What Actually Happens in This Episode
Episode 9 of The Summer I Turned Pretty is the season finale, directed by Carlton Cuse. It jumps around in time a lot, which is what the whole show does by this point. The central thread follows Belly at Conrad's memorial service, and then it cuts back to her choices over the summer — specifically the weekend at Cousins Beach that determines where she ends up. I watched it again last week just to make sure I remembered the timeline correctly, because honestly the non-linear editing makes it easy to lose track. The scene where she's running through the rain toward the boathouse is the one people talk about most, but the actual payoff is more about the aftermath than the choice itself.
Episode 9 The Summer I Turned Pretty Breakdown
Here's what the episode is actually doing structure-wise, because it's not as simple as picking between two guys. The finale operates on three timelines simultaneously. There's the present day at the funeral, there's the 2022 summer we've mostly been watching, and then there are flashbacks to 2021 that recontextualize everything Belly thought she understood about Conrad and Susannah. The 2021 sections are where the real emotional weight lands. They explain why Conrad pulled away, why Susannah's illness changed his behavior completely, and why Belly misread so much of what was happening between them. One thing the show doesn't make clear enough is the exact sequence of the boathouse weekend. Belly arrives, there's the dinner with the Fisher men, the argument, the kiss — but the edit intentionally blurs whether some of these things happened in 2021 or 2022. I had to pause and rewind three times just to sort it out. If you're trying to map the timeline for discussion or fan content, I'd recommend keeping a simple spreadsheet. I do that for every rewatch and it still takes me about twenty minutes.
The actual ending — and this is where the book differs significantly from the show — has Belly going to Stanford and then choosing to stay in Seattle. The show hasn't reached that far yet in its adaptation, so what we get is more ambiguous. She leaves Cousins Beach, gets on a plane, and the final shot is her looking out the window. That's it. No big declaration. No clear answer about who she ends up with.
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Common Misunderstandings About This Episode
People treat the boathouse scene like it's the climax, but it's not. The climax is the funeral scene where Belly realizes that both brothers loved Susannah in different ways and that her rivalry with Taylor was always misplaced. Taylor wasn't the villain the show made her out to be in earlier episodes. She was just another person grieving. Another thing I see repeated constantly in threads: people claim Belly never actually chose anyone. She did choose — she chose to leave. Choosing to walk away from Cousins Beach and the whole summer is the show's version of an answer. It's just not the kind of answer romance fans want. The 2021 flashback about Susannah teaching Belly to swim is the most important scene in the entire season, but it's easy to miss because it's shot almost like a memory fragment. Conrad watching from the shore, Belly in the water, Susannah waving — that's the moment that explains why Conrad couldn't handle being around Belly after his mom died. He saw his mother in her and it terrified him. The show repeats this imagery at least four times across the season without ever stating it outright.
What the Show Got Wrong (or Left Out)
If you've read the books, you already know this part, but the finale skips several key beats from Summer Bachelorette. Belly's trip to Europe isn't shown. Her conversation with Lola about what she actually wants is reduced to a single line. The relationship with Jeremiah gets even less screen time than it deserved given how central he is to the story. The acting choices in the finale are also worth noting. Gavin Casalegno (Conrad) does very little in this episode except stand still and look pained, which is honestly consistent with how the character is written but doesn't make for compelling television. Lili Reinhart carries the entire thing, and you can tell from the close-ups in the funeral scene that she's doing more emotional work here than in any other episode.
Where to Watch It
The episode is available on Amazon Prime Video since that's where the show streams. It's included with a standard subscription — no separate purchase needed. If you're outside the US, availability may vary by region, which is a consistent problem with Prime Originals. I've had friends in Canada and the UK hit buffering issues during peak viewing hours after new episodes drop, so if you're planning to watch it the same night everyone else is, maybe wait a few hours. There's no official download option from Prime, and I wouldn't recommend third-party sources. The video quality on pirated copies is usually terrible anyway — often cam rips from earlier seasons bleeding over. Just wait for it to hit Prime.
One Edge Case Worth Noting
When I was compiling scenes for a timing breakdown, I noticed that the funeral sequence runs about 18 minutes total, but the actual chronological events it depicts span roughly six hours. The edit compresses them heavily, cutting from the ceremony to the reception to Belly walking alone without clear transitions. If you're editing a clip or making content around this episode, be aware that the runtime and the in-universe timeframe don't match. I spent about 40 minutes reconciling the two before I gave up and just used the aired runtime as my reference point. Most people don't notice, but if you're being precise about anything, it matters. The second season hasn't released all its episodes yet as of my last check, so there's no way to know how directly this finale sets up what comes next. The book trilogy has a definite ending, but the show has apparently diverged from that path, which means the season 2 premiere may redefine some of what this finale implies.
