‘Virgin River’: Martin Henderson on the Secret Mel’s Keeping From Jack, Wedding & More
Q&A
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There was just something so fun about the Virgin River holiday episodes after recent happenings on the Netflix romantic drama, and that’s a sentiment star Martin Henderson shares.
“I thought they were my favorite, actually. It was so fun to do, particularly after I think this Season 5 was relatively heavy with what the characters all went through with the fire and the miscarriage,” he tells TV Insider. “There was just so much. I think previous seasons were probably more feel good throughout the whole, whereas this had some much more contentious stuff going on and to sort of then be released back into the really fun, joyful Christmas stuff at the end felt really good.”
But it wouldn’t be Virgin River without some drama. Below, Henderson ponders what’s next when it comes to some of those big moments, as well as shares what he knows about Season 6 and his thoughts on Jack’s ideal wedding.
How might Jack react to finding out Calvin (David Cubitt) is the father of Charmaine’s (Lauren Hammersley) twins and that Mel (Alexandra Breckenridge) is keeping that secret for Charmaine?
Martin Henderson: Yeah, I don’t know. It’s funny because I have my idea of how I think Jack would react, but then ultimately, the writers will write whatever they think would happen, and it’s not always the same. So we’ll wait and see what they decide.
I actually thought Jack would’ve been less forgiving with Charmaine at the beginning of Season 5 when he was trying to wrap his head around that betrayal and says, “I don’t want anything to do with the woman.” And then Mel suggests, “Well, in order to move on for yourself, you got to forgive her,” and blah, blah. Then they have this sort of apology at the end, and that’s it. I was like, oh, I don’t think Jack would’ve come to that decision quite as easily or quickly. So I don’t know. Sometimes you get surprised by what I believe the character’s feelings are and then how the writers articulate that.
But it is an interesting point because Mel and Jack said they would never keep anything from each other, and then here she is, keeping this giant [thing] from him. So who knows? The writers might conveniently forget that little pact or just have it not come up in the conversation. But I think that could be a really fun thing to explore with the characters. Now they’re at this stage where they’re engaged to get married, they’re making this commitment, and they’re setting the ground rules for their relationship, and they’re talking about what the boundaries are and what aspects of trust that they have to both have in order to feel safe. And you could argue that this is a little betrayal of that pact, and it’s one of those complicated things because yes, she’s made a promise to Jack, but now she’s made a promise to Charmaine, and she can’t do both at the same time. So where do her loyalties lie? We’ll wait and see.
Courtesy of Netflix
What does the ideal wedding look like for Jack at this point?
One of the things I like about Jack is he’s a very humble kind of guy. I like that he’s not a showy man. There’s something very grounded about him. He’s very at home in Virgin River. He chose to make that his home. He doesn’t drive a flashy car. There’s just something quite grounded about him. So I hope the wedding would reflect that. But at the end of the day, I think if Mel insists on something a little more glamorous, then I can’t imagine he would deny her that.
Best man — Preacher (Colin Lawrence)?
I think it would have to be, yeah. I love working with Colin.
I love that dynamic so much. It’s so good to see that, because then you have the flip side with Jack and Brady (Benjamin Hollingsworth) and that dynamic.
I wonder if Brady will be in one of the groomsmen or not. We’ll see what happens between now and the wedding.
Yeah, because Brady is becoming kind of the man that everyone wants him to be. He’s maturing.
Right, but how much of it is just to ingratiate himself or get his girl back, and that sort of corrupted aspect of his character, can it be seduced? [All of that] is really lovely. I think it’s a really cool character because you’re like, will he be a good or a bad guy? He could flip both ways. You could believe him doing either now, which I think is kind of fun, to sort of see how external circumstances affect him.
What can you say about Season 6?
Yeah, there’s some good ones, but I don’t want to give it away. We jump forward a little bit, I believe, although now that the strike and everything has changed our shooting, we’re going to be shooting in winter, and so that might affect some of the creative decisions about the timeline, about where the show will sit. But I’m pretty sure we’re jumping a little bit forward, so I think it’ll be quite fun for the audience to leap forward a little bit with the characters, because the last five seasons essentially took place over about nine months, give or take. It would be fun to just leap the characters a little bit further forward, and it’ll be fun to see where we find Mel and Jack, let’s just say that.
What does Jack think of how everything went down with Mel’s biological father (John Allen Nelson)? There was that tease at the end that he has something to tell her, which seemed ominous, and this is directly going to affect Jack because now here’s someone who will be part of their lives.
My understanding is that relationship between Mel and her father will be evolving throughout Season 6, and I believe that it will present some drama between Jack and her father. There’s a little bit of stuff that they have to work through, particularly if he’s going to remain in Mel’s life. And if these guys do get married, then they have to sort that out. So there’s some nice kind of in-law drama that I think we’re going to see play out, but in a really thoughtful manner, too. It’s not just soapy drama. I think the writers are going a bit deeper than that. And I think it’s going to be quite compelling because most people can relate to in-law stuff, because you marry your partner and then all of a sudden, you’re basically married to their family as well. That can be a good thing, but it can also be a challenge because you might not necessarily agree on their politics or their values, and that can create some good drama. I think the show is going to examine some of that stuff.
Who do you want to see Jack interact with more in Season 6?
I’ve been really hoping that we’d see a little bit more of Jack and Hope (Annette O’Toole), because it felt to me when the show started — and we’ve met Jack’s mom now, but she’s down in Sacramento —that it was set up that Hope and Jack had almost like a mother-son dynamic, and I enjoyed that, but that never really went anywhere over the last few seasons. So I’d love to see that develop because I just think there’s something really sweet about that. And, to your point, Preacher, hopefully there’ll be some nice interactions between Jack and Preacher leading up to [Jack and Mel] getting married. Because I really love that friendship, and I just love Colin so much. He’s such a sweet, lovely guy. He’s so easy to work with.
Courtesy of Netflix
And I think Preacher’s going to need someone to lean on with what’s going on right now in his life.
Absolutely. So yeah, I’d like to see those friendships strengthened a bit. Because that’s ultimately what the show is all about, right? It’s about community and people supporting each other and certainly in times of need, so I’m sure we’ll see more of that.
And I’m curious to see how the writers play out the Brady-Jack thing. I think Jack’s been burnt by Brady so many times in Iraq in a serious manner, even though Jack took on the blame for that. He also knows that a lot of that loss that occurred was due to Brady’s insubordination and lack of respect. And when he came back, he stole from Jack and then he lied. So I feel like that relationship has been so fraught with hurt and betrayals that it’ll be interesting to see Jack negotiate this return of Brady and how he’s going to prove his good character, whilst now he’s embroiled in this relationship with Lark (Elise Gatien) and her basically being a little proxy for Jimmy (Ian Tracey). It’s going to be really cool to see how all that plays out, too.
Virgin River, Season 6, TBA, Netflix
