The Summer I Turned Pretty Season 1, Episode 1 subtly confirmed where Isabel "Belly" Conklin (Lola Tung) lived, and it's quite far from Cousins Beach, Massachusetts. At the crux of the story of Amazon Prime Video's romance drama series is Belly's coming-of-age journey and her attachment to the summer beach house at Cousins Beach. Ever since her childhood, she has been spending her summer at the beach house at Cousins, which is owned by her mother's best friend, Susannah (who is also the mother of her boyfriend, Jeremiah, and her first love, Conrad).
While the first two seasons of The Summer I Turned Pretty are set primarily at Cousins, Season 3 jumps through several locations, such as Finch College (where the different fraternities and sororities are based), Massachusetts, and Belly's hometown.
Created by Jenny Han, The Summer I Turned Pretty Season 3 revolves around Belly's quest to find her true love due to being conflicted in choosing between her boyfriend, Jeremiah, and her first love, Conrad—the series stars Lola Tung, Rain Spencer, Sean Kaufman, Christopher Briney, and Gavin Casalegno.
Where Does Belly Live In The Summer I Turned Pretty Seasons 1-3?
Although Belly has a deep attachment to Cousins, she doesn't really live there. While Jenny Han's books didn't explicitly reveal where Belly lives, the series secretly revealed her hometown in Season 1, Episode 1, and it was in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
This was confirmed by looking closely at the license plate of Laurel's (Belly's mother) car at the 7:26 mark of Season 1, Episode 1, which resembles the license plate design of vehicles from Pennsylvania.
For context, Pennsylvania's standard license plate design has a white background with blue and yellow borders. The top has a blue background with PENNSYLVANIA in white text, while the bottom has a yellow band with the slogan of the state's website, www.pa.gov. The plate number is also in blue text.
Belly's hometown was further confirmed in Season 1, Episode 7, during the famous Deb Ball. In a conversation between Steven (Belly's older brother, who may or may not end up with Taylor at the end of Season 3) and his ex-girlfriend Shayla, he admitted that he doesn't belong with rich people because he "grew up in the suburbs of Philly."
In the series and Jenny Han's The Summer I Turned Pretty trilogy, Cousins Beach is the location of the summer house where almost all of the important things in Belly, Jeremiah, and Conrad's lives occur. It's worth noting that it is a fictional location in Massachusetts. Meanwhile, the Fisher brothers (Jeremiah and Conrad) are confirmed to live in Boston in both the books and the series.
Why Did Belly Go Back to Philly in Summer I Turned Pretty Season 3, Episode 4?
In the closing moments of The Summer I Turned Pretty Season 3 Episode 3, Belly and Jeremiah announced their upcoming wedding to the family, and it did not end well for either party. As a result, Laurel forced Belly to return to Philadelphia to send a message that she does not approve of the wedding because both are still young and clearly don't know what they are doing.
In Season 3, Episode 4, Belly and Jeremiah are still trying to adjust to this new status quo while planning their wedding (despite their parents' disapproval). The final nail in the coffin comes when Jeremiah tries to push hard for their wedding when he visits Belly in Philadelphia to convince Laurel that they love each other and want to be together forever.
The main problem is that Belly and Jeremiah did not tell Laurel about their breakup (and the cheating incident) before the proposal.
After Laurel's strong disapproval, Belly and Jeremiah ran away to Cousins as a rebellious act toward those who were not on board with the wedding.
At the 34:34 mark of Season 3, Episode 4, Belly's text to her dad once again confirmed that she still lives in Philadelphia after all this time, with her apologizing about running away:
"I'm sorry I left Philly without saying goodbye. But I hope more than anything that you'll be there to walk me down the aisle on my wedding."
Given Belly's close attachment to Cousins, there is a strong chance that she will eventually want to settle in the summer house when it's all said and done with whoever she ends up with (may it be Jeremiah or Conrad).
