How Every Year After Cast Felt About That Dramatic Secret Reveal

A (Fittingly) More Macabre Profession

In Every Summer After, Percy (Sadie Soverall) is now 30 and living in Toronto as a successful senior editor at an interior design magazine, where she works alongside her best friend Chantal (played by Aurora Perrineau on the show). 

"That puts me in a position of power, assigning stories and overseeing photoshoots at the country's biggest decor magazine," she said in chapter three. "It's work that I love and that I'm good at, and at Shelter's 40th anniversary bash, the magazine's editor-in-chief Brenda credited me with bringing the publication into the digital era."

Meanwhile, in Every Year After, the one-time horror superfan Percy works as an obituary writer, although it's a writing career she isn't the most passionate about. As she explained in the first episode, it's "one of the few things newspapers still need writers for. It pays the bills."

A Closer Look at Percy's World

In the novel, Percy's career in media also leads her to her now-best friend, Chantal, who only makes a feature through phone calls during Percy's visit.

"Chantal and I met as interns at the city magazine where she is now the entertainment editor," she added. "We bonded over the peculiar business of fact-checking restaurant reviews."

As for Chantal on the show, she is a high-powered attorney juggling her job and wedding planning while accompanying Percy on her trip. With her spending the week in Barry's Bay, viewers get a closer look at her complicated relationship with fiancé Drew and her interactions peopl from Percy's past life.

An International Romance

In the novel, the setting is exclusively Canadian—set around the province of Ontario. Percy is from Toronto, about 198 miles from Barry's Bay, and remains there as an adult. 

However, in the series, the best friends are Americans—which proves to be a hiccup for Chantal when her passport expires one day before she was set to return to the U.S. in episode three—who live in Seattle. And though Sam (Matt Cornett) and Charlie Florek (Michael Bradway) are Canadians who hail from Barry's Bay, as in the book, the show traded in its Ontario setting for British Columbia. 

It's a change that not only complements Seattle's role as the big city, but, as showrunner Amy B. Harris previously noted to Teen Vogue, after finding their perfect setting on the West Coast, "we didn't want to lie and say it was Ontario."

Adding a border to cross also factors into Sam and Percy's long-distance friendship-turned-romance. In fact, after she gets her license, Sam asks if Percy would be able to make a solo trip up to the lake, prompting her to quip, "Drive to another country? I doubt it." 

No Longer a Solo Trip to Barry's Bay

After Charlie Florek (Michael Bradway) calls Percy with the news of Sue's death and her upcoming memorial in the show, Drew urges her to spend the week with her best friend in Barry's Bay.

By doing so, the show transitions Chantal, now a high-powered attorney, from Percy's over-the-phone BFF to road-trip partner, giving her her own opportunity to be changed by Barry's Bay.   

While Chantal agrees to take her in the series, Percy makes the trip solo in the book without telling her best friend and decides to rent a car to make her way to Barry's Bay.

"I briefly consider not telling Chantal where I'm going, but then I have visions of getting in an accident and no one knowing why I was on the highway far from the city," she admitted in chapter three. "So, I write a quick text from the rental car lots, adding a few I'm totally fine exclamation points before I hit send."

A First Kiss Not Courtesy of The Blair Witch Project

In the novel, Percy and Sam finally share their first kiss after the former asks to sleep at their house when she got spooked by The Blair Witch Project in the summer of 2013. As the pair share Sam's bed, they confess their feelings for one another before locking lips.

Meanwhile, despite their sleepover taking place under similar circumstances on the show, they don't share their first kiss until the next episode, during a very flirty anatomy lesson the following year. 

An Unlikely New Owner for The Tavern

When Percy plans to leave Barry's Bay early after learning that Sam's girlfriend Taylor (Roan Curtis) in the present, the executor of Sue's estate requests that she be present during Sue's will reading. She learns during the meeting that she was bequeathed The Tavern, which shocks everyone.

With Charlie in talks to sell that restaurant to Percy's former best friend Delilah Mason (Abigail Cowen), the new ownership leads to a conflict between the brothers and Percy. As for The Tavern's fate in the book? Longtime employee Julien bought it at a “family discount” from Charile and Sam.

Hey There, Delilah. What's It Like in Barry's Bay?

Sue's Mental Health Struggles

Sam shares in both the book and the series that his and Charlie's dad died of a heart attack. However, the show expands on Sue's grief journey. 

"After dad died, she kind of fell apart," Charlie, who was 14 at the time, begins. "That first year, you were 11, maybe you don't remember or maybe you didn't see it. I tried to hide it from you."

"Mom was dark, down. I guess some shrink might even say depressed. Sometimes, she would just stay in her pajamas all day," he explains. "Sometimes, I come home from school and she'd just be sitting at the kitchen table, staring. It was scary."

And it was a time that fundamentally changed the elder Florek. Charlie reveals that during that time, he took on additional responsibilities, including grocery shopping.

"She got better and things got better," he adds. "I feel bad for saying this, but I'm still so pissed at her. She left us alone that year."

Sam Learns the Devastating Truth About Percy and Charlie

Throughout the book and series, Percy and Charlie are wracked with guilt over an incident that led Percy to leave Barry's Bay for good.

As for why it happened? After Charlie decided not to spend their last summer at Barry's Bay since he was going off to college early, Percy spent her time with Charlie. In a vulnerable moment, Charlie—who harbored feelings for his little brother's girlfriend—and Percy have sex. 

After Sam decides against proposing to Taylor in episode five, he meets with Percy to confirm that he is now single and wants to be together. Burdened with guilt, Percy admits that she and Charlie had sex a decade earlier after their breakup.

Sam, learning this news for the first time, is devastated and walks away as Percy pleads for him to understand how much she regrets it.

Meanwhile, Percy continues to call Charlie and eventually texts him to say that his younger brother knows about their ill-fated move. Charlie confronts Sam, who chooses to cut off contact after their mom's memorial.

In the book, however, by the time Percy comes clean to Sam, he's already had years to digest the information. After all, it was Charlie who first told Sam—and Sue—just months after it happened.