WARNING: Spoilers ahead for the To All The Boys I’ve Loved Before book and movie trilogies.
The Netflix film adaptation of Jenny Han’s NYT bestselling To All The Boys I’ve Loved Before was the definition of instant success. It followed the adventures of Lara Jean Song Covey (Lana Condor), a part-time high school junior/full-time hopeless romantic. After the love letters she wrote to her childhood crushes accidentally get mailed out, she gets wrapped up in a fake dating scheme that eventually blossoms into a real relationship. And despite the uncertainty going on in the world right now, the third instalment carries an undeniably reassuring quality. Watching Lara Jean attend prom, go on trips to NYC and Seoul, and graduate in a full gymnasium as part of the class of 2021 made me wonder about whether in the face of the pandemic I’ll get to experience those same things during my senior year. Current high school seniors, meanwhile, are likely mourning their own high school experience. But as Lara Jean and Peter commit to a long distance relationship with stars in their eyes, I was surprised by how cozy it felt to live vicariously through them for a little while.
I thought on it, and I came to realize that while other iconic teen romcoms tend to share a few elements in common—the meet-cute, the high school party, the grand romantic gesture—TATB is meta in a way that’s become increasingly popular in the mainstream media of late. “I wish we had a meet-cute,” Lara Jean says to Peter. “That’s how you know [the main couple] is going to end up together.” This point is then brought to fruition with the film’s grand romantic gesture when Peter reveals to Lara Jean how they met, way back in the sixth grade.
It’s a story that speaks to the heart of romantics everywhere. And this sense of coming full circle, this narrative completeness, is precisely what gives you that warm, gooey feeling inside.
But all that aside, the thing that resonated with me the most was the ending of the film—and specifically, its optimism. Lara Jean decides to attend NYU, three thousand miles away from Peter at Stanford. She feels it’s the best decision for her own growth, just as Peter makes the best decision for his career in lacrosse. It’s left up to the reader’s imagination whether or not they work things out, against all the odds.
It’s a smart move on the part of the writers. In a time of unprecedented uncertainty, the conclusion to Peter and Lara Jean’s love story becomes a beacon of hope over all else. We truly want to believe in them, to see their relationship survive to them returning to the locks at Seoul Tower. And as the daughter of a twenty plus year marriage that survived two years of long distance through high school and university years, I have every faith in them.
