The penultimate episode of The Summer I Turned Pretty Season 3, titled “Last Year,” delivered a measure of closure for several storylines while ending on a cliffhanger that sends Conrad to Paris and leaves the show’s love-triangle question unresolved. The installment reunited brothers, advanced Belly’s Paris chapter and scattered the kind of deliberate Easter eggs the series has used all season to signal themes and possible endgames.
Set roughly three months into Belly’s (Lola Tung) Paris stay, the episode follows her homesickness and holiday decisions, Jeremiah’s (Gavin Casalegno) rocky recovery after a breakup and Conrad’s (Christopher Briney) continued attempts to reach Belly. Jeremiah takes a restaurant gig after being cut off by Adam and briefly crashes with Denise before spending a quiet, reflective holiday away from Cousins. Belly spends a snowy Christmas in Paris with Benito (Fernando Cattori), declares an “end of an era,” kisses him at midnight and opts to stay in Paris another year. A key scene at Susannah’s gravesite reunites Conrad and Jeremiah, where they confront the Bellyphant in the room and Jeremiah gives Conrad the go-ahead to pursue Belly. The episode closes with Conrad buying a ticket and booking a flight to Paris, setting up the finale.
The episode is dense with callbacks and deliberate visual parallels, five of which Decider highlighted as moments viewers might have missed. One recurring motif is the show’s explicit nod to the 1954 film Sabrina. A poster for Sabrina has appeared in Belly’s dorm earlier this season, and Episode 10 deploys the image again in scenes where Belly discusses Paris and when she writes a letter to Conrad. The parallels go beyond décor: the film’s narrative—about a young woman who leaves for Paris, finds herself and returns involved with one of two brothers—echoes the series’ own arc and has prompted viewers to read the filmic references as hints toward which brother might be Belly’s endgame.
The episode also includes a smaller pop-culture wink: Belly dancing alone to Brenda Lee’s “Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree” recalls a Home Alone moment in which the film’s young protagonist celebrates the holiday soundtrack alone. That musical choice functions both as a holiday touchstone and a tonal callback to key scenes from earlier in the franchise that altered Belly and Conrad’s trajectory.
A prop beat in Episode 10 is a direct nod to Jenny Han’s books. When Belly’s postcard finally arrives in Conrad’s hands, the show reveals him keeping the card folded in his wallet. In the third book’s final paragraph, Han writes that Conrad “kept it in his wallet, soft and creased into a million little folds,” a line the series mirrors visually to underline how much Belly’s words mean to Conrad and to reinforce continuity between the novels and the adaptation.
Episode 10 also invites numerological readings that have animated fan discussion. Conrad’s flight departs at 10:45 p.m., a time some viewers have associated with themes of destiny and new beginnings. The $473 fare to switch his flight prompted chatter because online numerology links 473 to ideas of twin flames and trusting an inner path; adding those digits produces 14, a number that also appears on a wall in one scene. The show stops short of stating any mystical import, and at least one viral theory—that a red-stenciled “A12” seen on moving boxes hinted at a surprise 12th episode—was described in coverage as a mundane labeling detail rather than evidence of an unannounced installment.
Small physical changes in the episode carry thematic weight. Belly’s decision to get a haircut before her birthday dinner is staged as an act of transition: she says she is “ready for something new this summer,” and the cut reads as a visual marker of her turning away from past expectations. The moment gains added resonance because of a Season 1 line in which Jeremiah tells Belly, “Don’t ever cut your hair, okay?” The scene is portrayed as part of Belly’s emotional separation from former attachments and a step toward self-redefinition while living abroad.
The episode also deploys quieter world-building touches that echo the show’s domestic themes, such as repeated visual cues about household rituals. A minor gag about going shoeless in home life resurfaces here in a way that reinforces shared intimacies and possible future cohabitation in fans’ readings, though the series offers no explicit commitment beyond the episode’s present actions.
Musically, Episode 10 closes with Harry Styles’ “Sign of the Times,” a needle-drop that underscored the episode’s bittersweet, forward-looking tone as Conrad boards a plane and Belly establishes a new chapter in Paris. Other selections in the episode include tracks that have been repeatedly used across the season to signal emotional beats, but the final song’s lyrics and sweep punctuate the episode’s promise of reunion and distance at once.
The show’s creative team and source author Jenny Han have leaned into cinematic references throughout Season 3, and Decider has pledged a weekly close reading leading up to the series finale on Sept. 17. New episodes continue to premiere Wednesdays on Prime Video; Episode 10’s mix of resolution, literary nods and a late cliffhanger positions the finale to resolve both relationship questions and the serialized touchpoints that have become part of the show’s storytelling strategy.