NEED TO KNOW
- Fans have decoded the special significance of Taylor Swift’s song “False God” on The Summer I Turned Pretty
- “False God” is featured during two major moments between Conrad and Belly
- The show has featured several of Swift’s hits over the years. However, “False God” is the only song to be featured twice
Fans are putting the puzzle pieces together when it comes to the use of Taylor Swift’s “False God” on The Summer I Turned Pretty.
On the latest episode of the hit Prime Video series, Isabel “Belly” Conklin (Lola Tung) rushed to help Conrad Fisher (Chris Briney) after he was badly cut while surfing. As “False God” plays, the exes nearly kiss even though Belly is engaged to Conrad’s brother Jeremiah Fisher (Gavin Casalegno).
The lyrics are a perfect fit for the moment in which Belly appears drawn to Conrad once again, as he has pined for her through the season.
“We were stupid to jump in the ocean separating us, remember how I’d fly to you?” Swift sings.
Once Conrad left and Belly realized what she’s done, the song continued, “But we might just get away with it, religion’s in your lips, even if it’s a false god, we’d still worship…”
“What just happened? What did I almost do? This time wasn’t like with the peaches. This time, it was all me,” Belly said in a voiceover, referring to the steamy moment between her and Conrad in episode 5.
Fans were quick to notice that this was the first time that “False God” had been featured on The Summer I Turned Pretty.
In season 1, “False God” was played when Belly and Conrad got close and almost shared their first kiss. However, they were interrupted by Jeremiah launching a firework.
“False God is back in The Summer I Turned Pretty. We are so back. Belly let’s get you married to the correct Fisher brother,” one fan shared on X.
“FALSE GOD PLAYING FOR BELLYCONRAD AGAIN THANK YOU TAYLOR SWIFT AND JENNY HAN,” another viewer wrote.
“False God being so iconic it’s been played for bellyconrad twice on the show & taylor herself played it for lola & jenny at eras,” fan recalled.
Tung, 22, recalled being the audience at the Eras Tour during an appearance on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon last month.
“We were right by the stage, and she looked at us, and she kind of waved and was like, ‘I love you guys,'” Tung said, gesturing a heart with her hands that Swift did in their direction on stage at the time. “I nearly passed out. It was great.”
She said she attended the concert with Jenny Han, who wrote the 2009 novel that the hit Prime Video show is based on.
“We were right by the stage when she played ‘False God,’ which was also on the show,” Tung said, which was met with applause.
Han, 44, who also serves as co-showrunner of the Prime Video series, told Jenna Bush Hager on her podcast Open Book in January that she “knew what song I wanted” for that scene from the get-go when she was “pitching out the season.”
“I was kinda trying to, like, inception it into everyone’s heads that this is what we — that we need this,” she said, noting she was willing to do “whatever it took to get it.”
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She then revealed she once “wrote a handwritten note” to the singer and explained “how much it would mean — not just to me, but I thought to the fans. That was the gift I really wanted to give, because I’m like, they’re gonna go crazy for this.”
Several songs from Swift’s discography have appeared in the show, including “Back to December,” “Delicate,” “Hey Stephen” and “Cruel Summer.” However, “False God” is the only song to be featured twice.
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New episodes of The Summer I Turned Pretty debut Wednesdays on Prime Video.
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