Warning: This text incorporates minor spoilers.
Summer season at Cousins Seaside is completely different this 12 months because the Conklins and the Fischers, the households on the middle of “The Summer season I Turned Fairly,” grieve the lack of matriarch Susannah Fischer, whose magnetic vitality introduced the households nearer collectively.
The present follows the households as they spend their summer season holidays on the Fischers’ seaside home yearly as a result of their moms, Laurel (Jackie Chung) and Susannah (Rachel Blanchard), had been finest buddies. In season two of the Amazon Prime collection, which premieres Friday, Susannah’s demise leaves her household’s future — and their seaside home — within the air as Aunt Julia, her disgruntled sister, chooses to promote the house.
The season, which flips between flashbacks and the current, begins with protagonist Stomach Conklin struggling in class and eager for a actuality during which everyone seems to be completely happy and Susannah continues to be alive. She’s known as into her steerage counselor’s workplace on the final day of the varsity 12 months to debate her slipping grades and the revocation of her volleyball captaincy.
“Stomach is drowning in her grief in the beginning,” mentioned Lola Tung, who performs Stomach. “She will’t get out of this gap that she’s in, and the entire arc of season two for her is discovering out the right way to transfer ahead and reconnect with the issues that make her completely happy. This season, the entire household is in such completely different locations with their grief.”
Stomach, not like her older brother, Steven (Sean Kaufman), turned disconnected from college, buddies and her household as Susannah turned sicker.
Steven is known as valedictorian and is on his technique to Yale College within the fall. Tensions run excessive between Steven and Stomach at a celebration on the night time of commencement, which leads her to accuse Steven of getting moved on from Susannah’s current demise.
Sean Kaufman as Steven, left, in season two of “The Summer season I Turned Fairly.” Erika Doss / Prime Video
“For Steven, it’s powerful, as a result of he’s at an honest level in his life when season two picks up,” Kaufman mentioned. “He’s graduating and going off to a future that he’s enthusiastic about, and there’s this heavy weight of the grief that’s, at instances, tearing him down. I believe that it’s such a tricky battle as a result of he finds himself within the mixture of, like, ‘Oh, my God, how can I be two issues without delay? How can I be each excited but in addition extraordinarily unhappy?’”
Stomach and Steven’s relationship deepens in refined methods all through the season, Kaufman mentioned. He pointed to small nudges, a smile between them and different interactions that he believes really feel genuine to a sibling relationship.
“Steven and Stomach’s lives go off in separate instructions, and lots of instances, they’re not even collectively and don’t speak. It’s like branches rising aside,” he mentioned. “However they discover moments to reconcile with one another. Stomach and Steven speaking might be so uncomfortable for them, so they should do it in the way in which that they will and in a approach they really feel snug, which is these little moments like that.”
Because the season progresses, Stomach and Steven wish to assist the Fischer brothers, Conrad (Christopher Briney) and Jeremiah (Gavin Casalegno), hold the seaside home. Collectively, they attempt to persuade Julia to not promote the house, which is irreplaceable for each households.
Throughout their time on the home, feelings intensify as some relationships bud, just like the one between Stomach’s finest pal, Taylor (Rain Spencer), and Steven, whereas others come to a head, like Conrad and Jeremiah’s.
The earlier summer season, which occurred in season one, adopted Stomach’s whirlwind romances after she lastly turned 16. The love triangle amongst Conrad, Jeremiah and Stomach continues to be a significant plotline for this season, however not like in final season, Tung mentioned, viewers will see extra than simply romantic love.
“The present is exploring so many alternative varieties of affection — love for Susannah, love for household, romantic love and self-love. I believe self-love is an enormous factor this season, as a result of everybody’s on their very own journeys,” she mentioned.
