Warning: This article contains minor spoilers.
Summer in Cousins Beach is different this year as the Conklins and Fischers, the families at the center of “The Summer I Turned Pretty,” mourn the loss of matriarch Susannah Fischer, whose magnetic energy brought the families closer .
The show follows the families as they spend their summer vacation at the Fischers’ beach house every year because their mothers, Laurel (Jackie Chung) and Susannah (Rachel Blanchard), were best friends. In the second season of the Amazon Prime series, which premieres Friday, Susannah’s death leaves the future of her family and their beach house up in the air, as Aunt Julia, her disgruntled sister, decides sell the house.
The season, which alternates between flashbacks and the present, begins with protagonist Belly Conklin struggling at school and yearning for a reality where everyone is happy and Susannah is still alive. She was called into her guidance counselor’s office on the last day of the school year to talk to her about her poor grades and the revocation of her volleyball captaincy.
“Belly is drowning in her grief at first,” said Lola Tung, who plays Belly. “She can’t get out of this hole that she’s in, and the whole arc of the second season for her is figuring out how to move on and reconnect with the things that make her happy. This season the whole family is in such different places with her grief.”
Belly, unlike his older brother Steven (Sean Kaufman), cut himself off from school, friends and his family as Susannah got worse.
Steven is named valedictorian and heads to Yale University in the fall. Tensions rise between Steven and Belly at a prom night party, leading her to accuse Steven of being over Susannah’s recent death.
“For Steven, it’s hard, because he’s at a decent point in his life when season two begins,” Kaufman said. “He is graduating and going into a future that excites him, and there is a great weight of pain that sometimes brings him down. I think it’s such a tough battle because he finds himself in a mix of things like, ‘Oh my gosh, how can I be two things at once? How can I be excited but also extremely sad?’”
Belly and Steven’s relationship subtly deepens throughout the season, Kaufman said. He pointed to little nudges, a smile between them and other interactions that he believes feel authentic in a sibling relationship.
“Steven and Belly’s lives go in separate directions, and a lot of the time, they’re not even together and don’t speak to each other. It’s like branches splitting apart,” she said. “But they find moments to reconcile with each other. Talking between Belly and Steven can be very awkward for them, so they have to do it the way they can and the way they feel comfortable, which is those little moments like that.”
As the season progresses, Belly and Steven want to help the Fischer brothers, Conrad (Christopher Briney) and Jeremiah (Gavin Casalegno), keep the beach house. Together, they try to persuade Julia not to sell the house, which is irreplaceable for both families.
During their time at the house, emotions run high as some relationships sprout, like the one between Belly’s best friend Taylor (Rain Spencer) and Steven, while others come to a head, like Conrad’s. and Jeremiah.
The Summer Before, which took place in the first season, followed Belly’s whirlwind romances after she finally turned 16. The love triangle between Conrad, Jeremiah and Belly remains a major storyline for this season, but unlike last season, Tung said, viewers see more than just romantic love.
“The show explores so many different kinds of love: love for Susannah, love for family, romantic love, and self-love. I think self-love is a big thing this season, because everyone is on their own journeys,” she said.
