The Summer I Turned Pretty creator and stars discuss Conrad's breakdown
Warning: This article contains spoilers for The Summer I Turned Pretty, season 2, episode 4, "Love Game."
Belly (Lola Tung) may be at the center of The Summer I Turned Pretty's love triangle, but this week's episode is more about the relationship between her brother Steven (Sean Kaufman) and his BFF Conrad (Christopher Briney).
After Susannah's (Rachel Blanchard) death, Conrad didn't just push Belly away — Steven's been struggling all season with how much his former friend has shut him out, too. From not replying to his texts to not acknowledging his graduation speech going viral, Steven feels hurt that Conrad has been ignoring him. But when Conrad needs him in this week's episode, "Love Game," Steven is there without hesitation and helps talk him through a panic attack on the beach (brought on by Conrad finding out he got into Stanford, which had always been Susannah's dream).
When series stars Briney and Kaufman read that scene in the script, they could hardly contain their joy over not just getting to work together, but also for the opportunity to explore real, heavier issues for teenagers.
"It's stuff that hit home for us and was really, really important, talking especially about mental health — which I feel like isn't talked about enough in general — but then also with young men," Kaufman tells EW. "Chris and I lived together when we shot season 2, so we would just rehearse that scene all the time, over and over again. We worked on it so much trying to make sure that we could walk away knowing we did everything we could with that, and I hope it showed."
That scene was one that Briney was most looking forward to film this season. "I loved it so much," the actor tells EW. "Almost every night last summer, we'd be running that scene just so we'd really know it."
They were more prepared for that scene than any other, but due to circumstances outside of their control, they weren't able to film it for a long time. "We'd get to the day we're going to be shooting it, and there's too much wind that we can't shoot it," Briney says. "And so we scheduled it for a couple days later and we get there, we're all ready, and there's too much wind again and we can't shoot it. That happened for three months, where every single time we went to attempt that scene, almost once a week, there would be too much wind."
He laughs before adding, "We actually shot it very close to the end of the season, despite it being the beginning of the fourth episode."
The delay only made the experience of filming the scene more meaningful, both for the actors and their characters. "It's a beautiful chance to explore their relationship, which you don't get to see all that much of," Briney says. "It's referenced and talked about, and they're obviously childhood friends, but to get to see a moment of trust between friends and Steven having his back, I loved it. I think it's really wonderful."
Episode 4 also introduced a brand new character who isn't in author Jenny Han's original book series, as Belly, Steven, Conrad, Jeremiah (Gavin Casalegno), and Taylor (Rain Spencer) meet the brothers' cousin Skye (Elsie Fisher) after their aunt Julia (Kyra Sedgwick) decides to sell their beloved beach house. The teens bond (against Julia's wishes) in the hopes that Skye can help convince her not to sell the house, but by the end of the episode, she has everything moved out of the house to prepare it for the sale.
Han tells EW that creating Skye for the series played an important role in expanding Susannah's family.
"So much of the story of The Summer I Turned Pretty is about mothers and children and the world of Cousins," Han says. "In losing Susannah, we kind of wanted to take the opportunity to gain another mother-and-child relationship. Bringing Aunt Julia and Skye into the world, that was our opportunity to do so, and also to get a glimpse into Susannah's history and one more look back on who she was and where she comes from."
These interviews were conducted prior to the start of the SAG-AFTRA strike.
The Summer I Turned Pretty season 2 debuts new episodes Fridays on Prime Video.
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