Jeremiah was definitely not character assassinated. I will die on the hill that most of his romantic attraction/interest in Belly was motivated by Conrad's romantic interest in Belly. He didn't really make a move until he saw Conrad trying to make a move and interrupted it. Then he immediately proceeded to manipulate the situation to physically remove Conrad in a way that left Belly particularly vulnerable for him to swoop in.
Then in season 2, he literally manipulated Belly into starting romantically with him by making her feel guilty for not being there for him during Sussannah's illness and death. But it wasn't Belly's fault. She tried to be there for him. Jeremiah refused a platonic relationship and support from Belly. It showed that Jeremiah doesn't value Belly as a person, only as a tool to win over and hurt his brother and as someone who will fulfil his emotional needs. To me, it's crystal clear that Belly felt she owed Jeremiah a romantic relationship and felt it was a way to still honour Sussannah and keep "the magic" alive.
It's also interesting to me that we are told throughout all 3 seasons that Jeremiah was Belly's best friend during the summers but I can't think of a single scene supporting that assertion. All of the childhood flashbacks have Conrad take an interest in and spend time with Belly and Jeremiah treats her like an annoying little sister like Steven. The flashback from Jeremiah's episode even has Sussannah forcing him to hang out with Belly one-on-one and him finding it not so bad in the end.
I do think Jeremiah cares for and loves Belly but it's familial love that comes from growing up together. It's also telling to me that we have 0 scenes of Jeremiah taking an interest in Belly as a person. We are shown their life revolving around Jeremiah's interests and needs.
Ultimately, I'm writing this ask because I've been seeing a lot of people across social media giving Jeremiah a pass on his behaviour. And my biggest issue with the show is that Jeremiah never really takes any accountability for his actions when he is the only character in the show that is shown to have conscious malicious intent. Even Adam is shown to clearly be an emotionally stunted idiot and not an evil master manipulator. Out of all the characters on the show, only Jeremiah acts with conscious motivation to hurt other characters. Mostly Conrad but Belly also.
I will address this interesting ask by paragraph because It’s a really great conversation to have.
1. I made a post in relationship to this and how Jeremiah’s initial pursue of Belly was motivated by his insecurities towards Conrad. The framing of how and when this took place is very important because it happens after an episode which starts to highlight Jeremiah’s inferiority complex. Then, he deliberately manipulates the situation around him to further insert himself into the picture. He knew Belly and Conrad were inevitable and yet he chooses to put himself in that situation. It wasn’t Belly, it was him that deliberately made it a thing. And I would argue completely that he did it so he could “win” Belly over Conrad before he could. Had he not set up the whole pool situation, Belly would’ve never seen him as a romantic prospect. And Belly’s own narration tells you this as a fact. She thought that since Conrad wasn’t available, then Jeremiah was the closest thing she’d get.
2. The way Jeremiah emotionally manipulated Belly in Season 2 is not talked about enough. He deliberately inserted himself between Conrad and Belly’s growing feelings for each other, then got mad at Belly for not choosing him, even when he knew this was a big possibility. He plays into her insecurities and vulnerabilities by trash talking Conrad, uses Susannah’s cancer to guilt trip her and then removes communication with her. To later blame her for that when he was the one to initiate it. He made both Belly and Conrad feel guilty about being romantically involved to the point they had to walk on eggshells around him. He made Belly feel guilty for prioritizing her own boyfriend. In fact, the car “fight” at the start of Season 2 is exactly what triggers Belly’s need to overcompensate and starts her coddling of him. Belly felt guilty and she wanted to make it up to him. Jeremiah not only viewed her as validation to win over Conrad, but he also refused to accept a form of love from Belly that wasn’t romantic and he expected instant gratification for being “nice” to her, which was what made Belly believe so hard that she owed him a relationship. In Season 2, you see how Belly tries to convince herself that her and Jeremiah are meant to be. She reframes her own narrative to make it make sense and justify why she’d own him romantic reciprocation. Even in the Season 2 finale, she confesses being with Jeremiah wasn’t what she pictured for herself and she settles. She brainwashed herself into thinking a relationship with him was the proper road. The way Jeremiah is the nice guy trope isn’t discussed enough. Yes, a lot of it is about grieving but so are Conrad’s wrong doings and yet he never assumed that Belly needed or should’ve been the one to heal him from the grieving of his mom like Jere.
3. Belly and Jeremiah’s best friends story line was always an interesting one to me, because I think it comes from a very biased perspective since Belly has been confirmed to be an unreliable narrator. She perceived Jeremiah as her childhood best friend because she didn’t see him as a crush, as opposed to Conrad. Jeremiah was friend-zone, Conrad wasn’t. So she viewed his actions more critically since it had a romantic angle for her. But even removing this situation, I never viewed Belly and Jeremiah’s relationship as something based on a strong friendship. We never saw Belly truly opening up to him, because she’d only say what he wanted to hear. And it seemed like such an imbalance “friendship”. At least what the show gave us, he never seemed willing to accept Belly’s affection unless it was about reciprocating him romantically. It seemed like his “friendship” came at the expectation of some sort of reward from her. He’d constantly throw in her face the things he did that Conrad didn’t — as if that somehow would justify Belly’s affection towards him. The only glimpses of them being friends is at the start of the show when Jeremiah wasn’t overly fixated on winning her romantically over Conrad. I’d argue their “friendship” stopped the moment he would do things expecting a romantic reward from her. It not longer feels like some pure genuine friendship.
4. The relationship between Jeremiah and Belly revolved around Jeremiah’s needs since the start. It was never really about Belly as a person. It was about Jeremiah being “owed” their relationship and because Belly felt guilty she wasn’t there for him while Susannah was dying, which is why she would constantly coddle him and would do things to try and fix his bruised ego, even at the expense of herself. It was like she needed to compensate for her lack of interest years ago. And that is the reason why she even said yes to his marriage proposal. Someone made a video compilation of how many times Belly would compromise her own wants, needs and individuality to appease him and it is crazy. And it makes you wonder how trapped she would’ve felt in their marriage when all of her ambitions were silenced by him and his inferiority. Jeremiah would’ve never allowed Belly growth and individuality and their relationship showed it. She was codependent, she was not in healthy relationship where she could be her own person. Or even encouraged by him to become her own.
Like sure, they loved each other to some degree, but their love was born out of shared trauma, grief and insecurities — and it was never going to heal enough in order to become a healthy relationship. Because in order to heal, they’d need to address the true nature of their relationship and the grief.
5. The show dropped the ball by constantly equating Conrad’s actions that were born out of grief and depression as if he was the villain of the story while also giving Jeremiah a free pass for the choices he made to harm people and never once holding Jeremiah accountable for it. The biggest sin Conrad made according to this people was walking away because he didn’t want to be a burden due to his mental health. And this is one of the biggest issues the show had last season and what made me dislike a lot of the narrative. I hope Jenny Han takes a look at all the criticism she got over how she handled Conrad’s story line, particularly in that awful 309 episode and hopefully redeems herself on the movie by acknowledges the things that need to be spoken in order to truly get his complexity and issues.
Thanks for this insightful ask, anon! It was great.
You know a thing I will hate the most about the ending of TSITP? It’s that they’ll never have the guts to discuss the level of emotional abuse and manipulation Jeremiah has been subjecting Belly. Everyone is so afraid to call out this man but the damage that he has done to Belly is so mess up.
Mind you, Belly called him out of courtesy because she was feeling bad about the whole situation and when she turns him down to make a choice that is purely for herself, he guilt trips her! He knew she’s been wanting to be in Paris. Be a man and be glad she’s there safe and sound. If he truly wanted her or loved her, he’ll be glad she wants to find herself in order to live a better life.
And I know this show is going to force me to watch Jeremiah’s “first choice partner” by the end of this series and make him out to be a wounded victim that just didn’t get loved enough as if he didn’t participate in inflicting Belly with self doubt and emotional abuse in the mist of her grieving process. Like, let’s seriously wake it up!
Conrad & Belly finally got back together and are Endgame! ♥️♾️
Infinity ♾️ won! That’s what the story was always about 🥰 I am riding on this high of The Summer I turned pretty! I can’t believe we made it! And guess what?!
We are getting a movie! 🥳🎉🙌🏼🍾🥂
I truly believe we’ll be seeing their engagement & wedding 🥹♥️
“No matter what happens, we’ll still be infinite.”
“Conrad, I choose you of my own free will. If there are infinite worlds, every version of me chooses you in every one of them.”
Belly being terrified that her relationship with Conrad doesn't exist in the same way without the loss of Susannah (which was true of her relationship with Jeremiah) is such an amazing character addition.
She's so, so nervous because she's reflected and identified that the foundation of her doomed relationship with Jere was bonding over the loss of Susannah, and she's afraid the same could be said for Conrad's feelings for her.
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