Summer love triangles with a complicated history, testing of friendships, the loss of a mother and the fight for a childhood home are just some of the few things that teens all over the world got to watch unfold this past July with the season two release of “The Summer I Turned Pretty” by Jenny Han. This series first premiered in June of 2022 with the onscreen adaptation of the books’ infamous love-triangle story between Belly Conklin and brothers, Conrad and Jeremiah Fisher.

This Prime Video original attracted the hearts of viewers all over the world, some who grew up with Han’s books and already loved the stories, and new fans who got to fall in love with these characters. With people’s hearts aching for the continuation of the love story after season one’s passionate and surprising ending, viewership for the season two release doubled in its premier three episodes unlike the season one premier. Many original-book Conrad fans were anticipating this second season with agony, knowing that Han had written it into stone with her second book in 2010 that Conklin would choose Jeremiah at the season’s end. This dread amongst fans online pushed the conflict between Team Conrad versus Team Jeremiah in full throttle as social media feuds stayed alive all season.  

Social media was burning with content, reactions, opinions and arguments all summer about who Conklin should choose, with a surge of TSITP posts every Friday after each new episode. People made accounts to join the conflict between teams, which only led to more competition to see which accounts would have more followers and fueling the fire online. Eventually, it got so big that even celebrities joined the competition online. Taylor Lautner, who famously played Jacob Black in the Twilight series, and his wife were openly team Jeremiah fans and made it known. Celebrities like Taylor Swift and Olivia Rodrigo also made videos supporting Team Conrad, which made fans so crazy because both musicians’ music are known to play during Conklin and Conrad’s scenes. The momentum of these posts even reached companies like Sour Patch Kids and Swedish Fish. with Sour Patch representing Team Conrad and later, Team Jeremiah.  

Apart from the show’s ongoing love story, season two tackles deeper, more mature themes in comparison to season one. Season two opens with the death of Conrad and Jeremiah’s mother, Susannah Fisher, due to cancer. This affects all the central characters and shifts the direction the story established in season one. Viewers got to see Conrad and Conklin’s relationship in flashbacks during Susannah’s health decline and eventual death, and how Jeremiah in comparison coped alone, longing for Belly and angry with his brother. The grief really pushes the narrative of how taxing poor mental health can be to relationships. This season was sure to highlight unhealthy effects of dealing with loss, like Conrad’s lack of communication and trust, Jeremiah’s lack of understanding and Conklin’s ability to care and please everyone else instead of dealing with her own feelings. 

With all the attention and popularity TSITP has acquired between its time as a written story to its explosive popularity on Prime Video, the only thing people are able to talk about is season three. More specifically, for the next season to be based off the last book in the series “We’ll Always Have Summer.” The ending to this story, and to who Conklin will end up with, was written in 2011 and has fans wondering if Han will stick to her story or adapt it with all the new support for Team Jeremiah. With the writer’s strike, season three’s release date is not confirmed, but the season itself is, and fans cannot wait. It will either be “The Summer You Turned Victorious,” or “The Summer You Turned Delusional.”