Lara Jean Covey (Lana Condor) and Peter Kavinsky (Noah Centineo) took the next step in their lives during To All the Boys: Always and Forever, which saw them struggle with college admissions decisions while balancing the needs of their own relationship development. Lara Jean thought she had everything figured out: she and Peter would both get into Stanford, him on a lacrosse scholarship, and they would get to carry on with their romantic relationship without a single bump in the road. Lara Jean had a whole plan envisioned for the pair that included college graduation, great jobs, marriage, children, and home ownership. With the way things ended in the third film, To All the Boys 4 could potentially see Peter moving to New York City to be with Lara Jean for good.
In Lara Jean’s head, their future was bright and simple. The reality of their situation, however, is much more complicated. This is especially true after Lara Jean receives a rejection letter from Stanford University. While her backup plan is to attend Berkeley (which is only an hour away from Stanford), and transfer to be with Peter after a year, Lara Jean falls in love with New York University and the city when visiting on a class trip. With her dreams of a future with Peterpotentially shattered, they both find it hard to cope with the idea of separation.
While To All the Boys: Always and Forever solves the problem by having them enter into a long-distance relationship, their arrangement can only last for so long. What will happen to Lara Jean and Peter after college? How will they reconcile being thousands of miles apart? It's possible that Peter will be the one to move to New York to be with his girlfriend rather than the other way around. Here's a breakdown of why that could happen in To All the Boys 4 (which has not been confirmed) and why it might be the more practical solution to their current predicament.
Lara Jean & Peter's Relationship Needs Them To Eventually Be Closer Together
Maintaining a long-distance relationship is no easy feat and it will more than likely come with its own set of challenges. However, Lara Jean and Peter are both young and there is no reason to hold each other back just so that they can stay within physical distance of each other. The long-distance scenario, despite it making them both nervous, makes sense considering that they’re both off to college. These will be the years where they’ll get to explore a lot of things about themselves and their environment that was far more limited by the boundaries of high school.
That said, Always and Forever seemed to imply that their separation and long-distance status was temporary and would only span the four years of university. Pending their relationship status post-college (long-distance is hard and not every couple survives after), they’ll need to make a decision regarding where they will want to live and work. Will Peter want to find a job in California or will he be willing to move to New York to be with Lara Jean? Will they even want to maintain their relationship knowing that their lives after college will have so much more to offer? These are the kinds of questions they’ll have to answer. Either way, Lara Jean and Peter will eventually have to choose how they’re going to move forward and what that means for their living/long-distance situation.
Lara Jean's Future Is In New York
To All the Boys: Always and Forever implies that Lara Jean sees herself living in New York even after graduation. She also has her heart set on getting her degree in creative writing and the city is opportune for such a career because of its plethora of renowned publishing offices. What’s more, Lara Jean made it plain and clear that she doesn’t just see herself attending NYU, she also feels like she belongs in NYC. This, perhaps more than anything, suggests that Lara Jean sees a future for herself in the city where she didn’t before.
Moving back to the west coast would likely put a pin in her writing ambitions and it’s possible that she will fall even further in love with New York after four years spent attending college. Peter, on the other hand, is attending Stanford on a scholarship and, while he’s excited about his prospects, he doesn’t seem as invested or as in love with the area. By comparison, Lara Jean is incredibly passionate about studying and potentially living in NYC, even bringing up her feelings about so comfortingly fitting in despite having only visited once before officially moving there for college. It truly felt like more of a permanent change.
Theory: Peter Moves To NYC (& He And Lara Jean Stay Together)
With all that happened in To All the Boys 3, it’s possible that Peter and Lara Jean will stay together and he will move to New York to be with her. Yes, Peter also has connections to the west coast and he will likely have developed a lot of friendships and ties to the Stanford area in California. However, based on the framing of the third film, it’s more plausible for him to be the one to move to NYC to be with Lara Jean. She had been dreading the move and assumed that they wouldn’t be able to survive her decision to go to NYU.
But, while Peter was the one to officially break things off, he came back with the idea that they stay together and have a long-distance relationship. This decision also came in the wake of his earlier support to attend; Peter didn’t want to stand in Lara Jean’s way and risk her resenting him and their relationship if she opted to go to Berkeley. If Lara Jean felt like she still belonged in NYC after college (a likely scenario), Peter would probably pack up and move to be with her. This might be one of the only scenarios in which they stay together. It’s unclear what Peter will do for work after college and, considering that Lara Jean has more of a career path mapped out, he could more easily find a job in the city than she would in publishing on the west coast. Plus, if Peter moves, he and Lara Jean could take the next step in the cinematic rom-com trope by becoming a cute couple in the Big Apple and taking on whatever comes their way.