'Every Year After' Season 1 Has A Major Season 2 Easter Egg
Prime Video's latest romance adaptation, Every Year After (2026), based on Carley Fortune's Barry Bay duology, is a sweeping and gorgeously complex love story that just released all eight episodes at once. Much to the shock of many viewers, this one isn't like a lot of standalone anthology romances, which, in many ways, makes sense, considering I think we'd all like more than two seasons. While the series isn't exactly like the books, its final episode does plenty to hint at how much Season 2 will cover Charlie Florek's book, One Golden Summer.
In an early cover story with Elle, showrunner Amy Harris said that in a second season, she'd draw inspiration from the second book, while still keeping the story of Sam and Percy on our screens. Rest assured, while we might not have casting at the time this article is being written, we have a huge hint that our girl Alice Everly already exists in this universe.
The Importance Of The Photograph In 'Every Year After,' Explained
In the last episode of Every Year After Season 1, ominously titled, "Goodbye..." Charlie walks into his boss's office and sees a photograph on the wall that was clearly taken at Barry's Bay. Not only that, but it's a photograph of him, his brother Sam, and Percy, taken during the last summer they spent at the lake before everything unraveled.
The photograph understandably catches Charlie off guard, and Michael Bradway does such a subtly excellent job of showcasing the reaction. He's stunned at first, but it's bigger than that. His brother Sam, played by Matt Cornett, has made it clear that he wants nothing to do with him after their mother's funeral, and he's essentially left alone. The photograph is then not only a stark reminder of what they once had, but also of everything that was thrown away in light of the one-time mistake he and Percy (Sadie Soverall) made by sleeping together.
As a visual, the photograph represents everything he's lost, but as a set piece, it's also everything he'll eventually gain. Every Year After Season 1 does a remarkable job of implementing parts of Charlie's book so discreetly into the narrative that non-book readers may not catch it until their second or third watch. To book readers, his heart condition isn't shocking, even if the timing of the heart attack is.
More importantly, the photograph is a clear sign that Alice Everly exists somewhere in this universe, and just as Charlie is enraptured with the photograph, we will be in awe of her. His boss also states that he doesn't know who took it, but it was a photograph his boss bought from a gallery years back, which also hints at what Alice's life was like then, versus how it's going when we meet her on our screens.
Who Is Alice Everly In 'Every Year After?'
The one thing that sets Every Year After apart from similar romantic dramas is the fact that this story is not a love triangle. The first season makes it obvious just how badly Charlie and Percy regret sleeping together, so it's not something that will ever be repeated because there are no romantic feelings between them. The series also draws out the conflict and anger between brothers, showing that the weight of Charlie's actions is a cross he perpetually carries. In simpler terms, Sam has Percy, and Charlie will get his own love story. This story won't be a seemingly endless back and forth.
The show's debut season also adds a fling between Charlie and Abigail Cowen's Delilah, which doesn't happen in the books, but the end of that makes it clear that she isn't the girl who'll turn his world upside down. No, that woman will be the photographer of the banana boat, and the girl who was there across the lake during that summer ten years ago.
When we meet Alice Everly in One Golden Summer, like Charlie, she's at a lower point in her life. As a photographer, she's lost her vision, and she's back in Barry's Bay to take care of her Nan. It's unclear how the series will explore the exact plot of the book because originally, the photograph wasn't revealed until much later. In addition, how Charlie will come to realize it's her and all the ways their relationship will pan out, only time can tell, but the Easter egg that she exists is huge to put us at ease that his love story is coming too. He won't be tortured by his self-loathing for too long and will eventually meet the woman who's his perfect match in every way.
