The one thing we're missing about Jeremiah Fisher in The Summer I Turned Pretty.

I need to get something off my chest. As someone who has been firmly planted in Team Conrad since day one of The Summer I Turned Pretty — and still am — I'm suddenly finding myself in the bizarre position of having to defend Jeremiah Fisher.

The audacity, I know. But here we are. 

And it's all because of the rose-coloured glasses the internet seems to be wearing when it comes to Conrad this season — it's gotten completely out of hand.

I want to preface this by saying that I am so Team Conrad, I literally wrote an entire article about how I think black cat men, like him, are superior and how I actually married one in real life. I think Conrad is sweet, thoughtful, and absolute husband material. But that doesn't mean he's not flawed. 

Watch the trailer for season 3 of The Summer I Turned Pretty. Article continues after video.

Yes, I get it. Season 3 Jeremiah is genuinely awful. He cheats… TWICE. He doesn't take accountability, and he projects his insecurities onto everyone around him.

The way he's treated Belly is infuriating, and fans are so invested that the show's Instagram page had to issue warnings asking people not to harass the actors. Actor Gavin Casalegno is receiving an onslaught of hate, for crying out loud.

But here's the thing we seem to have collectively forgotten: Jeremiah wasn't always the villain.

In previous seasons, he was actually... nice? Sure, he was annoying at times, in my opinion, but he was still the supportive, fun-loving brother who genuinely cared about Belly's happiness? He was the one making her laugh. The one that was emotionally available.

Image: Prime Video

We've developed collective amnesia about the earlier seasons where Jeremiah was genuinely a good option and had real redeeming qualities. Did he have flaws? Yes. Did he display glimpses of the manchild behaviour we see this season? Also yes. But he was a normal person and not the devil. 

And no, unlike certain parts of TikTok, I don't think the perception of Jeremiah is a fault of the writing. I actually think this character arc makes perfect sense for the story. But it does say something about us as an audience and how black and white we tend to see the world. 

Meanwhile, we're all acting like Conrad is the perfect romantic hero who has never done anything wrong in his entire life. Now, he's certainly a man written by a woman — reliable, quietly proactive, with just the right amount of yearning to make us all swoon.

But the reality is, he can also be extremely emotionally avoidant. Let's not forget his pattern of pushing people away when things get difficult, or how he's handled conflict with Belly in the past. 

And can we talk about the elephant in the room? Confessing your feelings towards your brother's fiancée the day before their wedding is absolutely unhinged behaviour. Don't get me wrong, I loved every single delicious second of it on screen, but it's selfish, it's messy, and it's the kind of dramatic gesture that looks romantic in fiction but would be completely inappropriate in real life.

Image: Prime Video

Here's what we need to remember: Jeremiah struggles with intense insecurity, whilst Conrad struggles with emotional intimacy.

We've known this since day one. And that's okay — these are human flaws that make sense given their circumstances. We all felt terrible for Conrad when his mum died, but Jeremiah's mum died too. We see how Jeremiah's dad treats him, the way he's constantly compared to his "perfect" older brother. We also see how much responsibility and emotional baggage Conrad takes on as the eldest sibling. There are so many nuanced scenes this season that shed light on both these characters and why they are the way they are.

None of this justifies poor behaviour — Jeremiah's treatment of Belly this season is inexcusable, and Conrad's emotional unavailability has caused real hurt too. But these are people with flaws, shaped by grief, family dynamics, and their own insecurities.

The problem is that we're so invested in our chosen side that we've stopped seeing these characters as complex people and started treating them like saints and sinners.

Image: Prime Video

This isn't really about defending Jeremiah's current behaviour — because honestly, I'm a hater through and through. Trust me. It's about acknowledging that our favourite characters can be flawed, and our least favourite characters aren't all terrible. 

Conrad may be endgame (and I'll be rooting for him until the end), but let's at least be honest about what we're seeing. Conrad may be the better choice for Belly. Conrad may be the better brother in my eyes. But both Fisher brothers have their issues, and pretending otherwise just because we've picked a side doesn't make for very compelling viewing — or very fair judgment.

Maybe the problem isn't that we're choosing sides (that's the whole point of the love triangle, isn't it?). Rather that we've forgotten how to hold space for the messy, complicated truth that people can be both wonderful and terrible, sometimes in the very same breath.

Feature Image: Prime Video.