Summer Catch
Episode 5 of The Summer I Turned Pretty begins with Belly reminiscing on memories of her and Conrad practicing how to dance. Fast forward to the present, and those same lessons manifest into Belly practicing for the Debutante Ball. Ms Cubbington is the teacher here, ready to teach them how to waltz. Only… Belly doesn’t have a partner. Thanks to her drunken antics, she doesn’t have a partner and she hasn’t asked Cam to the Ball either. Step forward Nicole. Although things don’t go too well, with the pair stumbling around, Jeremiah shows up and saves Belly. He is eventually shooed out though, given he gate-crashes and messes with the music. Conrad watches on from afar. Belly’s juggling act continues though when Cam rocks up at the house and invites her out for a bike ride. With sandwiches all made up, they sit by the shore together. But the thing is, Belly wishes she could be there with Conrad. Belly doesn’t drag things out, and eventually breaks things off with Cam. He’s actually pretty cool about it, although it’s clear he’s heartbroken. Poor kid! As for Belly though, she heads back to the house trying to find Conrad. Instead, she finds Jeremiah sitting by the pool. Meanwhile, the air is cleared between Laurel and Susannah, with the former even revealing that she slept with Cleveland the previous night. As they talk, they both end up getting stoned and eating loads of snacks together. Side note, they don’t have bloodshot eyes and they’re not spacing out so… acting! Anyway, that’s a nit-pick, as Laurel and Susannah decide to go out drinking. Susannah ends up dancing with some random guy at the bar, heading into the back and kissing. Laurel is the third wheel in all this and ends up messaging Cleveland, deciding to meet for a late-night booty call again. When Laurel leaves, she ends up skinny-dipping with Cleveland and the pair start kissing in the water. As for Susannah, she heads home alone. Belly waits back at the house, as Conrad shows up. Conrad admits that he does think about Belly but he’s not sure he can do this with her, leaving Belly frustrated. “I’m not waiting for you anymore,” She says defiantly, huffing and eventually heading back inside. Another subplot in the midst of all this involves Steven, who’s promoted to the club room and helps out the guys with poker. There’s some low-key racism here, but Steven bites his tongue, especially when he gets a handsome tip for his efforts. Steven’s supervisor even tells him to brush it off, admitting that this is just part of their banter. Back home, Jeremiah and Belly end up swimming together. Jeremiah admits that Belly is his best friend but there were times where he wanted it to be more. He never said anything before because there’s always been someone else in the way. Between Cam and Conrad, he never had a chance. That is, until this exact moment right now. Belly and Jeremiah end up kissing; a passionate affair, as the episode closes out with a surprising turn of events.
The Episode Review
The Summer I Turned Pretty continues to juggle its different subplots, wrapped up around an intriguing dilemma for Belly. Now that Cam is out the picture (poor Cam!) the attention instead turns to a good ol’ fashioned sibling rivalry between Cam and Jeremiah. The show may be corny and incredibly clichéd, but there’s a nice ebb and flow to this one that makes it easy to overlook this. Again, given this has been adapted from a book, I’m not sure how well the source material has been transferred to the small screen. From what’s here though, there’s a decent enough story that definitely keeps you sticking around for more. With Jeremiah and Belly presumably hooking up now, all eyes turn to Conrad. How will he react to this? We’ll have to wait and see!
