‘Every Year After’ Ending Explained By Boss & Star Plus Season 2 Hopes

SPOILER ALERT: This post contains spoilers for the finale of Every Year After.

Charlie Florek’s (Michael Bradway) redemption arc is loading.

In the final moments of the season one finale of Prime Video’s Every Year After, based on Carley Fortune’s bestselling novel Every Summer After, the elder Florek brother suffers a heart attack after discovering the central photo to Fortune’s sequel book, One Golden Summer, hanging in his boss’ office.

“It was a heart attack. We’re gonna let Percy have the panic attacks. Charlie gets the heart attack. Obviously, [Charlie’s] father died from a sudden heart attack, which is a big reason why Sam wanted to be a cardiologist and to help people, because of what happened to his father,†Bradway told Deadline. “And then it just so happens that Charlie also has heart problems, and unexpectedly, he’s looking at the famous photo and he’s reminiscing, and unfortunately it hurts too much, and he has a heart attack.â€

Taking place in the year-plus time jump from the events that unfolded when Charlie invited Percy back to Barry’s Bay for Sue’s (Elisha Cuthbert) funeral, it’s hinted that the older Florek brother is living a wealthy, but lonely lifestyle, especially when he comes into the office on a weekend day.

“I loved the idea [that] Charlie has buried himself in work. He has a broken heart. It’s now physically breaking down, but he’s also lost everything that matters to him,†showrunner Amy B. Harris told Deadline. “He lost his brother, he lost that community in Barry’s Bay. There’s this sadness and a heartbrokenness to where he is, and it felt so perfect that Alice’s photo would be the thing that reminded him of the world he loved and has lost.â€

The photo shows Charlie, his younger brother Sam (Matt Cornett) and Percy (Sadie Soverall) in the Floreks’s father’s yellow boat, nicknamed “The Banana Boat,†and it is taken by one Alice Everly in Fortune’s second book. Alice is the love of Charlie’s live, and their romance unfolds in One Golden Summer when Alice returns to Barry’s Bay to help her grandmother, Nan, heal from a hip surgery.

“It is their family boat, but I feel like it is Charlie’s badge, he’s the one that fixes it up, he’s the one that drives it. Sam’s not allowed to drive that boat,†Bradway said. “Especially in the first season, Sam has Percy, and it’s almost like … and Charlie gets the boat. Obviously I read One Golden Summer, and so I knew [the cliffhanger] was coming. I didn’t know exactly when they were gonna put it into the first season, but there’s a couple things that I did in the first episode that you can see, and sprinkled in throughout the season, that is a little teaser to the audience that we knew that this was coming.â€

The use of Mumford & Sons’s “Woman†proved that great minds think alike between actor and showrunner when it came to the character of Charlie, who author Carley Fortune found very easy to write.

“I’ve been a huge fan of that song for such a long time, and it’s actually in my Charlie playlist. It was actually in my Charlie playlist for a while, and so when I heard that that song was being played for that [moment], it was this crazy kismet,†Bradway added.

As for who will play Alice, that has not yet been determined, and Prime Video has not yet officially renewed Every Year After, but Harris did consider introducing the character in Season 1 in a more specific way.

“We talked a lot about ways to introduce Alice to our audience. ‘Were we going to cast her and have her walk into a scene, or was somebody going to mention her?’ We finally realized we had the most perfect way to bring her in without having to bring her in, which is that photograph,†she told Deadline.

Though Alice is now waiting in the wings, things aren’t yet tied into a bow when it comes to Percy and Sam’s relationship. While Sam sent an olive branch of sorts in the form of the keys to The Tavern — which his mother Sue left to Percy in her will — the friends to lovers have more to work through, especially after the reveal that Percy slept with Charlie.

“We knew from day one we were going to be ending [with] Sam and Percy not together. I very intentionally kept them standing apart, so we know, for the audience they’re getting a version of a happy ending, but for us in our journey as storytellers, this is just the beginning for them. We have lots more story to tell,†Harris told Deadline.

And things are not over for Jordie (Josephe Chiu), Chantal (Aurora Perrineau) and Delilah (Abigail Cowen) either.

“We intentionally built out the ensemble because I think we can tell lots of stories with our six main characters. Obviously, Sam and Percy are our love story, the one we were following this season, but to me, the love triangle between Jordie, Chantal and Delilah has much more to explore,†Harris added. “I feel like there’s a lot of story still to be told there. I think first loves die hard, as we know from Percy and Sam, so I’m really interested in exploring that.â€

While Chantal and Jordie seem happy together at The Tavern after Jordie’s asked her if they want to define the relationship — no more murky lake water — and date for real, Harris described this as “early days†for their blooming romance.

“They’re trying to have a relationship and they’re really committing to it, and I think that’s beautiful, but there is a woman out there who is starting to realize that the person she was maybe supposed to be with was always right in front of her,†Harris said. “And for Jordie, that was his first love. So I’m excited to explore where that could go.â€

Author Fortune praised the “brilliant, emotional†finale episode from the script to the details of One Golden Summer that Harris honored. As for Charlie, if readers and viewers have learned anything, he’s going to be a wildcard. Fortune knew early on after she finished Every Summer After that there was more story to explore for him.

“There’s still way more Sam and Percy to play with there while bringing in a new new storyline from One Golden Summer, I think that would be so exciting to me. I want to see Alice and Nan for sure, she told Deadline. “I love Charlie. He’s my favorite character to write, in that he’s very easy for me to write. I don’t know what it is about him, but I can put him in a room and he almost does his own thing, I can channel him really easily, and when I finished writing Every Summer After, I started writing from Charlie’s voice, even before I had a book deal because he stayed with me, and there was so much more I wanted to say about him that isn’t in Every Summer After.â€

At the time the series order of Every Year After was given by Prime Video, Fortune hadn’t yet published or even fully announced One Golden Summer, but the sequel book is also under option with Prime Video.

“I found [Charlie] to be a very complicated character, unlike Sam, there’s so much that’s underneath the surface with Charlie,†Fortune said. “You think he’s one thing, but he’s not, and I had fans just demand that he have a love story. So the job of trying to figure out who the right person to pair him with was very tricky, but I I just loved that he gets this redemption story.â€