Benito From Conrad’s Letters, La Jetée, A Home Run, A Boston Red Sox Logo, And More

The Summer I Turned Pretty Season 3, Episode 9 saw Belly hop a flight to Paris while Jere, Conrad (Christopher Briney), Taylor (Rain Spencer), Steven (Sean Kaufman), and the rest of the crew back at Cousins Beach set out to recover from Episode 8’s unexpected turn of events.

The third to last installment in TSITP Season 3 also introduced several new characters, who we’ll hopefully get to know better next week. And despite all the chaos, sorrow, and conflict in “Last Call,” our detail-oriented queen Jenny Han still found a way to hide some more Easter eggs in the series.

Spoilers for The Summer I Turned Pretty Season 3, Episode 9 ahead.

As we noted in our Season 3, Episode 9 reactions piece, after Belly boarded her flight without talking to Conrad, he got a call from his dad and learned that the wedding was off. Con headed back to Cousins to support Jere, who was drowning his sorrows at a bar, but Taylor ran interference and advised him to stay away. While Laurel (Jackie Chung) and Adam (Tom Everett Scott) dealt with canceled wedding drama, Jere sulked and lashed out at loved ones. But the episode wasn’t all bad! Steven and Taylor rekindled their romance and officially started dating. (And Steven finally learned that Belly and Conrad spent Christmas together, then Jere hooked up with Lacie Barone in Cabo.)

While Belly jetted off to Paris with the belief that she’d study abroad for a semester, after landing, she was devastated to learn that her slot in the program was filled. She booked a same-day flight home, but her backpack was stolen, so she tracked her AirTag through the city and wound up meeting new friends, Gemma (Corinna Brown), Max (Jahz Armando), Celine (Isaline Prevost Radeff),and Benito (Fernando Cattori). Before the episode’s end, Belly decided to stay in Paris and find out who she could be without Jere. After she called him to break the news, Jere told off Conrad, and the episode ended with Connie leaving Cousins and Belly getting ready to rebuild abroad. 

Since The Summer I Turned Pretty is such a thoughtfully-crafted love letter to fans, each week until its September 17 finale, Decider will be taking a closer look at each episode and highlighting five moments that deserve to be put under the microscope. Whether they’re blink-and-miss-it details, brilliant Easter eggs, or major scenes that need to be talked through in greater depth, we’re here to obsess over, hypothesize, and dissect the series alongside you. We’re also shouting out a standout needle drop each episode, since the show’s soundtrack absolutely slaps.

From a Boston Red Sox nod and a home run for Conrad to a full-circle Taylor and Steven moment, La Jetée, Conrad and Jeremiah parallels, intense color theory, Benito from Conrad’s book letters, and more, here are five things you may have missed in The Summer I Turned Pretty Season 3, Episode 9, “Last Call.”

1. A Boston Red Sox Nod And A Home Run For Conrad

   Like we said, shortly after TSITP Season 3, Episode 9 kicks off, Belly boards her plane to Paris and Conrad gets an unexpected call from his dad, who informs him the wedding is off! Though he’s in shock and worried about Jere and Belly, the man is also IN LOVE, so the phone call/news is a major victory in Connie’s book. What better way to symbolically capture that win than by showing a baseball player hit a home run on the TV above him?! Jenny!!!!! Shoutout to Tumblr user conniebabysuperiority for knowing enough about sports to clock the victory lap that player in a red (!!!!) helmet is taking. I also remember that back in Episode 8, the screen above Conrad showed Boston’s 7-Day Forecast, so the change to the game feels intentional. And while I don’t know much about sports, I do know a Boston Red Sox backpack when I see it, and I saw one on the back of the man behind Belly at her gate! For those who don’t know, Chris Briney is a huge Red Sox fan, and the Red Sox are proudly Team Conrad, so I have no choice but to believe these two airport baseball references are good signs for our sad boy. Hopefully the season ends with a home run of his own!

2. Taylor And Steven’s Full-Circle Moment

   Despite fans’ many Season 3, Episode 9 complaints, “Last Call” was a true treat for Steven and Taylor fans, who’d been rooting for the two for years and praying they could rekindle their romance before the series concluded. The scene in which they had a vulnerable heart to heart and decided to be boyfriend and girlfriend was downright adorable, but if you listen to the dialogue, you’ll realize the moment is extra meaningful and full-circle. (Eagle-eyed fans like X user @peetaspastry clocked it!)

   After Taylor tells Steven she felt like he didn’t want to be with when she visited him in the hospital after his accident, he revealed he only pushed her away because she thought it’s what she wanted. If you think back to Episode 302, when Steven was unconscious in bed and Taylor was pouring her heart out to him, she said, “I’m always afraid that it’s just a matter of time before you come to me and you tell me that I’m not worth it.” Cut to Episode 309, when Steven tells Taylor, “There’s always that risk [we don’t work out] but I really feel like you’re worth it.” She replies, “I do feel like you’re worth it, too. I feel like we’re worth it.” And if you need me, I’ll be grabbing a tissue!

3. More Conrad And Jeremiah Parallels

   TSITP Season 3 is full of parallels of Belly and her boys in the present and past seasons, and Episode 9 compares and contrasts the Fisher brothers’ behavior once again. Fans called out everything from Conrad respecting Taylor’s request not to call Belly while Jere pushed back to their different relationships with Laurel and Conrad’s grace for Belly when she asked if everyone hated her vs Jeremiah’s response to her asking if he wanted to murder her.

4. Benito (From Conrad’s Letters)

   As noted above, Belly meets a new friend group in Paris, which includes a boy named Benito (Fernando Cattori.) You can learn all about the actor in Decider’s new Season 3 cast guide, but we’re here to unpack the significance of his character. Based on final Season 3 trailer, it seems like Belly and Benito will grow closer during her time in Paris, and potentially get involved romantically. But Benito isn’t just a random name Jenny chose for the character, those who read Book 3, We’ll Always Have Summer, know that Benito was a boy mentioned in Conrad’s letters to Belly — you know, the letters that were teased in that same trailer?!

   In case you’re curious, here are the Benito portions of the letters Conrad sends Belly while she’s abroad in Spain, not Paris, in the book. In his third letter, he writes, “Speaking of news, [Laur] told me you met some Spanish guy named Benito, and he rides around on a scooter. Really, Belly? A guy named Benito with a scooter? He probably wears leather pants and has a long stringy ponytail. I don’t even want to know. Don’t tell me. He probably looks like a model and weighs 100 pounds and writes you poetry in Spanish. I don’t know what you see in a guy like that, but I don’t know what you ever saw in me either, so I guess there’s no accounting for taste, right?” Sounds like someone’s a little Jelly, Belly!

   In Conrad’s fourth letter, however, he notes, “I heard you aren’t hanging out with that guy Benito anymore. Don’t say I didn’t warn you. . . .” So will Han stick to the text and explore a romance with Belly and Benito? And will Conrad mention him in his letters? We’ll have to keep watching.

5. Blue Like They’ve Never Known. Dark Gray All Alone.

   By now, TSITP color theory is so easy to spot that this almost feels like a “duh” Easter egg, but we’ve stayed loyal to Miss Han’s symbolic reds, blues, grays, greens, golds, purples, and whatever other colors we’re forgetting all season, so we feel a duty to point out alllllllll the blue/gray in this episode, because as we know, “Losing him was blue, like I’d never known, missing him was dark gray, all alone.” After Belly and Jere’s breakup, Jere sulked while wearing blue boxers in a room with blue curtains and bedding, while Laurel and Adam wore blue shirts. Conrad and Belly wore gray, and Belly carried a blue backpack while wearing blue jeans. Not to mention, the club and restaurant she went to with her new friends were very blue, as was the light in the bus when she called Jere. IDK about you, but I’m hoping for some BURNING RED soon.

6. Bonus: La Jetée And More Episode 9 Easter Egglets

   We know, we know, it’s supposed to be five things you may have missed and a winning needle drop! But considering this was an episode unlike any other, here are some leftover Easter egglets. ICYMI, on her journey of self-discovery, Belly takes a major step toward reinventing herself by introducing herself to her new pals as “Isabel” instead of Belly. That’s our grown up girl!!! The cafe Belly eats at, Le Descartes, also made my colleague Meghan think of French philosopher René Descartes, who famously declared, “I think therefore I am,” so could that further signify Belly’s quest for individualism? Because we’re laser-focused on TSITP times ever since Episode 305’s clock Easter egg, I also noticed that Belly’s plane began its descent to Paris at 11:15 a.m. local time, and 1+1+1+5 = 8, aka hello again, infinity sign! And finally, when “La Jetée” was revealed as the password to get into the club, I wondered it it had a deeper significance. While La Jetée is a 1962 French film, the words also appear to translate as “the jetty” or “the pier,” and I don’t know about you, but when I hear “the pier” my brain goes straight back to the Cousins beach house dock, the site of so many significant scenes, plus TSITP parallels to The Great Gatsby pier.

Episode 9’s Winning Needle Drop: “How Did It End?” by Taylor Swift

I’m obsessed with “Take Me Out” by Franz Ferdinand, Episode 9 gave us a song by THE BEATLES, and Taylor Swift’s “You’re on Your Own Kid” playing as Belly embarked on her journey of self-discovery damn near killed us, but as we’ve said for like three weeks in a row now, this is The Summer I Turned Pretty, and when an episode ends with a Taylor Swift song, it’s nearly impossible to beat. Swift’s tear-jerker “How Did It End?” perfectly closed out the episode as Belly, Jeremiah, and Conrad each set forth on the next stage of their healing journeys. Fun (?!) fact: The Tortured Poets Society: The Anthology track was recently used in a big And Just Like That break-up scene, so it’s having a real moment right now. But for TSITP fans, it’s the official sound of shedding one’s old skin, moving forward, and rebuilding in the wake of life-altering loss.

Want more TSITP analysis to hold you over until next week? Be sure to catch up on our Easter egg recaps from Season 3, Episode 1, Episode 2, Episode 3, Episode 4, Episode 5, Episode 6, Episode 7, and Episode 8.

New episodes of The Summer I Turned Pretty Season 3 premiere Wednesdays on Prime Video.