Every Year After Timeline, Explained
Every Year After is, in a lot of ways, a hot mess. It’s hard to keep track of all the love triangles, betrayals, and flashbacks that befall the folk of Barry’s Bay, but you have to admit one thing: it’s damn entertaining.
As the name implies, Every Year After takes place over a number of years. The show keeps dipping back into past summers while the main events of the show take place over the course of a week in the present day. At the core of these summers is the slow-burn love story of Persephone ‘Percy’ Fraser and Sam Florek.
This is all well and good, but considering the amount of past and present drama, things can get more than a little bit confusing. So, in an attempt to clear up the chaos of Barry’s Bay, allow me to break down the timeline for you — but be warned, there are spoilers ahead.
'Every Year After' Starts With a Childhood Crush
The summers in question took place between 2011 and 2016. They are slowly unveiled via flashbacks alongside the events of the present day, which take place in 2026. While Percy spends a little time in Seattle before and after the funeral, the majority of the present-day stuff happens in Barry’s Bay, which she travels to after learning that Sam’s mother has died.
2011 marks the first summer Percy spends in Barry’s Bay. During this summer, she meets Sam and his brother Charlie down at the lake, which quickly becomes the centre of all the action. Still smarting over the middle school drama with then-best-friend Delilah, Sam and Percy quickly become close, as she introduces him to all her favourite movies.
By 2012, Percy’s second summer in Barry’s Bay, she and Sam have become very close friends. However, the dynamics are turned on their head after Delilah, who has since repaired her friendship with Percy, arrives at Barry’s Bay. When the kids later play a game of Truth and Dare, it becomes apparent that things are already becoming complicated, which is, perhaps, a sign of things to come.
A Turning Point
Summer 2013 is something of a turning point for Sam and Percy. As Delilah urges Percy to notice Sam’s glow-up, Charlie has a similar conversation with his brother. But both of them are too shy to make a move. Tensions run high when a power outage and a terrifying horror movie lead to Sam and Percy sharing a bed. When he later tells his brother he would never date Percy, she is left heartbroken, and things only become more awkward at the bonfire party, where Percy learns she has become the infamous pierogi girl. The final straw for Percy is learning that Sam took a girl to the spring formal, which leads to her kissing another guy in front of him.
By summer 2014, Sam and Percy remain close friends, and as he helps her with her quest to swim across the whole lake, they get even closer. Once Percy achieves this feat, she and Sam finally get together — but their romantic bliss doesn’t last. Sam’s mother Sue reminds them to not sacrifice their dreams, which leads to Sam unceremoniously dumping Percy.
Deviating from the summer tradition, Percy and Delilah spend New Year’s Eve 2014 at The Tavern. Things don’t go well, with Percy bringing along boyfriend Mason which causes Sam to act out.
Make or Break For Percy and Sam
By summer 2015, Mason and Percy have broken up, but when Percy learns Sam has a new girlfriend, she un-dumps him and invites him to Barry’s Bay. Percy then spends the summer working with Sam at The Tavern. The pair get increasingly close and, by the end of the summer, Sam dumps girlfriend Lake after she accuses him of having feelings for Percy. She is right, and the pair finally get together.
The last summer, the summer of 2016, is probably the most important moment in Sam and Percy’s past. They’re finally a couple, but the happiness is short-lived as Percy discovers that Sam got into a summer school and that he would be leaving in two weeks. After leaving, Percy spends the summer pining for Sam and fixing the boat with Charlie. Sam becomes increasingly distant, and eventually dumps Percy via e-mail. A hurting Percy then sleeps with Charlie, which sets off the chain of events that lead to her leaving Barry’s Bay for good.
As mentioned, by the time we catch up again with Percy, it’s been ten years since this happened. After Sam and Percy get closer again, Percy reveals her secret, and he ends up reacting the way one would probably expect. Following Sue’s funeral, Percy and Sam spend the night together, but he insists he can’t get over what she did. So, Percy returns to Seattle.
She continues to pursue writing, eventually publishing a piece online. When Sam stumbles across the story, he sends Percy the keys to The Tavern. She then returns to the town to open it up for the summer, and after the grand re-opening, Sam returns… What happens next is left ambiguous. More on that when Every Year After Season 2 arrives.
