Spoiler alert: Spoilers for Every Year After Season 1 and the Every Summer After book series follow. Every Year After, adapted from Carley Fortune’s bestselling novel Every Summer After, finally released on Prime Video on June 10, and it’s good. One thing fans might not be expecting, though? The dramatic cliffhanger with Charlie that comes at the very end of Season 1. Fans of the novel know Charlie was a major part of the original story that was adapted for the series, but the cliffhanger in the show doesn’t actually happen in the first book. It may lead some viewers to wonder, does Charlie die in Every Year After?
Let’s back up a bit. Sam and Charlie Florek, two brothers who spend their summers in Barry’s Bay with main character Percy, lost their father when they were young to a heart attack. It’s part of what motivates Sam to become a cardiologist himself, and he’s in residency training when Season 1 takes place. In the final moments of Season 1, viewers catch up with Charlie, who is back in the city at his big finance job, working extra long hours and on weekends. In a scene that takes place in his boss’s office, Charlie notices a photo hanging on a larger gallery wall that just so happens to be a shot taken of him, Sam, and Percy on the boat in the lake at Barry’s Bay. It stuns Charlie, and though he asks his boss who took the photo, he doesn’t get a clear answer.
Later that night, before Charlie leaves the office to head home, he sneaks back into his boss’s office to take another look at the photo. While he’s in there, he starts experiencing symptoms reminiscent of a heart attack — he becomes short of breath, is clearly in pain, and grabs his left arm before falling unconscious on the floor. Considering that’s where Charlie’s storyline ends in Season 1, is it possible that he’s dead?
While the moment does seem serious for Charlie, something tells me Fortune and the Every Year After series creators wouldn’t kill off one of their main characters so quickly. Knowing Charlie may be genetically predisposed to some sort of heart condition (thanks to his father’s heart attack), it’s possible the health issue is just a scare. Plus, we have some intel from the Every Summer After book series that could point to the real issue. But let me be clear: If you’re not into spoilers, you may want to stop reading here.
In Fortune’s 2025 novel One Golden Summer, which follows newcomer and creative Alice Everly meeting Charlie at Barry’s Bay, Charlie has a similarly urgent medical event, resulting in a complex open-heart procedure brought on by congenital heart disease. Charlie’s arc in the show may follow a similar storyline to the novel, though it seems the storyline has moved up way before Charlie and Alice’s story is even introduced.
And it’s also possible that the show will veer away from what happens in the books altogether. After all, Sam and Percy’s story in Every Year After Season 1 did not end the same way it did in the book, either. Fans of the books may still be surprised to see what happens to Charlie in Season 2. Since the series hasn’t been renewed yet, for now, all we can do is wait.