The Summer I Turned Pretty Told Us Conrad Was Endgame Through Taylor Swift Songs From Episode One
Conrad Fisher enters the first episode with “Lover” playing, which is a fairly bold choice for a show planning to spend three seasons asking Belly to pick between two brothers. The dialogue gives us a triangle, while the music gives Conrad a head start.
Jenny Han listened to Swift while writing the original books and started planning the series’ music before production, so the songs were part of the storytelling from the beginning. “Cruel Summer” opens Belly’s trip to Cousins, then “Lover” begins when she sees Conrad again. The switch is almost cheeky: summer gets her arrival, and Conrad gets the love song.
In episode four, “False God” plays as Belly and Conrad lean toward a kiss on the dock. Jeremiah’s firework stops them before their lips meet. The song carries desire and trouble in equal measure, which ends up becoming their entire problem. They want each other, and timing keeps getting in the way.
The season one finale makes its musical preference clearer. Jeremiah disappears during the debutante ball after learning about Susannah’s illness, and Conrad steps in for the final dance. “The Way I Loved You” starts as Belly sees who is waiting for her. Later, “This Love” plays when she and Conrad kiss on the beach. The song is built around love returning after it has gone away, and season two opens by using it again. Repetition turns the kiss into a memory Belly cannot neatly close.
Season two keeps tying Swift’s music to Belly’s history with Conrad. “Invisible String” plays during their Christmas at Cousins. “Sweet Nothing” reaches back to a childhood memory, while “Snow on the Beach” sits under their painful conversation about the breakup. At the motel, “exile” follows Conrad after Belly chooses Jeremiah. Its two voices argue over missed warnings and signs, a painfully accurate match for two people who love each other and keep failing to say the right thing at the right time.
Jeremiah gets a real Swift moment too. “Delicate” plays during his pool kiss with Belly, so one song cannot settle the debate. The Conrad case rests on how often the music returns to him, and how later songs answer earlier scenes.
Season three opens with “You’re Losing Me” when Belly learns Jeremiah slept with Lacie during their brief breakup and never told her. The heartbeat-like production arrives as her trust gives way. Four episodes pass without another Swift track. Episode six ends the pause by going straight back to Conrad.
After a surfing accident, Belly helps Conrad clean up in the bathroom, and “False God” begins. They nearly kiss again. The first time, Jeremiah’s firework interrupted them. Now Belly is planning to marry him. The heartbeats link both scenes. “You’re Losing Me” begins after Jeremiah’s secret is exposed, then “False God” returns with its own pulse as Belly moves closer to Conrad.
For me, the repeat is the strongest clue. Belly has placed Conrad in her past, and the soundtrack recreates their unfinished moment while she is planning a future with Jeremiah.
Eleven Swift cues made it into the final season. Every cue used a decoy during production to prevent leaks, and no genuine backup existed. “loml” later closes the episode where Conrad tells Belly he still loves her and she cries in Taylor’s room. “cardigan” plays when Belly finds Conrad at the airport after the wedding ends. Both choices place Conrad beside feelings Belly refuses to say aloud.
Swift’s music also gives Belly a life outside both brothers. “You’re on Your Own, Kid” welcomes her to the streets of Paris, and “I Can Do It With a Broken Heart” belongs to the life she builds after the cancelled wedding. By the time Conrad arrives, Paris belongs to her. Choosing him no longer means returning to the girl who waited all summer for his attention.
The finale brings the musical story to a clean finish. “Dress” plays as Belly and Conrad kiss all the way back to her apartment and sleep together. The scene lets them act on feelings they have spent years avoiding. “Out of the Woods” begins when Belly runs after Conrad at the train station and tells him she loves him. The song was chosen early for its moment of remembering, because Belly is also remembering who she is: someone who still loves Conrad.
So, did the soundtrack choose Conrad before Belly did? I think it did, then waited for Belly to catch up. Jeremiah’s relationship with Belly was real, and her years with him mattered. Conrad’s songs kept returning to earlier scenes and changing what those scenes meant. By the time “Out of the Woods” begins, the finale is answering the promise “Lover” made in episode one.