Every Year After Cast Reveals Their Dreams for Season 2

Warning: The following contains spoilers for Every Year After Season 1. Read at your own risk!

First love and its aftermath can be a rollercoaster. That’s definitely the case for the teens and their adult selves in Amazon Prime Video’s latest romantic drama, Every Year After. The first season introduces us to Sam Florek (Matt Cornett) and Percy Fraser (Sadie Soverall), who first meet as two awkward pre-teens but develop a love that spans decades. However, poor communication and past trauma prevent them from realizing early on that they may be meant for each other, and almost stop them from making it work in adulthood as well. While Sam and Percy have several questions surrounding their future, they aren’t the only ones in Barry’s Bay that fans will want to catch up with in Season 2. 

There’s also Charlie (Michael Bradway), Sam’s older brother, who has an instrumental role in Sam and Percy’s teenage breakup and is still paying for it heading into his 30s. He’s still figuring himself out, just like Percy’s friend Delilah (Abigail Cowen), who ends Season 1 in the midst of a sticky divorce and a forced period of self-discovery. Percy’s best friend, Chantal (Aurora Perrineau), is also reevaluating what her future will look like after an unexpected romance develops between her and a Barry’s Bay motel manager, Jordie (Joseph Chiu). 

Prime Video still hasn’t formerly ordered a second season of Every Year After, but that didn’t stop us from asking the cast and creative team what they most want to explore if that sophomore season gets the greenlight. Some of the items on the wishlist are very pressing. 

Everything you need for summer TV:

Charlie 

“I want Charlie to live,” Bradway says immediately when asked what he most wants to see in the next season. That’s a fair and accurate statement. Charlie ends Season 1 by collapsing on the floor of his office, seemingly from a cardiac event, after seeing a photo of himself, Sam, and Percy as teens on his father’s refurbished speedboat. Series watchers don’t know if anyone will find Charlie and get him to a hospital so he and Sam have a chance to fix their relationship, but readers of the Barry’s Bay novels, on which Every Year After is based, know that this is just set up for the show to adapt the second book in the series, One Golden Summer. 

There won’t be any further book spoilers here outside of confirming Charlie is supposed to live through this terrifying event. It’s obvious that a lot still needs to be worked out and explored when he recuperates.

“In the series, we got to see a lot of why he was who he was. He was responsible for his younger brother after their dad passed. Their mother wasn’t handling her grief as well as she needed to for her two boys,” executive producer Amy B. Harris explains. “I love the idea of people making bad choices. All three of them did that, and I think in some ways, Charlie paid the highest price. He didn’t spend as much time in Barry’s Bay after he and Percy hooked up. He lost time with his mother and with his brother.” 

His mother, Sue (Elisha Cuthbert), dies at the beginning of Season 1, which doesn’t allow Charlie more time to mend their relationship. He ends the season not talking to his brother after Sam discovers Percy and Charlie slept together after he left for college. Ironically, time is what Bradway believes the boys need more of to get their relationship back on track, among other more extreme methods.

ALSO READ: The Every Year After Team Weighs In on Sam and Percy’s ‘Question Mark’ Season 1 Ending

“They need to be locked in a room together for weeks. Sam still might not forgive Charlie. Charlie is doing his best to explain why he did what he did. He’s trying really hard to take accountability for that, which is something I love about Charlie,” the actor explains. “Other than that, it is going to take some time. It is going to take Sam wanting to forgive Charlie. There’s nothing else Charlie can do except just be there when Sam is ready.” 

Maybe a heart attack will be what Sam needs to give his big brother another chance? Matt Cornett is optimistic about it, at least. 

“What’s so hard for Sam with Charlie is that Charlie is the only family he has left. That’s why the betrayal feels so heavy to Sam. That’s inherently what will make it harder for them to come back from this. Charlie is going to have to work for it. He knows he’s going to have to work for it, to a degree,” the actor proposes. “I’m interested to see what some events in One Golden Summer lead to in their relationship, because there’s some stuff from the second book that I really hope we get to explore. If we’re able to do another season, I think they will be a perfect way to forcefully bring them back together.” 

Of course, if the second season of Every Year After follows the second book, we’re also hoping that Charlie will get his own chance at love. 

Delilah

Delilah isn’t facing a life-threatening situation at the end of Season 1, but her entire life has been flipped upside down. She arrives in Barry’s Bay as Percy’s childhood best friend, brimming with confidence and a desire to live life to the fullest. She returns to the lake town as an adult with her husband, but it soon becomes clear that Delilah is not in wedded bliss. She and her college sweetheart are separated, and a torrid affair with Charlie Florek leads to a tumultuous divorce. 

At the end of the Season 1 finale, Delilah is helping Percy run The Tavern and deciding to spend some time getting to know herself. That doesn’t mean it isn’t hard to see her friends finding the love she craves, though, whether that’s Sam and Percy reconnecting or Jordie finding a spark with Chantal. 

“Towards the end, I feel like she really wants to focus on herself. It’s the first time, probably ever, that she’s really not being boy crazy,” Cowen says of her character’s wistful ending. “She got married young and has always kind of been in something with someone, or controlling something. She has this beautiful journey, and at the end, she comes to, just for now, focusing on herself and discovering who she is without a partner, without someone to lean on. That’s where she’s at in the moment when we come to a close. That doesn’t mean she doesn’t end up finding the love she’s always wanted, but I think she has to take time for herself.” 

ALSO READ: Off Campus vs. Every Year After: What Amazon’s Latest Coming-of-Age Romances Get Right (and Wrong)

The actress is hoping a sophomore season will allow Delilah to open up to her friends more and rediscover the joy she found so easily when she first showed up in Barry’s Bay. 

“Delilah is starting to become more vulnerable and more like herself. I want to see the goofy side of her. I want to see the carefree side that she had when she was young,” the actress says. “I want her to heal that inner child and the things that happened when she was young. I want to see more of her healing journey, and I want her to find love, truly.” 

Cowen is also rooting for Charlie to live to see a second season, but she doesn’t think Delilah is still holding a romantic torch for her former crush. “I think they genuinely care of each other. They were a safe space for each other when they were both going through a hard time,” she explains. “I think they just generally want what’s best for each other.” 

Jordie and Chantal

At least one couple needed to survive the season in a good place for Every Year After to still be classified as a romance. Chantal and Jordie are carrying that heavy torch as the series moves forward, though they are the newest lovebirds in the bunch. 

Chantal comes to Barry’s Bay to support her best friend Percy in her quest to find closure with her first love. A passport snafu and a quarterlife crisis lead Chantal into a flirty back-and-forth with the local motel manager/owner, Jordie. The latter’s ability to go with the flow and be the guy that everyone needs in a dire situation is irresistible for the ambitious and self-reliant (to a fault) Chantal. She tries to deny their attraction at first — she’s engaged at the start of the season, after all — but she and Jordie are not only together, but making it exclusive by the time the first season ends. 

“Chantal sees a lot of what she would like her life to look like, and how she would like to be freer and have more fun when she’s with Jordie,” Aurora Perrineau says of their connection. Meanwhile, Joseph Chiu says that Chantal’s work-focused mindset is what brings Jordie into her orbit. 

“Chantal is beautiful. She’s hard-headed, but you’ve got to respect it. There’s an obvious burnout coming, but you’ve got to respect the grind that she’s on,” he details. “There are multiple layers underneath that of why she is the way she is, and I think Jordie is really intrigued.” 

ALSO READ: Everything we know about Netflix’s romance drama This Summer Will Be Different

Do these two have what it takes to make it long-term, though? The actors want to continue to explore the new sides the relationship brings out in them if the show moves forward. 

“I would like to see Jordie openly care about something and express what he wants instead of hiding behind his chill. I would also like to see him check out of the motel and have some ambition. I think Chantal has inspired him and pushes him to want to be great,” Chiu says. Perrineau is excited for Chantal to maintain some chill. “I want Chantal to continue on her journey of freeing herself of the things that don’t actually make her happy. Maybe she finds a new career that she actually enjoys and isn’t just work, work, work, work.” 

OK, making it work doesn’t mean everything is going to go smoothly all the time. But that is something Chiu is more than ready for. ” I’d also like to fight more with Chantal,” he jokes. “I think we have hilarious couple fights.” 

Sue Florek

The death of Sam and Percy’s mom, Sue, is the catalyst for Percy returning to Barry’s Bay and digging up the drama of her teen past. Sue still makes a huge impact on the first season through flashbacks as Percy and her sons remember what the charismatic matriarch meant to them during their youth. 

We saw how Sue stepped in as a mother figure for Percy in some very clutch moments (just imagine getting your first period on the couch with your best friend/crush, and not having someone like Sue to talk you through it). Her influence and leaving Percy her restaurant are what help Percy rediscover her voice as a writer. However, there’s also a lot that we didn’t see. Most of the Sue flashbacks come from Percy’s memories, so we’re not privy to what Sam and the boys went through after the death of her husband before Percy ever arrived at the lake.

That’s something Cuthbert would love to see in a potential Every Year After Season 2. “Everyone had such great moments with Sue, but I think Sue has dealt with a lot in her life and a lot of tragedy as well,” the actress tells us. “I think losing her husband was not an easy situation for her. It would be interesting to see how she coped with that and how that played a role in the boys’ lives.” 

Sue is also rooting from the great beyond for her sons to sort themselves out and accept the love they deserve. “I think that love conquers all. [Sam and Percy] are at a place where they can rekindle what they had. Sue would want them to lean into that for sure. She loved them together and would encourage their relationship,” Cuthbert reveals. “She wants Charlie to find love too. Maybe he hasn’t quite found it yet, but I think she has hope for him. I think he had to take on a lot more than Sam did when their dad died, and I think Sue wants to see him as happy as possible.” 

We can definitely cheers to that. 

Every Year After Season 1 is now available to stream on Prime Video.