I Will Never Be Over the Peach Scene in This Week’s Episode of “The Summer I Turned Pretty”

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I’ve never seen a fictional character in such denial as Isabella “Belly” Conklin.

If you’re one of the 25 million people tuning in week after week to watch the third and final season of Prime Video’s The Summer I Turned Pretty, then you, too, are probably experiencing emotional whiplash as you witness the show’s protagonist plan her wedding to her fiancé, Jeremiah Fisher—even while she’s so clearly burying her feelings for his older brother and her first love, Conrad. Now, to be clear, this isn’t meant to be a written debate about which brother is better for Belly; Harper’s Bazaar already covered that topic as a team. (You can view the results here.) What I am here to discuss is how episode 5 of season 3 is easily the best—and steamiest—installment of the entire series so far, and it just happens to take place from Conrad Fisher’s point of view, as he comes to terms with Belly and Jeremiah’s upcoming nuptials. The fact that the episode is also narrated by Conrad adds an extra layer to the yearning we see at play.

While stuck at the beach house in Cousins with Belly, Conrad sees she’s struggling to finish planning the wedding on her own and offers to drive her around for errands like inquiring about a cake at the local bakery, picking a florist, and browsing their local Michaels craft store for last-minute ceremony decor. (You can’t let those 25 percent off sale coupons go to waste!) Belly learns the hard way (like many of us) just how much modern-day weddings actually cost, which discourages her even more. Conrad, as we’ve learned, can’t stand to see Belly upset, so he does his best to help her see the brighter side of DIY wedding planning, offering his mother’s hydrangeas in the yard for her bridal bouquet and suggesting budget-friendly wedding-cake ingredients, much to Jeremiah’s chagrin. On the ride back home, while reminiscing about old times, they drive past a peach farm. Belly just happens to be starving. Incapable of letting Belly down, Conrad pulls an illegal U-turn and makes a peach pit stop.

It’s here where things start to heat up. A famished Belly grabs a single peach from the farm stand and immediately takes a bite, oblivious to the fact that Conrad is allergic to peaches, which he later tells her. She claims—it being the peak of summer after all—that it’s maybe the best peach she’s ever had, as she continues to let fruit juice and flesh drip over her chin. Tickled by Belly’s lack of embarrassment, and clearly still enamored by the lips he once used to kiss, Conrad uses the hem of his—white!—T-shirt to delicately wipe Belly’s mouth clean. I’m sorry, but this is the type of silent longing Jane Austen and co. would write about. Unlike the puppy-like, playful banter we see between Belly and Jeremiah, this type of tension between her and Conrad is different; it’s grown, intimate, and deeply romantic. Considering showrunner (and original author) Jenny Han directed this episode, it feels intentional—like this exact emotional reaction is what we’re meant to have. For your reference, here a few first reactions courtesy of X, below.

The blush-worthy moments don’t stop there. Later on, during a lackluster dinner of grilled chicken and frozen french fries back at the beach house, Conrad and Belly are happily tipsy on white wine. During their meal, Conrad thinks back to the last time he and Belly were together intimately: mere weeks before his mother passed, and before their big breakup at prom. It’s here that TSITP gets the type of proper love scene that we’ve yet to witness between Belly and Jeremiah. In the flashback, the pair are hiding out at Belly’s house and whispering quietly to each other so Laurel won’t find out they’re in bed together, and it’s clear that even though Conrad still wasn’t ready to confide in Belly about his mother’s dire diagnosis, he still found comfort in her. She was—and is—his one true safe space. Conrad eventually wakes up from his daydream when Jeremiah arrives at the beach house late, and Belly immediately runs into his arms. Conrad is jolted back to reality. He remembers one of his late mother’s final requests: that he always look out for his little brother and prioritize his happiness. Being the first-born son, he knows—no matter how strongly he feels about Belly—he could never break that promise.

By the episode’s end, Conrad’s voiceover returns, revealing his inner thoughts—and turmoil—as he watches the one that got away melt perfectly into his little brother’s arms. “What if I hadn’t [lied to Belly]?” Conrad ponders via voiceover in the episode’s final moments. “Maybe it would all be different now. But it doesn’t matter—this is the way it’s supposed to be. He can give her all the things that I can’t—she deserves that. She deserves the world.”

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