‘The Summer I Turned Pretty’ Season 3: Biggest Changes From Jenny Han’s Books So Far

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Note: This story contains spoilers from “The Summer I Turned Pretty” Season 3, Episodes 1-2.

“The Summer I Turned Pretty” is back for its third and final season, bringing Jenny Han’s beloved book trilogy to a close. But Han has teased that book fans might not know how the Prime Video series will conclude.

Time jump to Belly’s junior year

While Season 3 kicks off by showing Belly’s move-in to Finch for her freshman year of college, “The Summer I Turned Pretty” quickly jumps to the end of Belly’s junior year and Jeremiah’s senior year, pushing back much of the action that happens in the book two years.

The Prime Video series fills in the gaps of the last two years: Belly had an injury that forced her to leave the volleyball team and meanwhile discover her passion for sports psychology; Jeremiah has been enjoying his fraternity life, but will be graduating a semester late after not completing the correct classes; Taylor has become rush chair of her sorority; Steven has graduated from Princeton early and began working at finance firm Breaker — headed up by Mr. Fisher; and Conrad is still pursuing his medical studies at Stanford.

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Belly and Jeremiah have seemingly been together this entire time, and their conflict in Episodes 1 and 2 surrounding Jeremiah’s spring break trip to Cabo is the same turn of events as in the book.

Steven (Sean Kaufman) and Adam (Tom Everett Scott) in “The Summer I Turned Pretty” Season 3 (Erika Doss/Amazon)

Taylor and Steven’s on-again, off-again relationship

Given that Taylor and Steven don’t have a romantic relationship in the books, Han has already gone off script with their fling in the first two seasons, and she told TheWrap crafting their storyline was the hardest part of writing Season 3.

Season 3 establishes that Taylor and Steven broke up before Belly and Taylor’s move to Finch, but it’s clear they’ve hooked up across the past years, leading to them now cheating on their respective partners — Davis and Mia. Notably, Taylor does date a Davis in the books, but it’s earlier while she’s in high school, who was seemingly subbed for Taylor’s boyfriend, Milo, in Season 2.

Steven breaks up with Mia (who remains unseen) to be with Taylor, who is hesitant to truly pursue a relationship until …

Steven (Sean Kaufman) and Taylor (Rain Spencer) in “The Summer I Turned Pretty” Season 3 (Erika Doss/Amazon)

Steven’s car accident

As soon as “The Summer I Turned Pretty” dropped its Season 3 trailer, fans immediately glommed onto the car crash involving Steven, which is entirely new from the book, with some fans even speculating Steven could die.

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Luckily, fans didn’t have to anticipate the car crash for too long, as Episode 2 sees Steven crash his car after Taylor tells him to let her out of the car. Steven is okay by the end of Episode 2, but he said it serves as a “wake up call” that he shouldn’t be pursuing Taylor anymore — a realization that he tells Taylor right as she’s about to ask him to make a relationship work.

New characters

While book fans were waiting to meet Belly’s college best friend Annika, Conrad’s close friend and former hookup, Agnes, and other Finch students Redbird and Lacie Baron (if you know you know), some new characters were introduced in Taylor’s boyfriend, Davis, Steven’s girlfriend, Mia (who remains unseen), and Steven’s co-worker and junior associate at Breaker, Denise.

Laurel (Jackie Chung) in “The Summer I Turned Pretty” Season 3 (Erika Doss/Amazon)

Laurel and John’s Romance

Belly’s parents, Laurel and John, are divorced in the books and don’t rekindle their romance on the page, but the first two episodes of Season 3 see them running into each other at a conference and flirting up a storm before eventually hooking up.

Redbird Is Potentially Queer

In the books, Redbird is one of Jeremiah’s fraternity brothers who sparks the eye of Taylor later in the book. In the show, Redbird mentions to Jeremiah how emotionally devastated he was after he and Sean broke up, though Redbird’s sexuality is not discussed further.

Study abroad discussed earlier — and in a different place

The possibility of Belly heading to Paris to study abroad during the fall semester of her senior year is brought up in the Season 3 premiere, much earlier than the discussion in the book, which sees Belly head to Spain during her junior year. Jeremiah graduating late factors into her potential study abroad, but Jeremiah encourages her to go and follow her dream.

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“The Summer I Turned Pretty” Season 3 releases new episodes Wednesdays on Prime Video.

The post ‘The Summer I Turned Pretty’ Season 3: Biggest Changes From Jenny Han’s Books So Far appeared first on TheWrap.

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