Since July, millions of people tuned in to the third season of “The Summer I Turned Pretty” to see which love interest Isabel “Belly” Conklin would end up with at the end of the series: brooding Conrad Fisher or his younger brother, the more easygoing Jeremiah.
The Amazon Prime series based on a trilogy of novels by Jenny Han is mainly centered around the love triangle between Belly and the two brothers. But after the more recent episodes — in which Belly and Jeremiah end their engagement when it becomes clear there are lingering feelings between her and Conrad — fans are also left wondering about another relationship.
What will happen between the Fisher brothers? Is it possible for them to repair their relationship after they both dated the same woman?
“They have to talk about it,” said Northeastern University applied psychology professor Laurie Kramer. “It’s not going to automatically come back. Those kinds of hurts are going to persist. They’re going to have to renegotiate and restructure the relationship for them to really satisfactorily move forward.”
However, the fact the two even dated the same person shows their relationship may have already been bad in the first place, she added.
“Usually with siblings, there’s a little bit of a code of ethics,” said Kramer. “There are some things that are just off limits. If you know your brother is deeply in love with someone, you don’t go after them.”
Kramer’s research focuses on how children can develop positive relationships with their siblings starting when they’re young. Even from the start of life, the way parents treat their children can shape their relationships and continue into adulthood.
In “The Summer I Turned Pretty,” Conrad and Jeremiah compete for Belly, with Jeremiah pursuing her after Conrad shows an interest in her in Season One. Belly briefly dates Jeremiah before pairing up with Conrad. After Belly and Conrad break up, Jeremiah pursues her once more.
The fact that both brothers are comfortable pursuing the other’s ex indicates a lack of trust and openness in the relationship.
“A warm relationship usually involves some level of trust, of loyalty, of feeling like you can confide in the other and being honest and real,” Kramer said. “I think both of them are not all that open and honest in sharing their feelings with one another. They may not have a full picture of the sense that the other also is in love with Belly.”
The relationship between the brothers, as with many sibling relationships, can be traced back to how their parents treated them. In “The Summer I Turned Pretty,” Conrad and Jeremiah’s father frequently compares his younger son to his older one.
In situations where one child is the favorite or if one child views their sibling as favored, it sets up a golden child/black sheep dynamic, Kramer said, which research shows hurts the sibling relationship.
“The expectations and differential treatment that we may be seeing can really change the dynamic tremendously,” she added. “It could set up some competition between them. Favoritism is linked with poor outcomes in terms of the quality of their relationship. They get along less well, they feel less well about themselves, and their relationship with their parents suffers too.”
Setting up one child in the “caretaker” role also affects the relationship. Kramer said this is a common dynamic where older siblings are expected to or assume a more parental role.
As seen in the show, Conrad is often tasked with looking after his younger brother and their friends from the time he’s young. Viewers also learn that the reason he did not protest when his brother pursued Belly was because his mother made it clear, as she was dying, that she wanted Conrad to look after his brother.
“That’s a huge factor,” Kramer said. “That’s a clear role he’s been assigned and also one that he has assumed. He’s bought into this message, this requirement and this expectation for himself and feels like he has to live up to it. What that means to him is to make sacrifices on behalf of his brother and to place his brother’s needs and interests ahead of his own.”
As a result of this, Conrad withholds his feelings, widening the gap between brothers.
With a few episodes left to go, fans might be wondering not only what happens with Belly, but between the brothers. Torn apart by Conrad’s confession, can they ever come back together?
Northeastern assistant teaching professor of communications Elizabeth Glowacki, who teaches a course on interpersonal communications, said they might need to find it in themselves to forgive each other if they want to move on.
“It was a bad idea to date both brothers,” she said. “You really need the support of a family for a relationship to do well. Once you become serious, you become embedded in one another’s social networks and if that family support isn’t there, it’s very hard to have a long-term, enduring relationship. If you already have these extra strains, it’s very difficult to succeed.”