This episode’s flashback begins with Belly’s prom, which Conrad is supposed to escort her to.
The Summer I Turned Pretty‘s second season premiere (“Love Lost”) dropped breadcrumbs about Susannah’s funeral holding the answers about Belly and Conrad’s breakup, and that’s exactly what we get in “Love Sick” (Season 2 Episode 3).
This episode’s flashback begins with Belly’s prom, which Conrad is supposed to escort her to. Conrad does, but he’s not the perfect date — he forgets her corsage, he’s moody and doesn’t want to dance, and when they finally go outside to talk Belly reads between the lines and breaks up with him. His heart isn’t in it, especially after learning that the doctor is switching Susannah’s meds, something he sees negatively despite not really knowing the underlying reasons.
Belly is a bit hasty here and the writers could have filled in the blanks a little more between episodes. After all, in the previous episode, Belly and Conrad’s flashback showed us their first time sleeping together and they felt blissfully in love. That was Christmas and Prom is ostensibly in May, so there is a lot of ground in between those milestones where we could have seen Conrad slowly pulling away or being unable to deal with his mother’s declining health. (I do appreciate the hair & makeup departments doing their best Tim-Riggins-Oily-Hair-In-Face treatment of Conrad to represent how brooding and in need of therapy he is.)
But in the end, this is what we get: Belly crying in her brother’s arms on her Prom night right after she gave her infinity necklace — a symbol of their undying love — back to Conrad. Susannah’s funeral comes not long after and there is a small, tender moment between the former lovebirds as Conrad publicly sings a song for his mom at the service and his voice breaks at the moment he makes eye contact with Belly.
