The Summer I Turned Pretty’s Gavin Casalegno Filmed Fake Jeremiah Scenes In Paris

Jenny Han, the genius you are. The Summer I Turned Pretty author knows her fandom has a knack for sleuthing and hunting for Easter eggs. So when it came time to film the show’s final season, she took steps to ensure no one could spoil the conclusion of Belly, Conrad, and Jeremiah’s love triangle before the finale.

Now that the finale has aired, Han is opening up about some of her behind-the-scenes handiwork.

Jeremiah In Paris?

If you’ve already watched and dissected the TSITP finale, you know that Belly and Conrad’s Paris storyline was completely separate from their family and friends back at Cousins Beach. As the pair reckoned with their past and made grand declarations to each other, Jeremiah — suddenly “Boston’s hottest up-and-coming chef” — was putting on a big pop-up dinner and experiencing kitchen mishaps that made several fans feel like they were watching The Bear.

But even though Jeremiah never appeared in Paris, Gavin Casalegno did film some scenes there — part of Han’s plan to help “keep surprises for the audience,” she told Entertainment Weekly. “That’s really hard in this day and age.”

Indeed, her plan worked. Fans were flummoxed by viral clips that seemed to show Belly and Jeremiah reuniting in Paris. Some fans thought Jeremiah’s trip abroad was about closure and making amends, while others correctly theorized that it was a “red herring.” As one Redditor put it, “Maybe they filmed this just to throw off fans from bonrad storyline?”

While many fans still sensed #Bonrad endgame was imminent, the filming trick lent an air of uncertainty to Belly’s journey. Casalegno told EW the plot made him feel “like a CIA agent.”

“They were like, ‘Hey, we’re going to fly you out to Paris and you’re going to film some scenes,'" he explained. “I was like, ‘I don't know why, but sure. I’m down.’ I got to spend like a week or two out in Paris, which is not bad at all. I really enjoyed it.”

TV Trickery

Of course, TSITP isn’t the first series to engage in some behind-the-scenes scheming to keep fans on their toes. Chris Noth attended his own character’s funeral on And Just Like That, for example, as did Brian Cox on Succession.

As Han put it, “As movies get filmed, people see the whole movie, and I think it takes away from some of the excitement around it when you have all these spoilers.” Jeremiah’s French fake-out was her way of “trying to protect the story for the audience.”