It's almost time to return to Cousins Beach. But before we get there, let's unpack what happened last summer during Season One of "The Summer I Turned Pretty."
The Prime Video show was a hit when it premiered in 2022, appealing to fans of Jenny Han's YA novels and subsequent movie adaptations and anyone who misses the lazy days of summer vacation.
Season Two, out July 14, promises new complications for the three main characters — Belly (Lola Tung), Jeremiah (Gavin Casalegno) and Conrad (Chris Briney) — and their love triangle.
In the official trailer for Season Two, Belly and her brother, Steven (Sean Kaufman), have a strained relationship with their childhood best friends because her trysts with both of them "made things messy."
Meanwhile, the beach house they spent every summer in is up for sale, due to the arrival of two new characters, played by Kyra Sedgwick and Elsie Fisher.
Before the premiere of the first three episodes of the Prime Video show's sophomore season, here's what you need to remember about "The Summer I Turned Pretty."
Belly and Conrad finally get together
After seven episodes of pining and near misses, Belly and Conrad finally reveal their feelings for each other, sharing a kiss on the beach set to Taylor Swift's "This Love."
Throughout Season One, Belly struggled to get over her longstanding crush on Conrad, who is more distant and moody than ever. The sparks between them crackle, but Conrad pursues a relationship with Nicole, another debutante a few years older than Belly.
At the same, Belly gets closer with his brother, Jeremiah, eventually kissing him one night in the pool. After their kiss, Belly asks Jeremiah to be her date to the debutante ball.
But at the ball, Jeremiah is suddenly absent. Conrad sees Belly without a partner and strolls up to take his brother’s place. Time slows as he approaches, and the music kicks in — none other than Swift’s “The Way I Loved You.” They dance, and Conrad tells Belly he's glad he was her partner.
Later, the two meet up on the beach, and Belly expresses honestly what she wants from their relationship: "I don't want you to need me. I want you to want me," she says.
"I do want you," Conrad finally admits.
The last scene shows them embracing. But based on Season Two's trailer, happily ever after doesn't come that easily.
Susannah has cancer
After Belly and Conrad dance, Jeremiah returns, needing to talk to Conrad. But the younger brother soon realizes Conrad already "knew" a secret their mom had been hiding. The two fight in the middle of the dance floor. Belly had been completely in the dark, too, until that moment.
In a moment of musical whiplash, Swift's love song turns into a devastating Phoebe Bridgers' track, "Funeral," and Belly learns that Susannah's breast cancer has returned, much worse this time.
She suddenly understands that all along her relationship woes were nothing compared to the heartbreak of potentially losing Susannah, who's been like a second mom to her, as she sobs into Laurel's arms.
But Susannah decides to pursue treatment
Turns out, Susannah intended for the summer to be her way of saying goodbye — one last perfect trip with her chosen family at her favorite place.
Throughout the season, her best friend Laurel (Jackie Chung) encouraged her to pursue treatment via a clinical trial.
After Jeremiah finds out about her cancer at the debutante ball, Susannah has a heart-to-heart with her sons.
At first, she tells them she can't do the trial because of how slight the chances of survival are and how difficult treatment was during her first bout with cancer.
"I just want to be me when I go," she says.
Jeremiah is the one to tell her that she "has to try."
"For us," Conrad adds.
Holding her sobbing sons, she later tells Laurel that she "couldn't say no."
Steven tells Shayla he loves her
Belly's older brother, Steven, goes through plenty of drama of his own in Season One. Steven falls for Shayla, one of Belly's fellow debutantes from a wealthy family. As they grow closer, Shayla asks Steven to be her escort to the debutante ball.
Steven struggles to deal with the wealth disparity between them, and at one point, kisses Belly's best friend Taylor (Rain Spencer) at a party, later saying he and Shayla were never that serious.
He later realizes he's falling for Shayla, but struggles to come up with enough money to rent a tuxedo to take her to the ball, losing all the money he'd been saving at a poker game in the penultimate episode. In the end, she lets him borrow her dad's, and he opens up about his insecurities.
"I grew up in the suburbs of Philly, alright, not even that nice of suburb. I drive a Honda Civic. I don't go to benefits or balls, whatever this is. I'm nothing like him," Steven finally tells Shayla, comparing himself to her ex.
"And that's a good thing. You're here with me, not him. I chose you," she responds.
Steven tells Shayla he loves her, and they happily dance together.
In April, the actor who plays Shayla, Minnie Mills, announced on Instagram that she is not reprising her role in Season Two. In a touching farewell, she emphasized the importance of Steven and Shayla's love story and said it lives on through the first season.
"Shayla and Steven’s love story will always mean so much to me," she wrote in her caption. "To see two Asian characters in a healthy loving relationship, communicating with and understanding one another through their issues was huge, and something I really hope we get to see more of. Building their story and love for one another, and creating their relationship with one of my favorite humans was truly such a gift that I will always cherish."
She added that she would love to continue to play the character if she got the chance.
"Thank you for supporting her, and thank you for supporting me. I could not have asked for a better cast, crew, or character for my first acting role, and I cannot wait to see what’s next," Mills wrote.
