break vacation with a girl named Lacie Barone (Lily Donoghue). Belly ends their relationship, but when her brother Steven (Sean Kaufman) almost dies in a car accident, grief brings her and Jeremiah back together, and he hastily proposes.

Laurel is, understandably, horrified that her 21-year-old daughter is so ready to get wifed up, but after Belly and Jeremiah dig in their heels, everyone — including Conrad — is forced to accept this imperfect union. This wedding is doomed, though, because the previous Christmas, Belly spent it with Conrad at the beach house and didn't tell Jeremiah, even though nothing untoward happened; she's just extremely aware that Jeremiah would feel slighted. After Belly confesses to Jeremiah, he realizes that she'll always love Conrad, and he calls off the nuptials on the morning of the wedding. Anyway, remember that Paris opportunity? That comes back into play as Belly impulsively boards a flight and crosses the Atlantic for un avenir meilleur (or, a better life).

Even though it's categorically insane for Belly to go to Paris with only a tenuous confirmation that she can even still participate in the study abroad program — and she does, in fact, find out that there's no spot for her — she makes the best of a bad situation. After Belly's backpack is stolen, she tracks it to an underground rave and impresses a group of French twenty-somethings who take her under their wing, helping her find a couple of jobs as well as a room in an apartment full of French people who low-key hate her (a very funny touch). Eventually, things get better. After a year in the City of Lights, Belly learns French, finds support amongst her friends, dates that cute guy Benito for a little while, and even gets to move into a genuinely stunning Parisian apartment when one of her friends moves out and offers her the lease.

All the while, a lovelorn Conrad — who confessed his love for Belly before her botched wedding to Jeremiah, only to get rejected by Belly and punched by Jeremiah — is writing handwritten letters to Belly in Paris, and after moving into her new digs, she relents and gives him her new address. Encouraged by this, Conrad pulls a Belly and flies to Paris armed with nothing but his hopes and dreams, and when he finds out at her birthday dinner that she and Benito are no longer together, sparks fly between the two young lovers once again. On the banks of the Seine, the two kiss before spending the night together at Belly's apartment.

Initially, Belly has a light freakout, worrying that she and Conrad are only drawn together because Susannah always hoped they'd end up married; crushed again, Conrad heads to the train station to head to Brussels, where he's scheduled to attend a medical conference. Fortunately, Belly realizes her mistake just in time. "I have brown hair, I have brown eyes, and I love Conrad Fisher," Belly tells the viewer in voice-over (Belly's voice-overs soundtrack the show along with the music of Taylor Swift, with the exception of two episodes memorably narrated by Jeremiah and Conrad). 

After boarding the train to Brussels and finding Conrad, Belly, wearing the infinity charm necklace gifted to her by Conrad on her 16th birthday, "I choose you of my own free will," Belly tells him. "If there are infinite worlds, every version of me chooses you in every one of them." They kiss, and later, the series fast forwards to show us Belly and Conrad heading back for another summer in Cousins Beach. (For what it's worth, the books also have Belly and Conrad end up together.) We're getting a "The Summer I Turned Pretty" movie later on, but for now, "Bonrad" shippers can rest easy.

"The Summer I Turned Pretty" is streaming on Amazon Prime now.