Every Year After Recap Season 1 Episode 5 ‘I Choose You’
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The core of Every Year After’s maiden season is the ache and pull of young love, of two people being on the same page but somehow missing each other by inches. Percy and Sam loved each other years before they first kissed, and loved each other long after they had left each other’s lives. The push pull of their teenage love was once more juxtaposed with a more adult kind of love, the kind that already knew that time did not necessarily heal the heart’s aches, nor did distance ease longing. The flashbacks sparkled more in its youthful exuberance and innocence, and by the end of the episode, it looked like Percy had already decided to tell Sam this big secret she has been carrying all these years.
So Sam didn’t know? Sam has been this angry at Percy for… leaving? I am going to put a pin on this and reserve further comments until the sixth episode.
It was New Year’s Eve of 2014 when Percy decided to return to Barry’s Bay to rub Sam’s face over the fact that she had a hot new boyfriend, who just happened to be Delilah’s cousin, Mason. Sam was not happy that the girl whose heart he broke had moved on, and decided to repeatedly point out how Mason did not know Percy at all – had never read any of her stories, did not know about her love of horror films. Percy rightfully read Sam the riot act, and when they next saw each other over the summer, Sam apologised for how he acted. He even asked Percy and Mason to hang out with him and his girlfriend Lake. Percy, who had already broken up with Mason, told Delilah to bring his cousin with her when she came over the next week.
Percy was all over Mason once he and Delilah arrived, and they made a point of sitting in Sam’s section at The Tavern. After hearing from Jordie that Sam’s relationship with Lake was not serious, that Lake went after Sam and it happened because they were together a lot at the restaurant where Sam worked as a waiter and Lake a hostess, Percy decided to get a job at the restaurant as well. Mason, poor guy, could not stay long at Barry’s Bay because he needed to go to hockey camp. Does this feel juvenile? Yes, and that’s the beauty of it. I have my reservations about the way Every Year After executed the present day narrative (especially regarding Percy’s big sin/ secret) but the flashbacks, taken on their own, were done well. The show captured the awkwardness and sweetness of their first summer, their growing friendship, the teenage attraction, the blurring lines, the eventual decision by both to jump into the romance of it all, the heartbreak, the petty squabbling. Specific to the Percy and Sam story, the strength laid on the flashbacks.
Charlie’s flashback story with Delilah, however, was a bit more on the disturbing side. Charlie was three years older, and as adults, that age difference did not matter. As teenagers, however, it absolutely did. To be fair to Charlie, he never allowed the flirtation to get out of hand, but there should not have been a flirtation with Delilah in the first place. When he mentioned champagne to Delilah at the New Year’s Eve party, I could only write ‘She’s 16!’ on my notes. Thankfully, Charlie left with another woman, and Delilah ended up kissing Jordie.
Present day Charlie was upset that, according to his mother’s lawyer, Sue was of sound mind and body when she drafted the will, and he had no chance of contesting it. When Delilah asked him why he was fighting it, Charlie’s, ‘Why didn’t she want us to have it?’ was a laden question from an exhausted son who never quite saw eye to eye with his mother, but who, in his own way, did his best to do right by his family.
Delilah finally told Charlie that her marriage to Whit was over, and Charlie’s response was to immediately make clear he was not looking for a relationship. Busy adults tended to appreciate that kind of clarity; Delilah never even considered looking for a relationship with him. But, Charlie was not quite ready to really let Delilah go.
A spiraling Percy who just found out Sam intended to propose to Taylor, and who could not even hang out at the motel because Chantal’s sick fiance Drew was there, ended up at Delilah’s beautiful home. Given what we have seen of the relationship between Percy and Delilah when they were young, it was nice that the two of them reconnected. Percy was still there when a drunk Charlie showed up.
Charlie started ranting as soon as Delilah opened the door, about how he kept The Tavern afloat, how he paid for Sam’s med school without telling him, about how he was a good person. He claimed he did not care that Delilah used him to get over Whit; I don’t think it was entirely about that, Delilah has nursed a crush on Charlie since her teens. It was then that Percy interrupted, and Charlie turned his ire on her.
Delilah left them to talk, and here the conversation-slash-argument was about the secret again. I have a guess on what it is but, let’s wait for the next episode. Apparently, they had an agreement that they would not say anything about whatever it was that happened 10 years ago. Charlie asked Percy if she thought Sue would have given her The Tavern had she known why Percy left, and accused her of keeping it under false pretences. Charlie dangled Sam’s name, and Percy warned that Sam could never ever know. Charlie declared he wished he did not listen to his mother and called her.
What was the point of Charlie drunkenly coming to Delilah’s house? Apparently, it was to ask her to try and have a relationship with him, a real one. Delilah admitted that most of her life, she would have jumped on his offer. But, they both had work to do, and they needed to do that on their own.
Jordie and Chantal were both wary of Sam choosing to propose to Taylor on the week of his mother’s funeral, and after Percy returned to town. At first, Sam seemed determined to go ahead with it, but at the last moment, he changed his mind. Instead, he broke up with Taylor and found Percy at her favoured reading spot. Just as he told her back in 2015 that he and Lake had broken up, that he chose her, here he was again, telling Percy he wanted her. But Percy has had enough of carrying this burden of secret and sin. She told Sam there was something she needed to tell him.
Rating: B
Strays
🚤Delilah, commenting on her hot cousin Mason: ‘We’re related, but I’m not blind.’ Lol.
🚤Drew realised he was sick when he was about to go on a fishing trip with his buddies, and decided to head toward Chantal, who was annoyed because she did not want to have to mother him. She was also concerned about getting sick, because of her heavy caseload, which I totally sympathise with. Jordie brought soup and Gatorade for Drew and ice cream of Chantal.
🚤Drew brought his half brother Jake, whom Percy tried to sleep with to forget her problems, but she realised she could not do it.
Episode Title: I Choose You
Episode Writer: John Stephens
Episode Director: Tara Nicole Weyr
Release Date: June 10, 2026