Diksha Sundriyal
To all the boys the viewers have fallen in love with on Netflix, half of the letters would be addressed to Noah Centineo. The actor has starred in romcoms like ‘Sierra Burgess Is a Loser’ and ‘The Perfect Date’. For him, it all started with the screen adaptation of Jenny Han’s ‘To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before’, a film that became one of the most-watched originals for the streaming service.
The amusing love story of Lara Jean and Peter Kavinsky won hearts, and the fans received another round of their charm with the follow-up, ‘To All the Boys: P.S I Still Love You’. The sequel takes their relationship to another level, and it doesn’t necessarily bode well for them. If you haven’t yet seen the film, head over to Netflix. Here we discuss the ending of the movie and what it means for the duo.
Plot Summary
Lara Jean is living the dream. Things are going swimmingly with Peter, who is just the perfect boyfriend. She is revved up after the first date, but the comment by Gen turns her off. Normally, she wouldn’t have given much thought to what Gen was saying, but now, it is Peter’s ex talking to her and it leads to overthinking on Lara Jean’s part.
Then comes the letter from John Ambrose, who tells her that he too liked her when they were in sixth grade. Looks like, he might like her still. It gets even more complicated when John Ambrose turns out to be the second volunteer at the same place that she has signed up at. While trouble brews between her and Peter, she gets to know more about John Ambrose.
Why do Lara Jean and Peter break-up?
The moment Lara Jean Covey and Peter Kavinsky’s paths cross in ‘To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before’, there is undeniable chemistry between them. We know it, and Kitty knows it too, which is what prompts her to send those letters. This sparks a fire, and at the end, they get together. In ‘To All the Boys: P.S I Still Love You’, we watch their relationship soar, and it looks like there’s no stopping it. Even with John Ambrose’s arrival, things don’t get as unbalanced. So, what went wrong? Why did they have to break-up?
Once the fairy tale part is done with, Lara Jean has to face the realities of being in a relationship, and the first thing that she has to come to terms with is Peter’s past relationships. It was the break-up with Gen that made him propose a deal with Lara Jean. He wanted to make his ex jealous, hoping she would come back to him. But things took a different turn and Peter ended up falling for Lara Jean.
For her, it means that everything should end between them. Now, Peter should have nothing to with Gen. But that’s not how relationships work. She admitted that she had never been in a relationship before, so it makes sense that it would take some time for her to understand all dimensions of what her new life entails.
The Ending: With whom does Lara Jean end up?
After coming to the conclusion that Peter will never get over his relationship with Gen, Lara Jean calls quits on them. She is heart-broken by it and after thinking some more about what led to the end of their relationship, she comes to the root of it. She texts Gen, asking her to meet at the treehouse. Here, she acknowledges that the problem was not with Peter or Gen, it was with Lara Jean herself. She had become too obsessed with his relationship with Gen.
She had confessed earlier that every time she was with Peter, she always thought about his past. Be it their first date or first Valentine, she always compared it with how it would have been with Gen. She never stops to think that her relationship with Peter is completely different and even if they visit the same places and do the same things when he was with Gen, it’ll still be different. She got caught up in the cycle of jealousy and the root of it was the inferiority complex that stemmed with her friendship with Gen. And this is what she finally addresses in the treehouse.
In order to understand what keeps Peter and Gen together, she needs to understand what her friendship means, or meant, with Gen. In sixth grade, they had been best friends. But soon after, they drifted away, but that doesn’t mean that they were completely cut-off from each other. Once you have formed a bond with someone, even after you sever it, some of it stays back. The feelings remain, and you find a soft spot in your heart for the person that you haven’t talked to in years. That’s what Lara Jean’s grandmother called “jung”.
Despite feeling jealous of Gen and maybe even hating her sometimes, Lara Jean still had that remnant of friendship with her. And even though Gen never showed it, she had it too. The same goes for Peter and Gen as well. Even though they have broken up, and even though Peter is in love with Lara Jean now, it doesn’t mean that he has stopped caring about Gen.
Lara Jean feels that he runs to her every time she calls because he’s still stuck up on Gen, which means he never really loved her. But, in fact, if she thinks about it, what she feels for John Ambrose is more of the same. She liked, maybe even loved, him once. A lot of time passed away and nothing happened.
When John Ambrose comes back, she thinks she is falling in love with him too. But it is actually just the remnant of a feeling that she once had, because of which, she still has a soft spot for him. This is what she realises when she kisses him. She doesn’t feel for him the way she does for Peter, and that’s why Kavinsky is the one she should be with. She is scared that he might not want her back anymore, but luckily, she finds him right outside the door, waiting for her.
Read More: ‘To All the Boys: P.S I Still Love You’ Review
