Does Belly End Up With Conrad In Season 3, Episode 11?

After three books, three seasons, a devastating death, an engagement, a peach scene, a trip to Michaels, a canceled wedding, two tickets to Paris, more than two dozen Taylor Swift songs, and one of TV’s most highly-debated love triangles of all time, The Summer I Turned Pretty‘s third and final season has come to an end. And yes, AT LAST, we finally know who Belly (Lola Tung) ends up with.

Ahead of TSITP‘s Season 3 finale, even fans of Jenny Han’s beloved book trilogy were in uncharted territory, left to wonder what would happen when Conrad (Christopher Briney) touched down in Paris ahead of Belly’s 22nd birthday.

“There is so much that is going to surprise fans about how much we’re showing of Belly in Paris and the whole ending,” Han told Entertainment Weekly. “It’s not just an epilogue.”

So what happened during The Summer I Turned Pretty‘s Season 3/series finale? Did Jenny stay true to the books? Did Belly and Benito (Fernando Cattori) break up? Did Belly and Conrad end up together?! Are Taylor (Rain Spencer) and Steven (Sean Kaufman) endgame? And did Jeremiah (Gavin Casalegno) end up with Denise (Isabella Briggs)?

From the second that detail-oriented fans see TSITP‘s significant series finale title, “At Last,” they’ll think they know how the story ends. But the joy lies in the journey, so buckle up, grab the tissues, and get ready to go to Paris with Belly and Conrad! We’ve waiting for answers long enough, so without further ado, Decider’s The Summer I Turned Pretty Season 3 finale recap awaits. Just be warned, major (potentially life-ruining, depending if you’re Team Conrad/Team Jeremiah/Team Benito/Team Belly) spoilers lie ahead!

The Summer I Turned Pretty Season 3 Ending Explained: TSITP Season 3, Episode 11 Recap, “At Last”

TSITP‘s Season 3 finale picks up with Conrad in Paris, looking up at the door to Belly’s apartment building. He rings the bell, but there’s no answer. After waiting a while, he’s simultaneously exhilarated and crushed to see Belly ride up on the back of Benito’s scooter. She takes her helmet off to reveal her fresh birthday bob, and as Conrad’s feelings for her flood over him like waves, he flashes back to them on Cousins beach together.

When Benito takes off, Belly is visibly rattled by Conrad’s presence. He tries to downplay his visit, saying he’s there for a Brussels conference, he casually remembered it was her birthday, and he’s totally fine if she’s too busy for him. For a few seconds, Belly hesitates to let him back into her heart and let him infiltrate her new world, but she agrees to show him the sights until her plans at 8:00 p.m. It isn’t until she drops his bag inside her apartment and reapplies red lipstick that we get a peek behind the curtain at her true feelings. “What the fuck are you doing. Just play tour guide for a few hours and then send him on his way,“ her voiceover says as she stares in the mirror, fighting her past.

Back home, Jeremiah has been crashing at Denise’s apartment for six months and is furiously cooking a make-it-or-break-it meal for 30 food influencers, after a TikTok of him that Taylor posted popped off and gave him the chance to become “Boston’s hottest up-and-coming chef.” As he preps for his big day, he tells Denise that Conrad is in Paris with Belly and he’s finally OK with them. She shares some news of her own: She’s moving to San Francisco in a month, because her and Steven finally got seed funding for their video game. The only problem? Steven hasn’t told Taylor yet, and she overhears the news when she comes to tell Jere the venue for his dinner flooded and they needed to find a backup. Much to Jere’s dismay, Denise thinks of the perfect place: the Cousins beach house.

Meanwhile, in Paris, Belly and Conrad are seeing the sights as palpable tension looms between them. When Conrad asks Belly to quit the typical tourist tour and show him Paris through her eyes, she takes him to a rooftop that overlooks the city and reveals she used to go there a lot when she first arrived. “One day I came up here to watch the sun rise, and I remembered that thing you said about the first time you saw the Pacific. You said that it felt like you were standing on another planet. Like anything was possible. Paris has become that for me. It was really hard but I stuck it out and now I get to live in the most beautiful city in the world,” she admitts. “Paris never stood a chance,” Conrad muses. And after the authentic moment of connection, Belly invites him to stay for her pre-birthday dinner with friends.

Before I go on, let me stress just how compelling the Paris parts of this episode are, and how utterly maddening and agonizing it is — despite our love of Cousins and other characters — to keep bouncing back to the beach to see Taylor passive aggressively baiting Steven in hopes that he’ll tell her about the San Francisco opportunity, and Jeremiah navigating growing obstacles in hopes of throwing a perfect dinner party. So for the love of summer, we’re keeping these sections short! Adam arrives, uninvited and broken up with Kayleigh. Steven and Tay Tay talk things out. And Denise is consistently there for Jere when he spirals. Now back to the main event!

As Belly and Conrad get ready for their own big night, he flashes back to winning Junior Mint for her. He says she looks really beautiful and helps put her bracelet on. That forcefield Jere described between them? It’s still there, and the more they resist, the stronger it becomes. Belly’s friends welcome Conrad to her birthday dinner with open arms, but spare no playful punches. (Queen Celine can’t resist saying, “Fuck me sideways, you American slut! If this one’s this hot, what did the other one look like?!”) During dinner, they address all the elephants in the room, including Belly breaking up with Benito pre-Mexico trip (!!!), the wedding that wasn’t, and the brother love triangle. “If anyone was the villain, it was me,” Belly reflects. But Conrad quickly makes it clear he doesn’t think of her that way and confirms he switched his flight to bring her a little piece of Cousins on her birthday.

After an especially seductive joint-smoking scene, we learn what, exactly, he meant by that. Conrad gifts Belly a vial of Cousins Beach sand that he collected when they were there for that fateful Fourth of July a few years back, saying, “I knew that I wasn’t gonna be back for a long time. And so, whenever I really miss home, I take this out, and it makes me feel closer to everybody. And I thought since, I don’t know, since you won’t be back for a while, I thought you might want to have it.” SWOON CITY! Help!

After cake, the two hit the town, and as they walk and talk along the water, Conrad says he thought Belly was hiding out in Paris, punishing herself for everything that happened, like he did for a long time. Though she built an amazing life for herself there, she says he’s right, because she still can’t forgive herself for breaking up his family. He tells her she didn’t, that Jere knows he’s there and wished him good luck. And suddenly, under the full moon, something shifts. As they slow dance in one of Belly’s favorite spots, they revisited their fallouts at prom and Susannah’s funeral, which felt like “a million years ago.” Belly tells Conrad his letters kept her going in Paris, and the reason she took so long to reply is because she had to move on and let go of the past first. As she stands there in front of him, however, she’s right back in it.

At LITERAL last, Isabela Conklin and Conrad Fisher share a kiss! And another! And another! And sooooooooo many kisses, in the cab, on the stairs to Belly’s apartment, against her wall, on her bed — like, trust and believe, Jenny ATE with these scenes, set to Taylor Swift’s “Dress.” SOS! As the two undress on Belly’s bed, Conrad pauses their passionate love-making sesh only to announce, “I dream about this. You.” Tragically, the perfection of the moment is momentarily dashed by my fears that no real life man could ever live up to the expectations Miss Han’s pen and Connie Baby set for us. ANYWAY, back to the show!

As the Parisian lovebirds cuddle in bed post love-making, the mood shifts when Conrad offers to skip the first day of his conference to stay with Belly. She tells him he shouldn’t change his plans for her, as she has no intention of changing hers — or abandoning the life she made in Paris — for him. When everything she wanted between them for years is finally within reach again, Belly self-sabotages. She coldly tells Conrad to take the next train, and when he asks what’s wrong, she replies, “How are we supposed to know if we love each other because we want to and not because we were told to? If we didn’t lose Susannah, would it loom so large for us? What if you only love me because that’s what your mom wanted and then your mom died.”

A baffled Conrad delivers one of the show’s best speeches, assuring Belly, “That is not why I love you. I have tried everything not to love you, for the sake of Jere for the sake, of not dragging you down with me in my grief. I fought it, way before the summer my mom got sick. You’ve always been a precious person to me. I’ve always cared about you. And then at some point I started to see you differently and that scared me because i didn’t want things between us to change, but the way that I feel about you, Belly has nothing to do with my mom. If I met you fort he first time tonight I would love you. Because I’ve changed everything about myself and the one thing that never changes is that I love you!”

To that heartfelt show of vulnerability, a shockingly closed-off Belly simply replies, “Conrad, I wish that I Could be as sure as you. But I can’t. I’m sorry.” He gets dressed and tearfully leaves to grab the train. In his absence, Belly picks up Junior Mint and has her epiphany. “All this time I wanted to believe I changed. That I’m not the same girl I was. But I am still her, and was that girl so bad?” she thinks. “She followed her heart no matter what. And despite all her mistakes, I have to believe she’s still worthy of love. I still love her. And I still love him. I have brown hair and brown eyes and I will always love Conrad Fisher.” In other words, WE ARE SO BACK.

Like so many iconic on-screen love stories before it, The Summer I Turned Pretty switches into romantic chase mode, as Belly races to the train station and frantically searches for her man. As “Out of the Woods (Taylor’s Version)” blares, Team Conrad fans finally — AT LAST — get out of those fucking woods! Belly spots Conrad on the train, asks “Is this seat taken?” and says, “I choose you, of my own free will. If there are infinite worlds, every version of me choose you in every one of them.” With a passionate kiss and an “I love you” exchange, we all get our endgame, our happy ending, and then some!

Back home, Steven and Taylor talk through the San Fransisco dilemma and vow to stay together, no matter where life takes them. Adam pulls Jeremiah aside and finally tells him he’s so proud of him, and he loves him. And after Denise helps Jere build his back confidence up, the two finally kiss — in the Cousins house, no less! (We approve, obviously! But also RIP Redbird/Jere endgame.)

So do Belly and Conrad get back home? In her final TSITP voiceover, Belly explains, “I didn’t go back that summer. But eventually I did. Nothing beats coming home after a long, long time. And just as it always had, the beach house held a million promises of summer. And what just might be.”

Before the series concludes, Conrad drives Belly (wearing her infinity necklace again) through Cousins, the two go back to the beach house. The final shot shows them holding hands out back overlooking the beach — well, almost the final shot. The series actually ends with a “Christmas in Paris” scrapbook, which shows snapshots of Belly, Conrad, and Junior Mint enjoying the holidays abroad after the two declared their love for each other. (We need more!) After getting a glimpse at their lives abroad, we also get a goodbye — or a see you later?! —letter from Jenny Han herself:

Thank you from the bottom of my heart for the love you’ve shown The Summer I Turned Pretty all these years. Whether you’ve been with Belly since the very first book or joined us with the show I’m so grateful you’ve made Belly’s story part of your summers.

We put our whole hearts into this show and we’re so thankful to you for coming along with us on the ride. Maybe we’ll meet again one summer in Cousins.

Until then —

All of my love always, Jenny

While Season 3 was always marketed as TSITP‘s final season, fans of TSITP books know there’s more to Belly and Conrad’s story than we saw on screen. So is there a world in which Han and TSITP stars return for some sort of continuation? A movie? An epilogue episode? A spin-off?! Only time will tell, but if you you’re craving more of Belly and Conrad’s story, we highly suggest catching up on We’ll Always Have Summer‘s ending.

The Summer I Turned Pretty Seasons 1 through 3 are now streaming on Prime Video.