Who Was The Summer I Turned Pretty’s Real Augustine?
It is August again, which means The Summer I Turned Pretty fans have returned to one of the fandom’s oldest arguments: who is the show’s real Augustine?
Quick refresher if the folklore lore has left your brain. In Taylor Swift’s fictional love triangle, James is with Betty, spends one summer with Augustine and then returns to Betty. Augustine believed her relationship with James could become something lasting, but James’s heart was still tied to someone else. Taylor later explained that Augustine genuinely loved James and thought their relationship was real.
So here is the easiest way to remember the three roles: James is the person caught between two loves. Betty is the old love James returns to. Augustine is the person who believed the new relationship would last, only to be left behind.
Now, back to Cousins.
The most popular comparison makes Belly James, Conrad Betty and Jeremiah Augustine. Fans were making that exact connection long before Season 3 aired. Belly chooses Jeremiah at the end of Season 2, stays with him through college and agrees to marry him. But after their engagement ends, she eventually finds her way back to Conrad.
That already makes Jeremiah the obvious Augustine. Still, the comparison becomes confusing because all three characters relate to the song in different ways.
Belly shares Augustine’s habit of believing that whatever feels right now must be forever. She spends years wanting Conrad and sees their relationship as the love story she has always waited for. When that falls apart, she becomes equally certain that Jeremiah is her future. Then the engagement ends, she leaves for Paris and tries to convince herself that Cousins belongs to a finished part of her life.
Belly keeps changing her idea of forever because she is still learning what she actually wants. That makes her similar to Augustine emotionally, but it does not make her Augustine in the triangle.
Belly is the person making the choices. Both brothers are waiting to find out where her heart will land. She chooses Conrad, then Jeremiah and finally Conrad again. That places Belly much closer to James, the person moving between two relationships.
Conrad creates a more convincing argument.
He spends the summer in Cousins helping Belly plan her wedding to Jeremiah while still loving her himself. He drives her to choose cakes, suggests using Susannah’s hydrangeas and convinces Laurel to attend the wedding. He is beside Belly constantly, but he cannot ask her to be with him.
If we were choosing Augustine based only on emotion, Conrad would win. His entire summer is filled with small moments that mean far more to him than he can admit. He gets time with Belly, but no promise that she will ever be his again.
The problem is that Augustine’s story does not end with James returning to her. James returns to Betty.
Belly returns to Conrad.
Jenny Han has said that Season 3 was built around Belly and Conrad finding their way back to each other. Their reunion was the destination of the season. Conrad may feel like Augustine while Belly is engaged, but he holds Betty’s place in the larger story. He is the first love Belly tries to leave behind and eventually chooses again.
That leaves Jeremiah.
The main argument against Jeremiah being Augustine is that his relationship with Belly was far more serious than Augustine’s summer with James. Belly and Jeremiah date for years. They share a college life, search for an apartment and plan a wedding. Nobody orders that much champagne for a casual fling.
But the show does not copy the song scene for scene. Belly does not secretly spend one summer with Jeremiah before running back to Conrad. The comparison is about where each person stands when the triangle finally ends.
Jeremiah believes Belly choosing him means she has finished loving Conrad. Their engagement is supposed to settle the question permanently. Yet Jeremiah never feels completely secure because he knows Conrad still matters to her. He knows Belly and Conrad secretly spent Christmas together. He sees how easily they understand each other. And when Conrad finally admits that he still loves Belly, Jeremiah asks her the question their entire relationship has been avoiding.
Does part of her still love Conrad?
Belly admits that it does. She tells Jeremiah she still chooses him, but he knows that is no longer enough. He cannot marry Belly while she is using their wedding to prove that Conrad no longer matters. They end the engagement because Belly cannot promise that her love for Conrad is gone.
That is what makes Jeremiah the real Augustine. He believed the relationship he had with Belly was leading to forever. The relationship was real, and Belly truly loved him, but her love for Jeremiah never completely replaced what she felt for Conrad.
The final mapping is much simpler than it first appears. Belly is James because she moves between two loves. Conrad is Betty because he is the love she returns to. Jeremiah is Augustine because he believed he was Belly’s final choice, then learned that her heart was still connected to someone who came before him.
Jeremiah did not imagine Belly’s love. He only imagined that it had ended her love for Conrad.