Warning: This story contains spoilers for Virgin River season 6
In its sixth season, Virgin River built up to a moment that fans have been waiting for since the series began in 2019: Mel (Alexandra Breckenridge) and Jack (Martin Henderson) finally tied the knot in the tenth episode. Their storybook wedding went off with very little drama, aside from Mel’s father Everett (John Allen Nelson) missing the ceremony because he was in the hospital. (He did make it to the reception to sing her a special song.)
[time-brightcove not-tgx=”true”]But this is Virgin River, a town known for its beautiful vistas, cheery residents, and some of the hottest gossip you’ll ever see on TV. After the happy couple made it official, the bombs started dropping, ending the season on a juicy cliffhanger, with one character’s fate hanging in the balance. Virgin River, which was just renewed for another season—making it Netflix’s longest-running English language drama series—is known for these twists and turns. TIME spoke to Virgin River showrunner, producer, and writer Patrick Sean Smith about the final moments of the season, and what to expect for the beloved characters of this idyllic, but cursed California enclave.
At the start of the season, Tim Matheson’s Doc was celebrated by his family and friends at the clinic, where they honored his 30 years of working as a doctor in Virgin River. But after a house call lands a patient in the hospital, Doc’s expertise is questioned by another doctor. This leads to an investigation into his medical license, threatening everything he’s ever worked toward. In the finale, his wife Hope (Annette O’Toole), who is also the town’s mayor, reveals that she got a call that a larger hospital network is looking to expand into Virgin River, threatening the future of Doc’s clinic. “It throws everything up in the air professionally for Doc in season seven,” Smith says. “It also gets Hope involved as the mayor who is looking to protect what’s most valuable to her, which are Doc and the integrity of the town.”
For most of the season, Lark (Elise Gatien) was trying to con her boyfriend Brady (Ben Hollingsworth) into giving her all of his money. She was secretly working with the father of her child, Jimmy (Ian Tracey), whose work for local drug lord Calvin landed him in jail. Luckily, Brady’s ex-girlfriend and Jack’s sister Brie (Zibby Allen) happened to be visiting a client at the jail when she saw Jimmy and Lark talking, which led her to telling Brady about what she saw. After learning that his girlfriend was playing him, Brady decided not to give Lark any money, which she had said was for her sick mom.
But after Brady realizes that he can’t have Brie (more on that later) and Lark realizes that Brady is actually a good guy, the two decide to really commit to each other. “It was real, but complicated,” Smith says. “If Brady lived in a world where Brie didn’t exist, then Lark would seem viable. But that’s not the case, and that’s what makes it messy.” The mess only continues when Brady talks to Brie at Mel and Jack’s wedding and they reveal their feelings for each other. Brady is unaware that Lark is in earshot and overhears their conversation. At the wedding, Brady gives Lark’s daughter his phone to play a game. By the time the night is over, Brady doesn’t realize that Lark and her daughter have taken off. When he looks at his bank account, he sees that all his money is gone. What happens next? Smith says that Brady will start looking for answers—and reconcile how he treated Lark in the past along with what reality there could actually be for him and Brie in the future.
Speaking of Brie, Jack’s sister is really going through it. She’s torn between two men: Brady and Mike (Marco Grazzini). “With Brady, there’s passion and sex, and with Mike, there’s safety, stability, and comfort,” says Smith. “Both of those are important qualities in a relationship, but Brie is in this unenviable place where she’s getting one from one guy and one from another and she can’t choose which path is best.” This leads her to making some tough decisions. In season 6, she’s perfectly happy with Mike, but ends up sleeping with Brady.
In the finale, after Mel and Jack get married, Mike proposes to Brie, and she tells him that she cheated on him. He responds by telling her that he knows. Smith reveals that they shot this scene in two ways: one version where Mike says he knows and one where he doesn’t. “I watched it with some of the writers on the show who didn’t realize that we added a line because it wasn’t in the script,” he says. “There were just audible gasps, so that was the one we went with.”
Throughout the series, Mel has been very candid about her struggles to have a baby, and this season, she and Jack were enthusiastic about adopting, though they were early in the process. The day after their wedding, Mel is approached by one of her patients, Marley (Rachel Drance), who is pregnant. She announces that the couple who was supposed to adopt her baby are getting cold feet, and she wants Mel to adopt the child instead.
For Smith, this was a complex situation that felt exciting to play with. Before the wedding, Mel had a hard time embracing good things that happened to her because of all the tragedies she’d suffered in her life. “It was interesting to see how her character would react, the next day after her storybook wedding to have this other thing that she’s wanted the entire series just offered up to her,” Smith says. Though she’s desperate to have a baby, Marley’s offer comes with a lot of complicated factors. On an ethical level, Marley is Mel’s patient. And even though Mel knows Marley, Jack doesn’t at all.
This season, new mom Charmaine (Lauren Hammersley) is balancing her twin babies as well as a looming and dangerous situation. The babies’ dad Calvin is out of jail—and he’s trying to make Charmaine’s life as miserable as possible, even threatening her safety. Then, on Mel and Jack’s wedding day, she doesn’t show up. She’s supposed to do Mel’s hair and is nowhere to be seen.
The following day, Jack decides to go to Charmaine’s house to make sure that everything is okay. When he gets there, he opens the door to a room, his eyes go wide, and the episode cuts to black and ends on this cliffhanger.
Smith won’t reveal what happened to Charmaine, but he knew that he wanted to end the season that way because he’s got a bigger plan in season seven. He’s also thrilled that people are invested in Charmaine, who was once Mel’s biggest antagonist and a thorn in Jack’s side. “Histrocially she was a polarizing character,” he says. “I love people caring about her!”
