ENDGAME HOOK: The Summer I Turned Pretty Season 3 Episode 10 delivers a game-changing finale as Belly finally takes the wheel — in every sense of the word.

From long-brewing heartbreaks to unexpected choices, this episode flips the love triangle on its head and sets the stage for a finale fans will never forget.

The penultimate episode of the summer’s hottest love triangle finds Belly pairing up with a non-Fisher brother.

Lola Tung and Rain Spencer in ‘The Summer I Turned Pretty,’ season 3, episode 10.Credit: Amazon Prime

After initial homesickness, Belly decides to extend her stay in Paris by a year and starts a relationship with Benito.
Conrad and Jeremiah repair their relationship, and with his brother’s permission, Conrad writes more letters to Belly.
Steven quits his job when Adam learns he’s launching a business with Denise, who’s offered Jere a place to crash.
The following summer, Conrad decides to surprise Belly in Paris as she prepares for her birthday weekend with her new friends.

Bonjour, mes amis! Let’s spend a year in Paris!

Belly’s (Lola Tung) first few months in the City of Light are sad and lonely as she works two jobs, takes classes online, and shares an apartment with a passel of unfriendly French roommates who have no interest in coddling her shaky language skills or helping her celebrate her “genocidal holiday” when Thanksgiving rolls around.

As Taylor (Swift, not Jewel) tells us she can do it with a broken heart, Belly’s voiceover tells us she’s weak and homesick. Her new friend group suggests that she pop home for Christmas, then hand her a plunger so she can fix the toilet in the bar where she works.

Instead of a ticket to the States, she gets Taylor to agree to spend New Year’s in Paris — it didn’t take much arm-twisting — and then we catch up with the U.S. crew.

A happily coupled Taylor (Rain Spencer) and Steven (Sean Kaufman) are hosting friendsgiving. The guest list includes Jere (Gavin Casalegno), who’s been self-medicating by hooking up with Steven’s coworkers and Taylor’s friends.

Adam (Tom Everett Scott) shows up unexpectedly (sans Kayleigh — is there trouble in paradise?) and learns from Redbird (Tanner Zagarino) that Jere’s crashing with Steven after dropping out of college and turning down the job at Breaker. He cuts the younger Fisher off, telling him to figure out his life without a safety net. It’s necessary tough love, and Denise (Isabella Briggs) reluctantly agrees to let Jere stay with her for a week to get himself sorted out.

Conrad (Christopher Briney) checks in with Laurel (Jackie Chung) that night, sounding both sad and relieved that Belly’s doing fine in France. He confirms that Jere’s open to him doing Christmas at the beach house with the group, and with Laurel’s gentle encouragement, he decides to write Belly a letter.

Conrad’s first letter to Belly in ‘The Summer I Turned Pretty,’ season 3, episode 10.Amazon Prime

In it, he tells her that he imagines what French Belly drinks, what she eats, if she’s happy, signing off with a simple, “Conrad.”

It’s now Christmas Eve, and Belly pauses in closing up the bar alone to send Jere a “Merry Christmas!” text, her first communication with him since their wedding day. Typing dots appear, then disappear. But hey, it’s proof of life.

In Cousins, Conrad and Steven start mending their relationship a bit as they wait for the arrival of Jere, who’s taken a restaurant job. Then Adam strolls in, a jaunty Santa hat on his head, to tell Steven that he knows he and Denise are building a business under his nose.

He says he’s impressed with their moxie, and Steven impresses him even more when he declines the offer to keep working for Breaker. Or maybe that’s disappointment at not being able to passive-aggressively torment him on the job. It’s unclear.

Jere, meanwhile, doesn’t make it out of his Jeep in the driveway because the beach house reminds him of Belly and Conrad and everything he’s lost.

Laurel joins him outside and accepts his apology for the things he said on his not-wedding day. Although she assures him that Adam’s proud he’s making it on his own, Jere says he’s not ready to join the group. But he and Laurel exchange “I love yous,” and that’s important too.

Denise comes home that night to find Jere — who apparently stayed way longer than a week — wearing his sad pants. She listens without judgment when he says that in some ways, losing Belly hurt more than losing his mother.

Using her own romantic disappointments as a guide, Denise advises him to grieve by accepting the loss and forgiving the people who hurt him. Then she drags him along to her family’s Christmas celebration. After all, he’s nice, he’s pretty, he cooks. He’s everything Denise’s grandma wanted her to be! And dare I say… are those some sparks we’re seeing?

Okay, to Paris. Benito (Fernando Cattori) arrives at the bar on Christmas Eve to find Belly dancing like a goof as she closes up alone. They drink wine, play darts, and get a little flirty, particularly when she talks him into letting her drive his Vespa. And dare I say… are those some sparks we’re seeing?

Taylor clocks the attraction between Belly and the “sexy Latino Chalamet” the moment she arrives in Paris, and she nudges her bestie until Belly admits that she’s avoiding a rebound fling for fear of hurting someone else.

Isabella Briggs and Gavin Casalegno in ‘The Summer I Turned Pretty,’ season 3, episode 10.Amazon Prime

But after a phone call from Jere, reaching out to let her know that he’s good and checking to see if she’s good too, and a care package from Conrad, with a jumbo bag of Sour Patch Kids and the necklace-wearing Junior Mint, Belly decides to go for it and kisses Benito at midnight.

It’s now spring in Paris, and Benitly are still going strong. Honestly, I’m just glad she’s experiencing a relationship with someone who has zero Fisher genes. She’s speaking great French (to my ears, anyway), and she’s dodging Benito’s invitation to come to Mexico with him for his grandmother’s 80th birthday.

Although the plan was for Belly to finish the school year and come back home, she runs a new idea past Laurel: she can enroll in a one-year psych program at the Sorbonne and work with the sports program at one of the international schools.

Laurel’s surprisingly cool with it, even when Belly forgets that it’s the anniversary of Susannah’s death. We then see a flashback of Susannah encouraging young Belly to see the world, although Belly insists she’d rather be at Cousins.

Indeed, it’s been five years since Susannah died, and Jere and Conrad encounter each other for the first time while laying flowers at her grave. Jere says he can’t remember her laugh, and Connie can’t remember her hands.

Then they have a waaaaay overdue conversation about Conrad trying to sabotage Jere’s relationship with Belly and Jere sleeping with Lacie and both of them loving Belly so much that they lost sight of anything else.

They also admit that they failed to keep their promises to Susannah, Connie to take care of Jere and Jere not to let anything come between him and his brother. “She’d be so mad,” Jere says quietly.

The conversation concludes with Jeremiah admitting that he could never compete with what Conrad and Belly had and giving his grudging approval for Connie to do what he needs to do to win her back. So he writes her another letter, unsure if she’s read anything he’s sent her since she hasn’t responded once.

Christopher Briney and Gavin Casalegno in ‘The Summer I Turned Pretty,’ season 3, episode 10.Amazon Prime

He concludes with, “In case I haven’t made it clear, I think about you a lot. You’re pretty much all I think about. Just so we’re clear. Love, Conrad.” Not bad, as far as a woo-her-back letter goes.

Conrad doesn’t know it, but Belly’s both read and kept his letters, which she’s moved with her to her first solo apartment. And now that she’s decided to stay in Paris, it looks like she might be open to joining Benito in Mexico.

They make her bed together, but once she’s alone, she sits down to write Conrad back, thanking him for the letters and for Junior Mint. She also gives him her new address; sadly, we don’t get to see Conrad’s face when he realizes she welcomes his correspondence.

It’s summer now, and Conrad’s ready to jet off to Brussels for a conference with the tough Dr. Namazy. Agnes teases him about keeping a postcard from Belly in his wallet, then pulls a Laurel by telling him to be proactive in going after what he wants.

And what he wants is to pay an extra $473 to change his flight to Paris to surprise her over her birthday weekend.

Christopher Briney in ‘The Summer I Turned Pretty,’ season 3, episode 10.Amazon Prime

But he might end up as the surprised one, as the episode ends with Belly in a hairdresser’s chair, chatting about the birthday dinner her friends — presumably including Benito — are throwing her. We cut to black without a peek at the new summer hairdo she’s about to rock.

Kissin’ cousins corner

I’m shocked to say this, but I’m team Redbird this week. Nobody told him about Jere’s carousel of lies! It’s also nice to know that Jere sleep-cooks loudly in his boxers.
Line of the week is Benito reciting a snippet of Pablo Neruda in Spanish. (Runner-ups are Belly asking him to take off his shoes because “I keep an Asian household” — it’s a sweet little mirror of John taking his own shoes off when he visits Laurel’s house — and Denise’s “I’m too clever to fail.”)
Speaking of John (Colin Ferguson), him hand-feeding Laurel mashed potatoes at Thanksgiving is a good reconciliation sign, right?
Okay, friends, one more episode remains. Will Conrad find Belly all cozy with Benito at her birthday dinner? Will it be another near-miss or miscommunication that delays a possible reunion by months or even years? Most importantly, how cute will Belly’s new hair be? See you next week for the last-ever episode of The Summer I Turned Pretty!