Whereas watching the primary three episodes of “The Summer I Turned Pretty” season two — launched Friday, July 14, on Amazon Prime Video — I got here again to at least one thought time and again: can somebody be good to Stomach?! Cease studying if you have not watched but, however when the present picks up, the college 12 months is about to finish, and Stomach (Lola Tung) is bereft as a result of their household good friend Susannah (Rachel Blanchard) has died a few month in the past. Susannah’s sickness has hung over the entire college 12 months, with Stomach’s mother, Laurel (Jackie Chung), spending a whole lot of time going backwards and forwards to the Fisher home to help to Susannah, Jeremiah (Gavin Casalegno), and Conrad (Christopher Briney).
Stomach, in the meantime, has struggled mainly because the final summer time ended. Her grades aren’t nearly as good. She underperformed on her volleyball staff. In fact, this all is smart given what she’s gone by, however virtually each single particular person on “The Summer I Turned Pretty” is exceptionally imply to Stomach about it.
Take Stomach’s steerage counselor. She notes that Stomach’s grades have dropped, and Stomach reveals that their household good friend died. The steerage counselor cruelly notes that the drop has been 12 months lengthy, not simply after the dying. One way or the other a educated steerage counselor would not know {that a} 12 months of getting a cherished one slowly die of most cancers would have an effect on how somebody would do in class for all 10 months.
However Stomach’s family are no higher at acknowledging her grief. When her mother questions her about her grades and Stomach factors out that all of them had a protracted, laborious 12 months, Laurel tells her to cease making excuses. However grief just isn’t an excuse — it is the reality. Just about everybody in Stomach’s life (apart from her greatest good friend Taylor, performed by Rain Spencer) refuses to present her an inch of help and love.
A part of why everybody’s obliviousness (which veers into downright cruelty) hits so laborious for me is as a result of I have been by one thing much like Stomach. My 12-year-old cousin died originally of my senior 12 months of faculty. I attempted to inform myself I used to be advantageous and it wasn’t affecting me, however I ended up dropping the ball in a whole lot of massive areas of my life. It is nonetheless laborious for me to suppose again on that point with out some disgrace in regards to the individuals I let down. I’ve sadly misplaced different members of the family since, however within the intervening years, I’ve realized that being affected by a cherished one’s sickness and dying is totally regular, and I want I would recognized to present myself area and style.
Stomach just isn’t an ideal particular person, and she or he makes some questionable decisions in season two. However that is as a result of she’s a teenage lady going by one thing horrible. In fact, Stomach’s household can be grieving, however for her mother to deal with her so callously was actually surprising to me. I want “The Summer I Turned Pretty” modeled what it means to look after and help a grieving particular person in these early episodes.
New episodes of “The Summer I Turned Pretty” debut Fridays on Prime Video.
