Time is the best healer.
Everyone learned that the hard way on Every Year After Season 1 finale, Episode 8, which kicked off with Sue Florek’s memorial service.
The week leading up to the event was difficult for everyone, as they all had to deal with the harsh realities of impulsive decisions that came with some dire consequences that changed the trajectory of their lives forever.
Charlie and Percy came clean about their one-night hookup, which alienated Sam. And though he came around for the funeral, he wasn’t able to forgive and forget just yet.
The wounds were still open and raw, which only time could heal. In one swoop, he not only lost his mother, but he lost his brother, his best friend and the love of his life.
When it came to Percy and Sam’s relationship, well, they were always very dramatic with their goodbyes, allowing themselves one proper sendoff in the back of his pickup. For old time’s sake. There’s also an epic speech from Percy that kind of seals the deal.
She came back to Barry’s Bay to get closure, which was much harder than she ever thought it would be, but it was necessary.
The scene shortly after their goodbye hookup is heartbreaking because it underscores the permanence one bad decision can have. No matter how much Sam wanted to be with Percy, he couldn’t just forget what happened. The damage was done.
Sam: “I loved you.”
Percy: “I know.”
Sam: “You broke my heart.”
Percy: “I know that too.”
Sam: “I want so much to forgive you but I don’t think I can do this.”
Percy: “I know.”
With everything out in the open, Percy came to terms with the fact that she’d lost Sam for good… for now.
The love existed on both sides, but the cracks were beyond repair.
So, everyone did exactly what they always did when the summer bliss came to an end—they went back to their normal lives.
This time, however, Percy returned to Seattle with the same confidence she once possessed when she was loved properly by Sam in Barry’s Bay.
She took back her power, reclaiming her name—Persephone, Queen of the Underworld. In truth, she found strength, returning to the kind of writing that once made her happy, not the obituaries that confined her. She even got a publisher for her first horror novel.
She finally understood that a single place or a single person didn’t define her. And she embraced that she’s made up of a collection of moments—joyful, painful, and everything in between—learning to embrace the full spectrum of highs and lows.
Sam continued to follow her writing, being her biggest supporter, while going back to confronting his life in the medical field, not hiding from it anymore.
Meanwhile, Charlie coped with the loss of his brother by throwing himself into work.
Percy even received the key for the tavern, and though the series never really dug into why Sue left it for her—they were close, but she was never such a huge presence in Percy’ slife the way that Susannah from TSITP was a touchstone to Belly and her boys—the final episode did dig deeper into the bond between Percy and Sue. And there was one moment where Sue explained that the “Florek boys don’t own the town, we do.”
It seems that it’s entirely possible Sue simply knew that Percy would take better care of the tavern, giving it the love and attention it deserved, rather than pushing it aside.
And that’s exactly what she did.
When things began to defrost and summer rolled back around, hearts began to defrost as well.
Percy re-opened the tavern with Delilah, bringing a new elevated vibe to the lakeside town staple. And it seems following Delilah’s gut on this one made the most sense, as it turned out to be a roaring success, with a 45-minute wait on opening night.
I’m a little bummed that Delilah and Percy never decided to simply buy her old house before it was demolished together. There was one point during an episode where Delilah gets kicked out, and Percy informs her that she’s got her. I was almost sure that when they both landed on their feet, they’d find a place to call home in a place that once meant so much to them.
Chantal returned to town with Jordie, and while they were existing in the “murky” and not defining their relationship initially, he wanted more, as they agreed to make it official.
Delilah had a year of hookups under her belt following her divorce, getting a lot out of her system, including Charlie, though when she saw Jordie and Chantal kissing, she definitely felt some type of way about it. And man, I hope she doesn’t come and cause a problem because she had her shot, and she prioritized relationships for image rather than for love, which was a lesson she learned the hard way.
And as Percy was cleaning up after the big opening, she heard Sam’s voice behind her, as she repeated the same phrase he told her when she finally came back after a decade, “You came home.”
The look that they gave each other reveals that maybe there’s a chance for these wild kids to get it right after all.
Though this isn’t your typical teenage romance story because, well, there really wasn’t a happy ending. Not in the way you’d expect from most of these small-town rom-coms.
Sam came back into Percy’s orbit, which was proof that these two can’t ever truly stay apart from one another, but there’s plenty more that needs to be done to heal.
Charlie remains cast aside, throwing himself into work to cope, but that also comes at a price, as Delilah expresses that she’s worried about him.
In the final moments of the episode, he notices a picture of himself on the boat with Sam and Percy in Barry’s Bay in his colleague’s office, who said his wife randomly picked it up at a gallery. It’s extremely random, yes, but it’s meant to serve as a reminder of the good times, before things became so complicated between them all.
When he goes to look at the shot again after a long day, he begins to feel pain in his arm, before grabbing his chest and collapsing to the ground. Charlie Florek suffered a heart attack, just like his father, which we know led to his untimely death.
Time heals all wounds, but time is also never guaranteed.
Charlie’s fate remains unknown as the season concludes, but that ending almost guarantees a second season renewal.
Will Charlie survive? Will this be the big moment that brings Sam back into his life? Will the brothers reconnect because of the health scare, the same one that took their father?