Even though it’s categorically insane for Belly to go to Paris with only a tenuous confirmation that she can even still participate in the study abroad program — and she does, in fact, find out that there’s no spot for her — she makes the best of a bad situation. After Belly’s backpack is stolen, she tracks it to an underground rave and impresses a group of French twenty-somethings who take her under their wing, helping her find a couple of jobs as well as a room in an apartment full of French people who low-key hate her (a very funny touch). Eventually, things get better. After a year in the City of Lights, Belly learns French, finds support amongst her friends, dates that cute guy Benito for a little while, and even gets to move into a genuinely stunning Parisian apartment when one of her friends moves out and offers her the lease.
All the while, a lovelorn Conrad — who confessed his love for Belly before her botched wedding to Jeremiah, only to get rejected by Belly and punched by Jeremiah — is writing handwritten letters to Belly in Paris, and after moving into her new digs, she relents and gives him her new address. Encouraged by this, Conrad pulls a Belly and flies to Paris armed with nothing but his hopes and dreams, and when he finds out at her birthday dinner that she and Benito are no longer together, sparks fly between the two young lovers once again. On the banks of the Seine, the two kiss before spending the night together at Belly’s apartment.
Initially, Belly has a light freakout, worrying that she and Conrad are only drawn together because Susannah always hoped they’d end up married; crushed again, Conrad heads to the train station to head to Brussels, where he’s scheduled to attend a medical conference. Fortunately, Belly realizes her mistake just in time. “I have brown hair, I have brown eyes, and I love Conrad Fisher,” Belly tells the viewer in voice-over (Belly’s voice-overs soundtrack the show along with the music of Taylor Swift, with the exception of two episodes memorably narrated by Jeremiah and Conrad).
After boarding the train to Brussels and finding Conrad, Belly, wearing the infinity charm necklace gifted to her by Conrad on her 16th birthday, “I choose you of my own free will,” Belly tells him. “If there are infinite worlds, every version of me chooses you in every one of them.” They kiss, and later, the series fast forwards to show us Belly and Conrad heading back for another summer in Cousins Beach. (For what it’s worth, the books also have Belly and Conrad end up together.) We’re getting a “The Summer I Turned Pretty” movie later on, but for now, “Bonrad” shippers can rest easy.
“The Summer I Turned Pretty” is streaming on Amazon Prime now.