Aurora Perrineau & Joseph Chiu On Their Every Year After Love Triangle
“That look in the finale, Jordie doesn’t clock that.”
Fans of Carley Fortune’s Every Summer After books already know how the main romances turn out, but Prime Video’s adaptation Every Year After introduced a totally new love triangle that not even book lovers can predict. In the 2022 novel, Percy’s best friend Chantal and Sam’s bestie Jordie are side characters who don’t get their own love stories. But that’s changed in the show — not only do they end up getting together toward the end of Season 1, there’s also a a third party who could infiltrate the romance.
There’s just one thing that’s not totally clear about the situation with Chantal, Jordie, and Delilah, and that’s exactly how much everyone is aware of everyone’s true feelings. Viewers may be questioning how much Chantal and Jordie have picked up on Delilah’s attraction to her longtime Barry’s Bay pal, but Aurora Perrineau and Joseph Chiu have a good idea of what’s going on.
Perrineau believes that Chantal has picked up on Delilah’s close bond with Jordie but doesn’t see it as a threat to her own relationship with him. “I think that Chantal’s aware of it, but she’s also formed her own friendship with her and doesn’t think Delilah would ever do anything to harm that,” Perrineau says. “So, she’s picking up on it, but it just feels like old flames to Chantal, so she’s leaving it alone.”
Chiu, on the other hand, thinks Jordie has dropped the entire notion of a romance with Delilah long ago, so he’s totally unaware of his friend potentially developing deeper feelings. “In Jordie’s head, the situation with Delilah is cooked,” Chiu says. “Once Jordie meets Chantal, he’s happy.”
In Season 1’s final moments, Delilah looks onto Chantal and Jordie with a yearning gaze as they share a kiss. While that tips off the audience, Chiu emphasizes that Jordie is still totally in the dark: “That look in the finale, Jordie doesn’t clock that.”
Chiu says he uses the Cat Stevens standard “The First Cut Is the Deepest” to describe Jordie and Delilah’s missed connections. While he won’t share the backstory that he and Abigail Cowen came up with for how Jordie and Delilah interacted in the decade that wasn’t shown in Every Year After, he confirmed they “talked about it a lot.”
“I found it really easy to play those scenes where we’re teenagers, because Abby had such great mannerisms,” Chiu says. “She gave me the confidence to really lean into my boyishness as young Jordie.”
