The Summer I Turned Pretty’ Creator Jenny Han On Season 3’s “Hopeful” Ending, Belly “Honoring Herself” & Finale’s Back-To-Back Taylor Swift Needledrops

SPOILER ALERT: This piece spoils the finale of Season 3 of The Summer I Turned Pretty.

The Summer I Turned Pretty Season 3 has come to its conclusion after 11 episodes, with Belly choosing a Fisher brother to be with after her time in Paris away from Cousins.

The almost 80-minute finale episode sees Conrad (Christopher Briney), surprise Belly in France on the eve of her twenty-second birthday, and while Belly is hesitant to engage at first, she opens back up to Conrad. The pair revisit past complications in their relationship before acting on their unbreakable connection and choosing to be together. “She’s really protecting herself throughout the episode. She knows from experience that with him, it’s all so much. She feels so much for him. She worries that, ‘I found myself in Paris. What if I lose myself in him? [What if] he comes back, and then I’m suddenly just like, forgetting who I am?’ Han told Deadline in an interview Thursday morning. “I think the beauty of it is, when she’s remembering herself, she’s remembering how much she loves him. That is really honoring herself. That’s the journey that she goes on throughout the course of the day.”

In the below interview, Han unpacks the buildup to Belly and Conrad getting together, the final Taylor Swift needledrops for the show and more.

DEADLINE: As Belly warms to Conrad and they dance by the Seine, they rehash the scenes from prom and their perspectives on the almost wedding. Why was it important for you to have them revisit those moments and address their individual perspectives?

JENNY HAN: Because hey never had a big closure conversation when they broke up — it was all so heated, and then she was with Jeremiah — there are certain things that happened during their relationship that the other didn’t know how the other felt about it or what their intentions were. I thought it was important to hear their perspectives on some things. Also to be able to talk about stuff that was very painful in the moment, that was really hard and brutal, and to laugh about it now, I think is really beautiful. To show that they have moved past those like old wounds and they really have healed.

DEADLINE: How did you go about sculpting Belly getting used to Conrad being back in the picture? How did you want to make it feel earned that she reached her conclusion that she did want to be with him?

HAN: She feels so much guilt and shame from all of her decisions that she made with the wedding and her belief that she broke up the brotherhood and the family. Everything was really torn apart. She’s wary because she knows that with Conrad, if they go there again, it’s for keeps, and you can’t take that back, so you really have to be sure, because it could really be hurting a lot of people.

DEADLINE: Conrad says “you’re stuck with me forever” and that’s what makes Belly hesitate. Can you talk about the two back-to-back Taylor Swift songs framing that moment?

HAN: For “Out of the Woods,” I wanted for the audience to have the same experience that Belly was having, where you don’t know what the song is right away, but then when you hear her say, “I remember” that it’s Belly remembering who she is, and that was my hope with the scene. She’s seeing that picture of her little girl self, and she’s feeling such tenderness and love and compassion for that little girl, and she’s been hating herself for so long. It’s a moment of allowing herself to feel love for herself again and let go of some of the shame. And then in doing so, she has to admit to herself that she loves Conrad, and that’s who she is at her core.

DEADLINE: For “Dress” there are a lot of parallels with those lyrics too. Did you deliberate that song for a while, or did you know right away that that was the right song?

HAN: I knew right away that’s what I wanted. I love that song. It’s one of my favorite songs from reputation. It’s so sexy, and it’s really passionate. I think it works.

DEADLINE: For the whole soundtrack of the finale, did you feel any more pressure selecting these songs — barring the film announcement — knowing it was the last time to choose for TV?

HAN: Oh, man, it’s always hard, and it’s always fun, and we have a really great music supervisor, Melissa Hardwick, who has worked in music for so long, so she has a lot of relationships, and that’s really helpful. To feel like, in a way, we have so many options that, we’re so lucky that people would say yes to us. That’s the biggest thing that I feel about the music, is that we have the privilege of using so many amazing and iconic songs.

L-R: Conrad (Christopher Briney) and Belly (Lola Tung) in ‘The Summer I Turned Pretty’ Season 3Eddy Chen/Amazon Content Services LLC

DEADLINE: Will you consider using Taylor Swift’s new album for the movie when it comes out?

HAN: Oh my gosh, I’m just so excited to hear it. We actually used quite a few songs from her most recent album on the season that I think worked really beautifully. “Robin” was one of my favorite sync moments. And also, you’re on “You’re On Your Own Kid” and “loml,” so I guess we’ll just see what she has in store for us and really soon.

DEADLINE: After directing Episode 5, what would you say you learned, and what will you take with you from that experience to directing the film?

HAN: I would say that I learned that preparation is everything. For me, I guess I’m sort of like a control freak, so I like to plan for every little potential outcome, which is impossible. But I liked that I was able to look at the script every night and really think about the story and just plan for the day. That’s something I’ll continue to do because there’s so many unknowns, and I think that it makes me just feel more ready, if I can just really deeply think into the script and think about every single thing that we’re gonna shoot the next day.

DEADLINE: You recently said that hopeful endings are in your DNA as a writer. How did you want to balance that hope with being realistic since these characters have grown?

[When] I said I really like hopeful endings, and [I think] everyone took that as a reason to be scared. I’m like, ‘but I said hopeful.’ [Laughs] And I think our ending is hopeful. I don’t love a depressing ending, so that’s something I probably will never do. But I think that different people can perceive what is hopeful differently, I guess. In my mind, the way that we end the show, it feels like feels hopeful.

DEADLINE: One last question about Taylor Swift, was it intentional, that gap you had where we didn’t hear a song by her for four episodes? HAN: It was very natural because I think Belly is so lost during that time, and she’s like in denial about her feelings. At first, it took me a bit to realize, ‘Oh, you know, she’s not really sure what she’s feeling, and she’s not really listening to her heart during that time. I think that Taylor’s music has been such an emotional voice piece in some ways. N not necessarily the literal lyrics, but the feelings that you get from her songs, that it kind of happened that way, but it was interesting, for sure.