TV Romance
What Your ‘Summer I Turned Pretty’ Team Actually Says About Your Other TV Ships
The Summer I Turned Pretty Season 3 has only exacerbated the civil war on TikTok between Team Conrad (Christopher Briney) and Team Jeremiah (Gavin Casalegno). There was a time when everyone could respectfully pick their favorite boy and move on with their lives. Now, picking a team means defending their (and your) honor in the comments. It’s rough out here, especially when it’s been debated whether The Summer I Turned Pretty will follow the canon laid out in the Jenny Han novel series the show is based on or whether it will throw a curveball to fans. Maybe if Belly (Lola Tung) ends up choosing herself, we can all unite in rage…
That’s a problem for future us. In the meantime, one of the primary tools of ship warfare is drawing a comparison between your Fisher brother of choice and other teen romance leads. The posts follow a “If you’re Team Conrad, then you’re also Team (insert a montage of Hall of Fame TV boyfriends here)” format. However, people seem to just be choosing the montage candidates based on personal preference or endgame status instead of actually considering how to map Conrad and Jeremiah onto other TV boyfriends, past and present.
Conrad is the crush-turned-boyfriend archetype. He is Belly’s first love, but it also took so much pining and brooding on both of their parts before they could truly fall for each other, and that created a pedestal situation that has plagued TV couples before them. And it happened slowly, like Conrad said in the Season 3 premiere. It was long conversations about constellations and long drives from the city to Cousins. He’s challenging like The Sunday Times crossword and inspires all of those unspoken things you write in your diary. He’s the one who is going to pull strings to get Belly an update on her brother and drive hours just to lie by the fire with her. And for now, he’s the one who got away because he didn’t know how to let Belly in.
Meanwhile, Jeremiah is the party boy who, one summer, was smacked in the face with feelings for the girl he grew up with. It may have taken Jeremiah longer to realize his feelings for Belly, but he was a lot quicker to act on them. He doesn’t always get it right, but he does at least try, and he puts his heart where his mouth is. He kissed Belly first, and he’s the type of guy you can count on to ride the rollercoaster with you. Jeremiah’s undoing is his insecurity complex when it comes to Conrad and how it leads him to make stupid, self-sabotaging decisions.
Both boys have pros and cons when it comes to being with Belly, but that also makes them correspond to other TV boyfriends better than others. Here is a guide to how Team Conrad and Team Jeremiah match up to five iconic love triangles and teen romance boys we are still obsessed with.
The Summer I Turned Pretty, Season 3, Wednesdays, Prime Video
Gilmore Girls
Team Conrad is…Jess
We’re starting with the obvious matches first. Yes, Team Conrad girlies are most likely to be Team Jess (Milo Ventimiglia) girlies. It’s all about the pining. Conrad and Belly would absolutely spend a day holed up inside reading books and then trading with each other so they could see the notes written for each other in the margins. Conrad also shares Jess’ difficulty with communication, but that intellectual and yearning type of relationship is also there. Belly said she was out of her mind in love with Conrad the first year they were together, and Rory (Alexis Bledel) went out of her mind when it came to Jess after experiencing first love with Dean.
Team Jeremiah is…Logan
We’re not sentencing either of these boys to being Dean (Jared Padalecki). Hello, extroverts. Logan (Matt Czuchry) is a polarizing figure in the Gilmore Girls canon, just as Jeremiah is for The Summer I Turned Pretty. Logan is a wild boy before he meets Rory Gilmore and realizes what it is to meet a girl worth settling down for. Logan isn’t in a frat, but he is in a partying secret society that might as well be a frat, and that leads to some bad behavior that Jeremiah can definitely relate to. However, Logan also sees Rory for who she is and doesn’t put her on a pedestal, which is one of the reasons why Jeremiah was able to win her heart in Season 2. He was able to meet Belly where she was in a more effective way than Conrad.
One Tree Hill
Team Conrad is…Lucas
There are not many teen love triangle characters you can do the crossword with, but Lucas Scott (Chad Michael Murray) is one of them. Lucas is the guy you write poems about in your diary, just like Conrad is. And he’s dependable, too – it’s that older sibling gene. That chip on both Lucas and Conrad’s shoulders makes them strive to be better, but it can also lead to conflict when they guard their hearts with walls too high to let anyone else in. The cosmic bond between Lucas and Peyton (Hilarie Burton) feels like the intense push and pull between Belly and Conrad.
Team Jeremiah is…Nathan
Jeremiah isn’t the Nathan Scott (James Lafferty) comparison because they both have a penchant for proposing marriage at a young age or cheating on their girlfriends during a “break.” It’s about that extrovert charm. Nathan also started out as a party boy, but his enjoyment of life is what helped draw him and Haley (Bethany Joy Lenz) together. They’re not two artists in a pod like Lucas and Peyton, but opposites that balance each other out. That dynamic is much closer to Belly and Jeremiah than Belly and Conrad.
Dawson's Creek
Team Conrad is…Dawson
I know that this one is going to start fights, but just hear me out. Dawson (James Van Der Beek) and Joey (Katie Holmes) were soulmates, regardless of their platonic endgame. They were each other’s first love, but his parents’ divorce gave Dawson his own set of stuff to figure out. He pushed Joey away until he realized she had feelings for someone else and then lost his mind over it (massive props to Conrad for only letting this phase last the span of a car trip while Dawson made everyone’s lives miserable for a season and a half). Conrad’s self-sacrifice of his own heart at the end of Season 2 was a modern-day retelling of Dawson and Joey on the pier at the end of Dawson’s Creek Season 3. (Again, Conrad did it better.) And just like with Belly and Conrad, there was always something pulling Joey back to Dawson, like their story was never finished.
Dawson and Joey tried to be a couple again in Season 5, but Dawson’s dad’s dying caused another rift (Does this sound familiar?) before coming back together in Season 6, though it never turned into a real relationship after they broke up in Season 2. Belly said it herself in the TSITP premiere that part of her will always love Conrad, just like a part of Joey will always love Dawson. And if it were up to Dawson’s Creek creator Kevin Williamson, they would have been endgame.
Team Jeremiah is…Pacey
If you weren’t mad about the two paragraphs above, I am sure you are now. “Pacey (Joshua Jackson) would never cheat on Joey.” Well, neither would Dawson, but there’s more data to consider here. Pacey and Joey also grew up as friends, though he acted more like an annoying brother than one of her best friends. It wasn’t until Dawson pushed Joey away that we saw her friendship with Pacey really evolve and that built the foundation for their relationship. Jeremiah has that buy-her-a-wall-energy. And, like Pacey, Jeremiah has a raging insecurity complex that led to his and Belly’s undoing. Pacey didn’t believe he was good enough for Joey until they were in their late 20s, and it led to a horrific breakup not unlike Belly and Jeremiah’s fight before spring break.
The Vampire Diaries
Team Conrad is…Stefan
Full disclosure: This was the hardest show to map Conrad and Jeremiah onto because the Fisher boys don’t have a lot in common with the Salvatores, but we are doing our best! Stefan Salvatore (Paul Wesley) is the younger brother, but he has major eldest brother energy. The world is on his shoulders, and it shows in how he tortures himself on a regular basis. Conrad Fisher can relate. Stefan is also selective when it comes to sharing his heart, but when he does, he falls hard and falls completely. That’s the Conrad MO. I’m sure if Belly and the Fishers were vampires, Conrad would fall in love with her in every lifetime. And again, if series cocreator Kevin Williamson had his way, Stefan and Elena (Nina Dobrev) would have been endgame. There just wasn’t time to bring Stelena back around after Dobrev quit the show after Season 6.
Team Jeremiah is…Damon
All “bad boys reformed by the love of a good woman” will go in the Team Jeremiah camp by default. Sorry, those are the rules, and thus Damon (Ian Somerhalder) goes on this side of the grid. Damon was a party boy, but with intense super strength and vampire powers, before he fell for Elena. And he wasn’t expecting her to become the love of his life, but their relationship changed him. The chemistry between Damon and Elena was too palpable for The Vampire Diaries writers to ignore, and the same has to be said for Belly and Jeremiah (making out on Conrad’s car was messed up…but the kiss was objectively hot!)
My Life with the Walter Boys
Team Conrad is…Cole
See! I am not just giving Jeremiah all of the endgame guys. There is actual objective consideration going into this. Cole (Noah LaLonde) is the seemingly unattainable crush, and when his attention falls on Jackie (Nikki Rodriguez) it feels like a dream. It’s overwhelming and definitely gives that out-of-my-mind-in-love feeling. Even the way Cole looks at Jackie on My Life with the Walter Boys feels like he studied Chris Briney on TSITP before showing up to set. Belly and Conrad don’t have to say a word to each other for you to feel the spark between them, and that’s the same for Jackie and Cole. It’s an undeniable connection.
Team Jeremiah is…Alex
Alex (Ashby Gentry) does not stand a chance when it comes to matching the mysterious appeal of his older brother, but that doesn’t mean his feelings for Jackie aren’t worthy or real. He’s the clear communicator of the two brothers, and that allows him his shot with the girl living upstairs. Jeremiah’s ability to be more transparent with his feelings for Belly allowed him a shot after Conrad blew it at Belly’s prom. In the real world, that communication ability would go a lot farther than it does on TV, but it’s important to give props where props are due.
