Chasing Forever in ‘Virgin River’

Not even a rainstorm can dim the glow of Mel Monroe and Jack Sheridan’s love story.

On a wet, rainy day in June, during one of the final days of filming Season 6, the Virgin River crew assembles off the grid outside Lion’s Bay village in Vancouver, Canada. A winding path leads up to a waterfall tucked away in the lush forest.

A pinch of daylight attempts to peek through in between the storms, but the clouds keep winning out. In front of the waterfall, a beautiful meadow is taking shape with delicate springtime flowers. This peaceful meadow is a touchstone to Virgin River’s past because it is where Mel’s (Alexandra Breckenridge) biological father, Everett (John Allen Nelson), brought her mother, Sarah, decades earlier. Mel has brought Jack (Martin Henderson) to this secret place to pick flowers for their upcoming wedding.

When Breckenridge and Henderson step onto the set to film this scene, the sun finally peeks out, symbolic of Mel and Jack’s journey so far — light and love always shines through in the end.

Wedding of the (Holiday) Season

In Virgin River’s highly-anticipated sixth season, out December 19, Mel and Jack will finally tie the knot. This isn’t going to be your run-of-the-mill TV wedding. The nuptials are the town’s version of a royal wedding.

“That’s the big event of the season and the event of the year, if you will, for the town,” Henderson says, “There’s all this energy behind it. Of course, Hope wants it to be huge and bombastic, and Mel and Jack want it to be special and representative of what they want. There’s some conflict there.”

Echoing Henderson, Breckenridge admits that Mel is “imagining a certain version of her wedding that maybe some of the other people in the town are not going along with. They’re sort of seeing it as a little bit bigger than she is, so she has to contend with that in different areas. I think, eventually, she feels like it’s not entirely about her. It’s about her, but it’s not. I think she really wants to make everybody else happy.”

If Mel had it her way, she’d probably marry Jack in a place like the meadow. “I think Mel would like to have something small and intimate with just her family and friends,” Breckenridge says.

And while the Virgin River timeline isn’t the same as reality, the townspeople and fans alike have been waiting a long time for Mel and Jack to wed. However, that’s not going to stop an abundance of drama in the lead-up to Mel walking down the aisle.

Bad Blood

Everett showed up on Mel’s doorstep looking to forge a relationship with her in the Season 5 holiday episode, “Father Christmas.” Everett’s just now stepping into Mel’s life, but he’s no stranger to Virgin River. In fact, Doc (Tim Matheson) has serious bad blood with Everett, which only gets more complicated as Everett grows closer to Mel.

In Breckenridge’s eyes, Mel loves Doc “like a father, and that’s not going away for her. She’s just trying to navigate how to fit Everett in as well, but the challenge for Mel with Doc and Everett is that Doc hates Everett.”

Doc’s dislike of Everett stems from an incident years ago when Everett “betrayed” Doc, Matheson adamantly points out. “He’s done nothing to show any remorse or recovery from that. He’s hiding out in the hills, which I think there are quite a few people like that up in the Virgin River,” the actor adds. As Mel’s connection with her father deepens, Doc has to “grow up a bit and get over the fact that you can’t hang onto old feelings like that forever.”

Mel is “over the moon” to get closer to Everett, but that’s easier said than done. “It’s a little bit tricky to navigate because he’s an introvert in a very intense way,” Breckenridge reveals. As a supportive husband-to-be, Henderson says Jack “becomes quite pragmatic” about Doc and Everett burying the hatchet. “He feels rightly that it’s very important that Mel has both of her dads at the wedding,” the actor adds.

This new father-daughter relationship is also a gateway for Mel to learn more about her late mother. Sarah died when Mel was very young, so she has spent the majority of her life without her mom.”This is an amazing window into really getting to know her mother in a different way, and it’s extremely important and extremely special for her, especially going into her wedding,” Breckenridge notes.

Blast Into the Past

As Mel learns more about her father and his relationship with her mother, the show introduces us to a new love story: the one between young Everett and Sarah. Virgin River travels back to the 1970s, when bell-bottom jeans and Don McLean’s “American Pie” were all the rage.

When showrunner Patrick Sean Smith started building out Everett’s character, he knew a flashback storyline was key to introducing “another romance that’s confined a little bit, as opposed to bringing in a new couple in the present day.” The younger versions of Everett and Sarah are played by Callum Kerr and Jessica Rothe, who Smith says are “pitch perfect” for the pivotal roles.

While the older version of Everett is jaded and closed off, his younger self is the total opposite. “He is full of excitement and wonder, and he wants to travel and see things and doesn’t want to be tied down and wants to be able to get up and go whenever he wants,” Kerr explains.

But one chance encounter changes everything for Everett: the moment he meets Sarah. While Everett is in his On the Road era, Sarah’s on a mission. “She wants to make a difference. She wants to shake things up and change the world,” Rothe says.

Season 6 cracks open the book to Everett and Sarah’s love story. Smith teases that there are plenty of similarities to Mel and Jack — with “some Easter eggs for fans along the way” — but their relationship isn’t a carbon copy.

“We all have that person that was our first love that we never stopped thinking about, that you just are drawn back to time and time again,” Rothe says. “I think everyone can relate to that feeling of when you find your person, and sometimes fate is generous with that. I love that Sarah’s practical, but she’s also an optimist. She knew she and Everett were going to find each other again, and she has faith in the world in those ways.”

New & Uncertain Futures

The sixth season will include many new chapters for our town favorites. Lizzie (Sarah Dugdale) and Denny (Kai Bradbury) are expecting their first child, which means Doc and Hope (Annette O’Toole) are about to become great-grandparents. “After a very rough last 20 years, things with Doc are in a good place,” O’Toole says.

Past seasons focused primarily on Doc and Hope’s health, and Smith wanted Season 6 to be a period of resurgence for the pair. “I think people their age can have health issues, and they also have times of vitality and being healthy,” the showrunner says. “I think it hasn’t painted them in a totally different light, but it certainly has taken that one dark cloud off the table that has been over them for a while.”

Meanwhile, Preacher (Colin Lawrence) and Kaia’s (Kandyse McClure) relationship will be tested as Preacher faces the fallout of Wes’ death. Remember, Paige (Lexa Doig) accidentally killed Wes, and Preacher helped bury the body to protect her. With the discovery of Wes’ body at the end of last season, Preacher’s entire future is at risk.

“Preacher has always been one to protect and fight for others and put the well being of others ahead of himself, so now he’s dependent on the justice system,” Lawrence explains. “He’s dependent on friends, for everyone, to come together and to have his back and really provide the support that he’s going to need through what is going to be a really, really challenging time for him.”

McClure stresses Kaia will be a “stable and loving force” for the town chef even when they’re forced to have “difficult conversations.” Preacher’s legal situation is “frustrating” for Kaia because it’s one thing she can’t fix. For someone who is constantly saving others, Kaia is now forced to sit back and watch as someone she deeply cares about fights for their life.

Star-Crossed Lovers

When it comes to Brie (Zibby Allen) and Brady (Benjamin Hollingsworth), these former lovers are in relationships with other people, but that invisible string between them is still tugging at their hearts. Are Brie and Brady right for each other? That’s a question they’re both trying to figure out in Season 6.

“Both Brie and Brady are trying to move on down their respective paths with their new significant others,” Smith teases. “I think for Brady, he sincerely cares for Lark [Elise Gatien], and you see how much he can care for a person, and the tension of just knowing that she’s also using him at the same time is just set up for the explosion that comes when he does find out what she’s up to.”

Allen says Mike (Marco Grazzini) “really represents stability and reliability, and they’re both on some side of law enforcement. There’s something that’s really familiar and knowable about him, and Brie needs that.” However, she will be the first to acknowledge Brie and Brady’s “explosive feelings,” and Hollingsworth plays into that “tension” in Season 6. “Whenever you see Brady and Brie in a scene together, Brady’s stealing looks. He’s constantly aware when she’s in the room,” he says.

Brie and Brady are the show’s ultimate will-they-won’t-they pair. We love the undeniable heat between them when they’re together, but the yearning when they’re apart is just as satisfying. “I believe that Brady’s one and true love is Brie,” Hollingsworth emphatically says. Allen agrees: “I think that we all know that Brie and Brady quietly struggle to quit each other.”

As everyone in town joins together at Mel and Jack’s wedding, you can expect a hotbed of drama, but nothing will be able to distract from this celebration of true love. After facing miscommunication, near-death experiences, and a tragic loss head-on, Mel and Jack are more than ready to take the marriage plunge.

Virgin River, Season 6 Premiere, Thursday, December 19, Netflix