‘The Kissing Booth 3’ Centers on an Important Rule in Elle and Lee’s Friendship (SPOILERS)

Spoiler Alert: This article contains spoilers for The Kissing Booth 3.

The long wait has finally come for fans of The Kissing Booth movies. Finally, Netflix released the third installment of the popular film series, and this one is centered around one of the vital friendship rules between Elle (Joey King) and Lee (Joel Courtney). Specifically, Rule No. 19 puts one of the most challenging choices front and center for Elle.

The Kissing Booth trilogy is based on a Wattpad novel by Beth Reekles, and it centers on Elle Evans and her crush on Noah Flynn (Jacob Elordi), who happens to be the brother of her best friend, Lee Flynn.

The first two movies were massive hits for Netflix. Now that The Kissing Booth 3, which is said to be the final movie in the series, has been released, we’re brought back to those friendship rules between Elle and Lee.

The second movie ended with big decisions in Elle’s future that she will have to make. Since the third novel in the book series the movies are based on hasn’t been released yet, we had no idea what to expect. Would Elle end up following her boyfriend, Noah, to college? Does a new love interest come along? Is Marco (Taylor Zakhar Perez) going to come back?

We knew the third movie would see Elle deciding to follow her heart. But there was no perfect choice — someone was going to get hurt in the process. And that’s what this final movie follows. It all comes down to one of the strict rules of friendship between BFFs Elle and Lee, Rule No. 19.

According to the movie, Rule No. 19, one of 21 rules they’ve promised to abide by, states, “Always go to the same school as your bestie.” As we know, one of the significant decisions Elle faces in the third movie is where she’s going to college, picking up from the previous film.

Elle needs to decide if she wants to go to Berkeley with Lee or risk breaking Rule No. 19 and go to Harvard to follow her boyfriend, Noah. At first, Elle hasn’t made up her mind, though Noah has already begun to make plans for the two of them to get an off-campus apartment.

When Elle finds herself in the face of a deadline by Berkeley, she makes her choice. And she chooses to go to Harvard, opting to head to college with her boyfriend and break friendship Rule No. 19 with Lee.

Lee is understandably upset — they have these rules in place for a reason. But Elle promises to make it up to him by spending time together to complete their summer beach-time bucket list. And Elle’s decision to break the friendship rule is the focus of a lot of the movie because Elle realizes pretty quickly juggling everything on her plate isn’t going to be easy.

Between needing a summer job, helping to look after her brother, and spending time with Noah, there’s not a lot of time left for Lee. Plus, plans get flipped around when Noah sees Elle’s acceptance letter to Berkeley. And that changes everything all over again.

The Kissing Booth 3 is available to stream on Netflix now.