Every Year After Ending, Explained: What Happens After Percy's Betrayal?
With Every Year After, the summer of love is in full swing.
The romance series, which is based on Carley Fortune’s novel Every Summer After, examines past regrets and present yearning, primarily between our star-crossed lovers: Persephone ‘Percy’ Fraser (Sadie Soverall) and Sam Florek (Matt Cornett).
From Percy’s first summer as a preteen in the idyllic Canadian lake town Barry’s Bay, she and Sam become inseparable. Over the course of six summers (plus a New Year’s Eve party), we witness them fall in love, fall apart, and everything in between. Alongside these flashbacks, the show centres around Percy returning to Barry’s Bay ten years later after a tragedy rocks the town. But try as she might, old feelings, regrets, and secrets all come to the surface…
All eight episodes of Every Year After dropped on June 10. So, if your brain is mush after a binge-watching marathon or you just like spoiling things for yourself (no judgment here), read on to discover how it all ended.
What Is Percy’s Secret?
It all kicks off in Every Year After once the real reason Percy left Barry’s Bay comes to light. After being accepted into a summer college course, Sam leaves for university early. So, Percy spends the summer helping his brother, Charlie (Michael Bradway), fix the boat. While Percy and Sam attempt to do long distance, it becomes apparent that Sam is the distant one, and he ends up breaking things off with her via email. Cold.
But what happens next is even colder. After finding solace in Charlie, the pair drink together before doing the one thing they can never undo: sleeping together. Soon after, Sam returns from the summer school and asks Percy for another chance, but she declines, leaving Barry’s Bay forever.
Meanwhile, in the present, Sam breaks up with almost-fiance Taylor and tries to rekindle with Percy — and in the spirit of things, decides to tell him about her and Charlie. It doesn’t go well.
What Happens in Every Year After Season 1's Final Episode
In the final episode, Sam is still smarting from this betrayal. Meanwhile, Percy is determined to help out at the wake, preparing all the food in a tutu and tiara in a touching reference to Sue, who wore the same outfit in a flashback scene. Sue’s funeral finally arrives, and Sam delivers a heartfelt eulogy about love before breaking down, clearly thinking of his own failed romance with Percy, along with her betrayal and his mother’s death.
While Charlie steps up to help his brother and finishes the eulogy, Sam makes it clear that all is not forgiven. After the wake, Sam is standing by his truck and has an emotional conversation with Percy. One thing leads to another, and the two end up sleeping together. But even after that, Sam admits that he’s not sure he can forgive her. So, Percy returns to her life in Seattle.
Some time passes. After Percy’s writing is published online, Sam reads it and decides to mail her the keys to the Tavern.
So, Percy, who is also revealed to be writing a horror novel, blows up her life and moves to Barry’s Bay full-time to run the Tavern. There’s then another time jump to, you guessed it, the summer. Percy and Delilah (Abigail Cowen) are setting up the Tavern ahead of its reopening, and once the opening happens, it’s a huge success. Chantal (Aurora Perrineau) also comes along, and she and Jordie (Joseph Chiu) decide to make their relationship official. However, Delilah, whom Jordie used to have a crush on, doesn’t look happy at this development.
After the party, Percy is washing dishes before Sam emerges, to which Percy says, “You came home.” The pair smiles at each other, and it looks like things may be salvageable after all.
Meanwhile, Charlie and Sam are still estranged following his betrayal. Charlie is staying behind at the office to work and notices a picture of himself, Sam, and Percy on the boat in the lake. His boss revealed he bought it from an exhibition.
When he returns later to look at the photo (and perhaps at Percy a little too long), he ends up clutching his chest and sinking to the floor. Is it a panic attack, like the ones Percy endured? Or a heart attack, like his father? Is Charlie going to make it? It’s a hell of a cliffhanger to end Season 1 on, but it does ensure one thing: we’ll be seated for a Season 2, if there is one.
