As author Jenny Han has said, 'P.S.
I Still Love You is about the reality of really loving somebody and not just falling in love
with somebody.
This is the part of the story that you don't often get to see in movies, which is what
happens after the couple gets together.'
Yippee-ki-yay, movie lovers, I'm Jan and in this video I'm breaking down how LJ made her
crucial decision at the end of P.S.
I Still Love You.
There will, of course, be spoilers, so take care if you haven't seen the movie yet.
LJ may be deliriously happy at the prospect of their first date, but reality doesn't live
up to the fantasy of her romance novels, and things don't turn out quite as perfectly as
she imagined.
Lara Jean finds Peter's goofing around at the restaurant a little embarrassing, and
the moment feels less special when she discovers he regularly took his ex, Genevieve, to the
same restaurant.
"For every first I was having with him, he'd already had his with her."
LJ also feels let down by Peter when she finds out that the Valentine's Day poem she thought
he wrote specially for her was actually written by Edgar Allan Poe.
And then there's the way Peter turns up hours late for a coffee date with LJ as he prioritised
sports practice over her.
But the issues they're having with their relationship aren't entirely on Peter, because when Lara
Jean unexpectedly receives a letter from childhood crush John Ambrose, emotions and feelings
she didn't expect to have any longer rush back to the surface.
"I thought having a boyfriend meant the mere idea of other boys left your mind completely."
As Lana Condor, who plays LJ, told EW, "[John] is kind of like the male version of
Lara Jean.
Everything she loves, he loves."
For example, they're both House Hufflepuff, which LJ once thought could be a sign they
were destined for each other.
Lara Jean doesn't know how to handle these old feelings and memories, and tries to suppress
them by putting away the letter she's writing to John Ambrose.
"Oh my God.
I cannot do this.
Do I have to tell Peter about this?"
But when she meets him again and reads her original childhood letter which mentions their
shared embarrassment during a Halloween party, she remembers how close she felt to him.
"I love you John Ambrose, I really love you.
I'll always know that once upon a time, my heart was yours."
As she explores these emotions, Lara Jean realises she feels much more comfortable around
John compared to the constant worrying she feels and overthinking she does about her
relationship with Peter.
"But if Peter was sitting here and we were sharing an ice cream sandwich, I dunno..
I'd be thinking about has Peter shared an ice cream sandwich with someone before?
Does he think that I'm a prude if I just wanna share an ice cream sandwich?"
"I just need a break from the contortions of being someone's girlfriend."
The developing love triangle creates problems for Peter and LJ's relationship when he gets
jealous that she's spending time with John Ambrose at Belleview.
It's no coincidence that this comes up in the middle of a biology class during which
the teacher talks about octopuses having three hearts.
And there's a clever bit of foreshadowing of their break-up when Lara Jean dissects
the octopus's heart in front of a squeamish Peter.
Things come to a head at their old treehouse haunt where Peter gets possessive and John
finds out that LJ and Peter are together, something she hadn't told him.
Peter complains LJ shouldn't be hanging around with her ex-crush, an accusation that seems
a bit rich given the amount of time he spends with Gen.
Although they patch things up, they argue again later about Peter's close relationship
with Gen, and LJ has the heart-breaking realisation that on the night of the hot tub, Peter was
actually waiting for Gen, not her.
LJ's mistrust of Peter is too deep and they break up at the aquarium, which was hinted
at earlier during the octopus heart scene.
Ultimately, the root of their problem is the secrets they've been keeping from each other.
Their intentions weren't necessarily bad, as each was trying to protect the other.
Peter keeps the time he spends with Gen trying to help with her parents' problem hidden from
Lara Jean because he knows there's bad blood between them.
And likewise, LJ keeps her feelings for John Ambrose to herself out of fear of hurting
Peter.
"I thought that if Peter and I were together, the two of us could get through anything.
I was wrong.
But I do know we weren't honest with each other.
And that I haven't been honest with myself."
The fallout from their break-up leads Lara Jean to briefly kiss John Ambrose at the Belleview
ball, in a moment which feels straight out of one of the romance novels LJ loves so much.
But this is reality, not fantasy, and she quickly realises she doesn't like him that
way.
"We kissed.
But I wanted him to be someone else."
And Stormy helps her understand that: "Sometimes you have to kiss the wrong man
to know what's right."
Although LJ and John are [theoretically] more compatible in terms of their shared interests,
outlook and temperament, it's Peter who offers Lara Jean something more and gives her scope
for personal development and growth.
As Lana Condor says, "Lara Jean […] needs to be pushed to expand into different spaces
of her personality, and that's what Peter does, even though he presents the risk of
breaking her heart."
In fact, according to the sequel's director, Lara Jean and Peter's promise to never hurt
each other was something that was impossible to keep, a youthful but naïve vow, and when
they go through that in this movie, they actually emerge stronger.
"Peter and I promised not to break each other's hearts."
"Oh, honey, you're always breaking someone's heart, or they're breaking yours."
"Well, isn't there a way to both get out unscathed?"
"Not if you're doing it right."
"Break my heart into a thousand pieces.
Do whatever you want."
Also at the heart of the sequel is a resolution to the question of whether it's OK to have
feelings for more than one person.
After her break-up with Peter, Lara Jean realises there's a concept from her Korean heritage
that can help her with this: "It's called jung.
It's the connection between two people that can't be severed.
Even when love turns to hate, you will always have tenderness in your heart for them."
LJ notices that even though they're no longer friends, she and Gen still have jung.
And she realises that Peter also has it with Gen and that she should stop blaming him for
it.
This moment of self-discovery helps her reconcile with Genevieve, and in the next scene when
Lara Jean sees her father and Mrs Rothschild together, she finally realises it's possible
for him to find love with someone else, but still hold affection for their mother.
Likewise, by the end of the movie, LJ recognises that it's possible to love two people as the
same time, albeit in different ways.
As Lana Condor said in an interview with EW, LJ's deep love for John can be confusing "because
you're like, 'Oh man, do I love him or do I love him as a friend?'"
The concept of jung though means that Lara Jean doesn't have to forsake her deep affection
for John in order to remain faithful to Peter.
"Are we good John Ambrose?
We've always been good."
Or as the movie's director puts it, "much of what the sequel is about is Lara Jean learning
to confront her own truth without losing her optimistic outlook on love."
"It's not a cynical view of romance or adolescence.
It's an earnest, fun, passionate presentation of it."
Now, what do you think about the sequel and how it handled the love triangle?
And are you glad LJ ended up back with Peter or would you have preferred John Ambrose?
Comment with your thoughts below.
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Yippee-ki-yay, movie lovers!