*Spoilers below!*

“For Belly, Conrad is the sun. And when the sun comes out, the stars disappear.” This line is something that Laurel, Belly’s mother, says in the first season of the show. As poetic and cheesy as it seems, this is the truth. Who could be the better choice for our girl Belly?

When season one of The Summer I Turned Pretty debuted on Amazon Prime during the summer of 2022, people were very quick to choose sides between Belly Conklin’s love affairs with the two Fisher brothers. On one side was the bubbly and personable younger brother Jeremiah, and on the other was the mysterious and broody older brother Conrad. Both sides of the fandom were battling it out over which brother was worthy of being with Belly. With the debut of season two during the summer of 2023, tensions only heightened when the new season brought forth new characters, storylines, and twists. 

Many people argue they’re team Jeremiah because he’s excitable and quick to express emotions, especially to Belly. To them, Conrad just seems like the loser who can’t say what he’s feeling. Conrad was Belly’s first love, and she was his. Conrad knows exactly how he feels about Belly. This doesn’t go away, even when he struggles to express it. Conrad was the first and only person–for a while, at least–to know that his mother’s cancer had relapsed and that his father had cheated on his mother during her previous cancer diagnosis. That’s a lot of pressure for a grown man, much less an 18-year-old boy. The last thing on his mind would’ve been figuring out how to confess his feelings to the girl he’s loved since he could remember. 

Jeremiah fans will focus on the grand gestures, and criticize Conrad for his “lack of effort.” But Conrad understands the importance of the little things because he knows how much they really mean. In season one, for Belly’s 16th birthday, he attempts to gift her a necklace with a silver infinity charm, but gets embarrassed to present it to her in front of everyone and puts it away in his room. Though the necklace is small, the gesture represents one of the previous summers, when Conrad taught Belly about infinity. He draws the symbol on her birthday pancakes and says that “it’s like a racetrack, no ending or beginning.” He further explains that one can travel endlessly around the curves, it’s infinite. It quickly becomes one of Belly’s favorite summer memories and a tradition for her to have infinity pancakes for breakfast every year for her birthday. 

Many team Jeremiah fans will use the “if your grades don’t touch, neither should you” theory, but Conrad never had that intention. The necklace is seen in the last episode of the season when they both confess their love for each other but decide to remain friends. Conrad puts the necklace on Belly, symbolizing that he’d wait for her, even if it took forever, or an infinite amount of time. There was no rush to date between them and there was actually a relatively substantial amount of time where they were just friends who were regularly talking. They didn’t jump into a relationship as fast as Belly and Jeremiah did. They took their sweet time and explored what it meant to be in a relationship instead of being friends, even though they’d both been crushing on each other since they were kids. 

When Belly and Conrad break up during the beginning of the second season, the first thing Belly does is give the necklace back to him. He keeps it in his dorm room for the following months, up until she finds it while searching for him. Not only does the necklace represent their love for each other being never-ending, but it also shows that they’ll always have something special between them– more than what Belly has with Jeremiah. 

Even going back to their childhoods, Conrad and Jeremiah have always been battling for the “best brother/son/friend” award. Belly and her feelings coming into the picture was just the ultimate duel. Let’s look at some examples of when Jeremiah got jealous of Belly and Conrad’s relationship:

1. Firecrackers (Season 1, Episode 4): It’s the 4th of July, Conrad and Belly are having a deep conversation on the pier while gazing at the fireworks. Jeremiah spots them, gets jealous of them, and attempts to launch a firecracker at them from a distance right as they’re about to kiss. They weren’t even dating at this point in the show! 
2. Prom (Season 2, Episode 3): Flashback of Conrad taking Belly to her Junior Prom, but forgets her corsage in his dorm room. He feels really guilty but she dismisses it, saying that it’s fine. Right before they leave, they FaceTime Susannah–his mother, and Jeremiah to show them their outfits. Jeremiah finds out that Conrad forgot Belly’s corsage and mutters under his breath about how he would never forget her corsage. Why couldn’t he be happy for his brother for finding love after such a dark period in his life?
3. Thanksgiving (Season 2, Episode 5): This episode features Conrad and Belly during Thanksgiving at the Fishers’ house while they’re dating. They sit across from Jeremiah during the meal and display some PDA. Jeremiah is then seen shooting dirty looks towards them, which is a tell-tale sign of bitter jealousy. 

With these three examples, anyone can see that Jeremiah didn’t even think of making a move on Belly until Conrad admitted that he’d been in love with her. His quickness to anger and irrational jealousy makes him too temperamental to be a good partner to Belly. If you don’t know you want something until you can’t have it, did you ever want it at all?

Lastly, some of the most perfectly chosen Taylor Swift songs play for these two during their important moments. For example, when we meet Conrad in season one, episode one, “Lover” plays in the background. “This Love (Taylor’s Version)” plays when the two have their first kiss at the end of season one. “That’s The Way I Loved You (Taylor’s Version)” plays as Conrad steps in to dance with Belly at the debutante ball after Jeremiah runs away in the season one finale. “Invisible String” plays as Conrad and Belly frolic on the beach during their winter visit to Cousins Beach. And that’s just to name a few songs that play for these two. What more evidence do you need that Conrad is Belly’s endgame and the better choice for her than Ms. Swift’s songs playing in the background during their crucial moments?

Conrad is the better brother for Belly, and there’s just no other way.