TV Romance
‘The Summer I Turned Pretty’: Why Belly & Conrad’s ‘False God’ Reprise Is So Important
[Warning: The below contains MAJOR spoilers for The Summer I Turned Pretty Season 3, Episode 6, “Last Name.”]
If you haven’t tuned into The Summer I Turned Pretty Season 3’s newest episode, “Last Name,” then turn back now because we’re about to lose our minds over Belly (Lola Tung) and Conrad’s (Christopher Briney) latest romantic moment.
Plucked straight from the pages of Jenny Han‘s book, We’ll Always Have Summer, the show explored a moment in which Conrad enters the beach house injured after his surfboard’s fin cut his leg. As he limped by Belly to get into the bathroom upstairs, she followed him out of concern, especially after she noticed a trail of blood behind him.
While the moment began as just Belly administering emergency aid to her future brother-in-law, it quickly turned into a charged atmosphere as the former lovers were closer than ever before. As Conrad leaned into Belly’s shoulder, woozy from loss of blood as she cleaned his wound, they looked into each other’s eyes, and it felt like we should leave the room. That’s how strong the tension became. Having just come back in from the beach, Conrad’s hair was dripping with ocean water, and we all know how Belly loves Conrad with wet hair…
Prime Video
As the sound of heartbeats picked up, Taylor Swift‘s “False God” began playing. Fans will recall the tune made an appearance in Season 1 when Belly and Conrad almost kissed on the Fourth of July, after he tried to give her the infinity necklace he bought her. Jeremiah (Gavin Casalegno) interrupted their almost kiss, and while he wasn’t around for this almost kiss, his engagement to Belly is what ultimately kept the pair from going forward with one.
Sure, the peach scene and unexpected flashback in Season 3’s fifth episode, “Last Dance,” were epic for the Belly and Conrad fans out there, but this particular scene… We don’t condone cheating, but in the case of these fictional characters, we were rooting for it.
“We were crazy to think / Crazy to think that this could work / Remember how I said I’d die for you?” the lyrics to Swift’s song begin, and it perfectly sums up the situation that Belly and Conrad are currently in. They’d once made promises to each other as a couple, and now they’re living in close proximity as she plans her wedding to his brother. Perhaps they thought they could make it work, but as Belly considers the moment, which ended when Conrad announced he was going to take a nap, leaving Belly on the bathtub’s ledge.
“What just happened? What did I almost do? This time wasn’t like with the peaches; this time, it was all me,” Belly said inside her head, as she grabbed her shoulder where Conrad’s hand had just been. As the song continued to play out, lyrics like “But we might just get away with it / Religion’s in your lips / Even if it’s a false god / We’d still worship” play out.
While things got close for the pair, we don’t imagine Belly or Conrad cheating, based on her experience with Jeremiah and Conrad’s detestation of his father’s actions. But this moment only furthers our belief that Conrad and Belly will be endgame, and bringing back a pivotal tune from their TV history only solidified it.
What did you think of their “False God” moment? Let us know in the comments section, and stay tuned for more from the series in the weeks ahead.
The Summer I Turned Pretty, Season 3, Wednesdays, Prime Video
