(2018)

Submitted by Evan B

Pooper:
Lara Jean makes up with her sisters, solidifies her friendship with Josh, becomes more transparent with her dad, and she and Peter express their feelings for each other before kissing.

Long Ending:
Lara Jean (Lana Condor) is a shy middle child. Her older sister Margot (Janel Parrish) is going abroad for college and her 6th grade younger sister Kitty (Anna Cathcart) has more of a social life that Lara Jean. They are being raised by their father, Covey (John Corbett), as their mother passed away when the girls were still young. Though Lara Jean has never dated, she secretly has experienced intense romantic emotions. When her emotions get to be too much to handle, she writes love letters to the boys she has crushes on and keeps them hidden in a box. In all, she has written letters to five different guys.

One morning at school, Peter (Noah Centineo) walks up to her holding the letter she wrote to him. Peter just broke up with Lara Jean’s rival, Gen, and wants to discuss the letter. Lara Jean faints from the shock. When she awakens, she sees another of her crushes, Josh (Israel Broussard), walking towards her holding the letter she wrote for him. This is particularly awkward as Josh dated Margot for the past few years and used to be Lara Jean’s best friend. She runs away and bumps into another crush named Lucas, who also has his letter. He says that while he’s flattered, he is gay and does not return her affections. Finally, when Lara Jean returns home, she finds a fourth letter was “returned to sender” as undeliverable. Unable to deny that her letter have somehow been mailed out, Lara Jean ponders about how she will get through this.

Lara Jean avoids Josh as she is not sure of her actual feelings for him and because she feels she is betraying Margot when she thinks of him. To help her avoid Josh and make him think she has moved on, she asks Peter if he wants to fake being in a relationship with her. Peter agrees because he wants to make Gen jealous so that she will return to him. They write a contract setting forth ground rules for their fake relationship. As part of the contract, Lara Jean agrees to be his date on a school trip to a ski lodge (notorious for being a trip where high schoolers lose their virginity) if they are still “dating” at that time.

As they hang out more often, the pair grow closer and Lara Jean starts coming out of her shell and becoming more popular. She becomes increasingly bothered that Peter continues to talk daily to Gen, and Peter becomes increasingly perturbed by Lara Jean bringing up the contract. They are still “pretending” to date when the ski trip arrives, and Lara Jean begrudgingly goes on the trip. While there, she tells her situation to Lucas and confides in him that she has developed real feelings for Peter. He convinces her that Peter has genuine romantic feelings for her and she joins Peter in the hot tub where they intensely make out.

The next day, however, she learns that Peter visited Gen in her room (later, she learns it is because Gen needed his help dealing with family drama). Worse yet, someone took a video of she and Peter in the hot tub that makes it look like they were having sex (even though they weren’t). Disgusted at these seeming betrayals, Lara Jean breaks up with Peter for real and tears up their contract. She arrives home to find Margot back from college. Peter and Josh then both arrive at her house, get in a fight, and Margot learns of Lara Jean’s crush on Josh. After the boys leave, Margot and Lara Jean make up and Margot helps Lara Jean remove the “sex tape” from the internet. Kitty also reveals that she sent the letters in an effort to help spice up Lara Jean’s life and help her not be so lonely. They also make up. Finally, Lara Jean goes to a café with her dad and they share their feelings about the loss of Lara Jean’s mother.

Lara Jean finally talks with Josh about the letter. She explains that while her crush on him was real, what she actually loved was his friendship. They agree to be friends moving forward. Lara Jean also finds out that Kitty saved the notes Peter wrote her every day while they were “dating” (Lara Jean threw them out thinking he was doing it just to make Gen jealous). She discovers the letters expressed his genuine love for her. Lara Jean drives off to find Peter. They are able to look each other in the eyes and express their love for each other. They then kiss. The film ends with the recipient of the fifth letter knocking on the door and holding a bouquet of flowers meant for Lara Jean.