Teen drama fans are being fed well with The Summer I Turned Pretty — and Conrad Fisher is the vindication they never got with Gilmore Girls’ Jess Mariano.
Gilmore Girls fans know the deal all too well: You were either a Team Dean, Team Logan or Team Jess when it came to Rory Gilmore’s complicated love life. But, let’s be honest here — no one was really Team Dean, which means Team Logan and Team Jess have been fighting it out for years. While Logan (Matt Czuchry) delivered the high-class world and spontaneous adventures a part of Rory (Alexis Bledel) craved, it was the brooding, cerebral Jess Mariano (Milo Ventimiglia) that many viewers believe deserved Rory’s heart in the end.
So it goes with The Summer I Turned Pretty, a show that reignites the age-old TV argument over who is the better match for the main character. In this case, it’s Belly (Lola Tung) choosing between two brothers, Conrad (Chris Briney) and Jeremiah Fisher (Gavin Casalegno).
And while a love triangle between two brothers sounds a lot more like The Vampire Diaries than it does Gilmore Girls, there’s no denying that Rory and Belly are similar in more ways than one, most clearly with the undeniable pull they feel toward their respective on-and-off loves, Jess and Conrad — two characters who are the same, just in different fonts.
“If you were a Jess mariano girlie you are now a Conrad fisher girlie, I don’t make the rules,” one fan recently wrote via X, while another declared; “Conrad Fisher my friend Jess Mariano understands you so deeply.”
A third, however, pointed out something particularly important: “Jess Mariano walked so Conrad Fisher could run.” While the duo are very similar, there’s one major difference between them: Conrad Fisher actually gets the girl (we think).
So how are Conrad and Jess similar, and why does it make Us mourn the loss of Literati (that’s the ship name for Rory and Jess, by the way) all over again? Keep scrolling to find out:
Conrad and Jess Are Both Tortured, Terrible Communicators
Both Conrad and Jess are introduced as brooding bad boys who have trouble with communicating their feelings (Conrad, however, doesn’t have a penchant for magic tricks like Jess does). That lack of communication gets them both into trouble when it comes to their relationships with loved ones.
Despite clearly appreciating what his uncle, Luke (Scott Patterson), has done by taking him in and caring for him, Jess has a hard time showing his affection and gratitude. He also struggles to explain why he has so much built-up anger, which stems from his father leaving him at a young age and his mother being absent in his upbringing. He finds it hard to open up about those same topics with Rory, eventually causing a rift in their romance. Instead of being up-front with her about failing school or his resentment, he leaves town in season 3 without so much as a goodbye. He returns the following year to tell Rory he loves her in a grand declaration — one she no longer is interested in hearing.
Conrad’s struggles parallel Jess’ issues. Season 1 of TSITP shows him holding the secret of both his mother’s (Rachel Blanchard) cancer and his father Adam’s (Tom Everett Scott) cheating scandal inside. Being forced to deal with those complicated situations alone causes him to collapse inward, destroying his mental health and pushing him away from the people he cares about. That includes his brother, Jeremiah, who eventually resents Conrad for not being honest about their mom’s cancer and shutting him out of making decisions, and girlfriend Belly, who can’t push through his walls.
That coat of armor eventually leads to their messy breakup on prom night in season 2 (note: Jess and Rory also break up over prom), with Belly thinking Conrad doesn’t love her. In reality, he was holding the weight of his mother’s illness and couldn’t figure out how to communicate his pain.
They Both Yearn for 1 Girl
Conrad and Jess are nothing if not one thing: top-tier yearners, bested only by teen drama’s prince of romance, Dawson Creek’s Pacey Witter (Joshua Jackson).
Despite their “bad boy” images, both Conrad and Jess are fiercely loyal to the objects of their affection. Although they both briefly date other women throughout the course of their respective shows — remember Nicole and Shane? — those relationships are clearly just a way for each of them to distract themselves from their actual heartbreak as Belly and Rory date other guys.
And while both Conrad and Jess are with Belly and Rory for less than one year total, the relationships impact them enough to keep them hoping for a reconciliation for years to come. Conrad spends four years avoiding Belly, confessing he still loves her after being in her orbit again for just mere weeks. Jess, meanwhile, returns to Rory’s world multiple times to reveal he still believes they belong together.
There’s really nothing Belly and Rory can do to deter Conrad or Jess’ love. Belly dates — and gets engaged — to Conrad’s brother, but that doesn’t keep him from wanting her. Jess confesses his love, asks Rory to run away from him ( which she refuses to do) and even lets her use him as a pawn in her romance with boyfriend Logan, but his love for her remains pure.
Pacey would be so proud.
They Both Grow Into the Best Versions of Themselves
The most important thing to note about Conrad and Jess — and what makes them so timelessly popular with fans of their respective shows — is how much work each character puts into growing as a person.
Although viewers meet them as closed-off, somewhat broken individuals, both heal in ways that help them become the best versions of themselves. Season 3 of TSITP begins with showing Conrad in therapy — clearly something he’s been sticking to routinely in the four years fans haven’t seen him. A result of getting his mental health in check is his newfound openness with his emotions, causing him to be a happier, kinder human to those around him.
It’s never specified whether Jess goes to therapy, but he transforms into a person not unlike Conrad. After an absence in season 5 of Gilmore Girls, he returns to Rory’s life in season 6, thriving while working for a publishing company and having published a novel. His time away has allowed him to mature, and he can express to Rory that his accomplishments would never have happened without her. He’s also able to thank Luke for his love and support and pay him back — emotionally and financially — for everything he’s done over the years. When A Year in the Life catches up with him in his 30s, those positive attributes have only grown.
They Both Want What’s Best for the Loves of Their Lives
“Why did you drop out of Yale?!” The only thing Conrad and Jess care more about than growing as individuals is making sure the loves of their lives are treated with the utmost respect. How could we ever forget Jess laying into Rory about dropping out of college, joining the DAR and dating a rich guy that cheats on her — sorry, Logan fans — because he knew she deserved a better life? (And let Us not forget, he was the one to ultimately get through to her and inspire her to put her life back on track.)
Jess knew Rory was always destined for greatness, which is why he lifted her up and supported her applying to Ivy League schools, even when it took her farther away from Stars Hollow (“Do you Yahoo?”). That’s a far cry from her first boyfriend, Dean (Jared Padelecki), who constantly berated her for wanting to see the world and attend a prestigious school, knowing he would be ultimately left behind.
Conrad is no different, but in his own way. He held his love for Belly in for four years in belief that his brother, Jeremiah, was the better option for her and could give her the life that he felt she deserved. Realizing he hurt her when they were together, he sacrifices his own happiness to make sure she finds it herself. That is, until he realizes Jeremiah cheated on her (twice) on vacation. It’s only then that he’s honest with her about his feelings, letting her know that his “piece of s***” brother does not deserve her. He also reminds her that the wedding she’s planning with Jeremiah — filled with their father’s associates, a country club location and a two-tier mirror glaze 80 percent cacao cake with a raspberry coulis — is not what she wants for her life. “Who are you?!” he yells on the beach about her recent life choices.
Are they blunt? Maybe. But they’re also honest, because they know what Rory and Belly deserve: the best of the best.
The Both Lose Their Loves to Lesser Men
Logan fans will hate Us for this one, but Jess is the better guy and the better choice for Rory. Season 6 sees Rory getting cheated on by Logan with multiple women after they have a fight that he thinks is a breakup, but she doesn’t. It’s only after he loses her that he confesses he loves her, eventually winning her back. Logan also keeps his mouth shut about Rory dropping out of Yale and lets her derail her life instead of being honest with her and takes swipes at Jess the very first second he can.
Jess, meanwhile, is the one to shake some sense into Rory, willing to risk her being upset with him if it gets her to remember her potential. Despite this, Rory still takes Logan back and even uses Jess as a pawn to get back at him for cheating.
Conrad is eerily in the same scenario. Jeremiah cheats on Belly (twice) after they have an argument he claims was a breakup but she doesn’t. She takes him back, and Conrad does not waste time letting Belly know what a mistake that actually is. Still, even when he begs her to not marry Jeremiah — “don’t be with him, be with me” — she tells Conrad that he will “never be what Jeremiah is” to her and leaves him alone on the beach to cry.
Conrad Gets His Happy Ending While Jess Gets the Shaft
Here’s where those of Us teen drama lovers finally get some payoff when it comes to Conrad. While The Summer I Turned Pretty is still airing its final season — and it remains to be seen whether Belly will call off her wedding to Jeremiah and run off with Conrad — the novels, which are the source material for the show, reveal that Belly will in fact realize Conrad is her soulmate. The show seems to be hinting at a similar ending, as Belly has been clearly confused and unable to shake her attraction to and love for Conrad from her mind despite turning him away when he confesses his love to her. (We don’t blame you, girl — it’s a lot to process.)
Conrad will, of course, have to likely work for it. In the books, Belly breaks up with Jeremiah and runs off to Europe for a semester abroad. Conrad begins sending her letters, and it’s over a year before she responds to one. Eventually, they reconcile and end the story happily married.
Should this happen on the series, Us longtime Jess fans will finally be vindicated after not getting so lucky when it came to Jess and Rory. The last time we see Jess on Gilmore Girls is when Rory kisses him hoping to get back at Logan in season 6. The good news? She breaks up with him too. The bad news? When we catch up with her for A Year in the Life, she’s sleeping with Logan while he’s engaged to someone else, ending the show pregnant with what can only be assumed is his baby. Our sliver of hope is the longing stare Jess gives her through a window in the show’s final moments — a possible wink at him becoming the Luke to her Lorelai (Lauren Graham) — but their reconciliation never actually comes.
Taylor Swift’s “LOML,” a.k.a. “Loss of My Life,” plays after Belly and Conrad’s epic beach fight on The Summer I Turned Pretty. But there’s still hope that those two will run off into the sunset together. Jess Mariano and Rory Gilmore as endgame — that’s the real loss of OUR lives.
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