<i>The Summer I Turned Pretty</i> Season 3, Episode 4 Recap: Plans Are Changing

Spoilers below.

Last week’s The Summer I Turned Pretty ended with Belly and Jeremiah dropping the news of their engagement to their families with disastrous results. Season 3, episode 4 starts two weeks later: Belly and Jeremiah are living separately, but remain industrious. Jeremiah calls Belly for her birthday from his new internship, which he got from his dad. She is at her mom’s house and busy waiting tables for cash to build up their wedding fund. Jere feels guilty he isn’t earning any actual money, but Belly encourages him to keep showing his best side to his father. Unfortunately, neither one of them is getting very far with convincing their respective families that this August wedding is a serious prospect.

Laurel and John may not want to deal with their daughter getting married, but they do want to celebrate her birthday. After her phone call, they greet her downstairs with pancakes and a bottle of wine from the year she was born. She is 21! Belly tries to milk the birthday vibes to get Laurel to join her for some wedding dress shopping, but it’s a no go. Laurel is still not okay with the marriage plans and breakfast ends abruptly. Belly leaves her mom and dad to discuss the topic. Only John believes it is happening one way or another, and tries to convince Laurel to be supportive. It does not work.

At the office, Jeremiah serves his dad a hot latte and gets the cold shoulder. His dad changes the subject as well when Jere tries to bring up the wedding. Chastened, he heads out to the intern pen where Steven is hard at work. The other interns seem annoyed with the “nepo baby,” but Steven defends Jere. He ends up sparring with the other office gamer, Denise, who makes a point about how quickly guys like Jeremiah move up the corporate ladder.

Steven is less supportive of Jeremiah’s complaints about the wedding. He also wants the young couple to wait, but Jere wins him over by asking him to be his “co-best man” with Conrad (if he can get his brother on the phone). For some reason, Steven is suddenly very excited by this responsibility and starts planning the bachelor party. As long as Jere doesn’t tell Laurel!

Taylor, meanwhile, is trying to get Lucinda to work on her salon books, but her mom seems more interested in reconnecting with her scumbag ex, Scott. Belly gives Taylor a call to go dress shopping, which is something Lucinda is excited about. The girls meet up at the mall and though Belly pushed for the excursion, she seems pretty blue—maybe because they’re not an actual bridal shop. (This store sells prom dresses.) Taylor is anxious herself about leaving Lucinda for her New York internship and on her mother is on her last nerve. Belly, however, is just glad to have “someone’s mom” at her dress excursion. The very last dress off the sale rack ends up being the one, a simple and affordable slip dress, but it’s not enough to cheer up Belly. She cancels birthday dinner and sends Taylor off with Lucinda.

Jere tells Belly that Steven agreed to be best man, but she seems disappointed it is not Conrad. She then breaks down about the dress shopping, asking Jere how they’ll “do this without both of our moms.”

He ends up driving 90 miles an hour to Belly’s house after work to bring her a birthday cake, flowers for Laurel, as well as a small gift—a key to the house at Cousins. He tells her it will officially be hers in six weeks, when they’re married. After a group hug, Laurel gets the young couple to sit down and discuss the wedding seriously. Jeremiah gives an impassioned speech about being Belly’s person, admitting that when they got together after he lost his mom, Susannah, it helped him figure out who he was again. He insists his mom would be happy for them. But Laurel says they’ll never know what Susannah would have wanted and that no one can know what a lifetime will bring. She asks them to wait until they’ve graduated from school at least before tying the knot. But no compromise is reached and Laurel is still a firm no.

Belly chases her mom upstairs, continuing the fight. Laurel refuses to attend the wedding, calling it a “stupid mistake” that’s “killing her.” Belly storms out with Jeremiah. They go to spend the night in Cousins and wake up to find Conrad there as well. Why isn’t he in California? Conrad seems to have been offline in the beach house the last few weeks, and no one knows he was fired from his original clinic job.

As Conrad goes for a panic run, Belly and Jeremiah discuss his surprise appearance and she seems to sense that he has a “secret.” They also consider where Belly should go, but after exploring the options, Jere convinces her to stay in Cousins. With Conrad.

On his run, Conrad talks to his emotional support co-worker, Agnes, who tells him he got the gig at Garth back in California, so he may have a reason to leave. When he gets back to the house, Jeremiah finally pins his brother down for a conversation while catching some waves. Unlike Steven, Conrad is not won over by being a co-best man. He points out that both Laurel and John agree for once about waiting to get married—and it might be because they’re right. Conrad calls the wedding plan “ridiculous,” which pisses Jere right off. He hangs ten to shore.

Belly texts her dad to walk her down the aisle, admitting she left their home in Philly, then spars with Conrad to prove she’s not a child. The text sends John over to Laurel’s, where they fight over Laurel’s decision to cut off Belly on her wedding day. John seems to think it is better to be there for their daughter’s mistakes than not at all. He points out that Belly and Jeremiah aren’t destined to be Their Parents 2.0. The former married couple discuss where things went wrong for them and Laurel says the mistake for her was getting married too young and having kids too young. But she doesn’t blame John, she blames herself. She doesn’t want the same for Belly.

Jere and Belly spend the evening watching movies in the pool and mocking Conrad’s valid concerns. He buys a plane ticket to California as their laughter floats up to his bedroom.

Steven is spending his Sunday working on a project at his internship, where he and Denise discuss business stuff and find they have a lot in common. Like the desire to Make Things, one of Steven’s prime directives. Steven ends up calling Taylor after casually going through Lucinda’s books again. Taylor assures him they have it under control, but it turns out Scott opened lines of credit in Lucinda’s name. There’s no way she’ll get a small business loan without paying off 10k of Scott’s debt. Steven offers to pull some of the money together, but she refuses to be his charity case.

As Jeremiah gets ready to go back to work, Belly struggles to say goodbye. She talks herself out of going to Paris and Jeremiah admits he doesn’t want her to go. Ughhhhh.

Upstairs, Belly hangs up her mall dress only to find the gown Laurel bought her for the deb ball, which is also conveniently white. She flashes back to being a child and having Susannah show her the new room she designed just for her, meaning she’d no longer share a room with the boys. But they found her anyway, spooking her in her new big bed. Young Belly finds the moms tipsy in the kitchen that night, saying she doesn’t want to sleep alone, so Laurel brings her back upstairs to snooze together. Back in the present, Belly is clearly missing her mom’s comfort and presence.

Conrad is packed to go, but he hears Belly crying in her room. He appears to leave without saying anything.

Like Belly, Taylor has massively changed her life plans for an irresponsible reason. She gave up her internship in New York and used her rent money to pay off the debt. She even cleaned up the house alone and is going to drag her mom into responsible business ownership by her hair. Lucinda seems to realize she has massively messed up as a mother here, but Taylor can’t be reasoned with. She promises to pay back her daughter, but Taylor is staying home next year.

Belly wakes to find Conrad hasn’t gone: He’s not only doing the dishes, he’s agreed to be co-best man at her wedding. He tells Belly he thinks it’s good she and Jere are together and they obviously make each other happy—almost as happy as Conrad makes Belly with a belated birthday gift of baked goods. The episode ends with a hug between the former lovers and Conrad’s plaintive voiceover asking, “What have I done?”

Great question, Conrad.