‘Virgin River’ Boss Talks That Cliffhanger With Mel & Her Father, Plus What’s Next for Romances

[Warning: The below contains MAJOR spoilers for the Virgin River Season 5 holiday episodes.]

All Mel (Alexandra Breckenridge) wanted for the holidays was a family reunion with the biological father she didn’t know was from Virgin River. Unfortunately — though exactly what we’d expect from the Netflix romantic drama — that wasn’t so easy.

Rather, what followed was a Virgin River scavenger hunt until she finally ended up at Everett’s door … only for him to claim he wasn’t the man she was looking for. Later, he shows up at her door and explains, “You look so much like your mom. Seeing you just broke my heart all over again. I didn’t know what to say.” He didn’t see what he said as a “lie” because “I’m not the man who wrote those letters, not anymore anyway, not since your mom died. I suppose you feel that, too, in some way. Look, I don’t know what you wanted to say to me or what you wanted me to say back. I don’t know if you wanted me in your life or just wanted to ask me for a kidney or something. But either way, I am your father, and I’m here now.” He gave her her mother’s letters, then said he had “something important” he needed to tell her.

But what did he say? TV Insider tried to get that answer (and others) out of showrunner Patrick Sean Smith.

Everything with Mel and her dad was really moving to watch over these two episodes, from her search to find him to the way that he reacts to him coming around at the end. What did you want to do with that journey leading up to that final scene?

Patrick Sean Smith: Knowing that we only had the two episodes, we had to be judicious in just how far we could go into that storyline. I think we wanted to see Mel’s optimism, but we also wanted to see Everett’s reticence to connecting with her. As we get to know his character more in Season 6, we’ll get a sense that he is chosen to live off the grid. He’s really removed himself from society, and we’ll find out it’s for very emotional reasons. So I think that’s part of the conflict in Season 6, is Mel enjoying this relationship and him having to grow in order to meet her where she is.

And you get that sense of living off the grid just from the one photo that she can find of him — it’s with the trophy in front of his face.

Yeah.

Courtesy of Netflix

What can you say about what he needs to tell her at the end there? I feel like that’s very ominous, but maybe no?

That was the effect that we wanted. You’ll have to watch Season 6 to figure out what happens there.

Can you say if it has to do with his health or with something else?

Yes.

So which one?

No, no, no. Nope. You’ll have to watch Season 6.

Mel and Jack (Martin Henderson) were solid in these episodes. What can you say about a wedding in Season 6? And are they the most ready they’ve been to get married, not just because more time has passed, but because of what they’ve been through?

Yeah, I would say so. And I think that as their parenthood journey will be ongoing in the series, it seems like their wedding and getting married is probably foremost on their mind in Season 6.

Did they have to have that parenthood journey and tragedy in order to be ready to be married?

That was the opportunity that I saw in the events of Season 5, was really kind of having them go through something really difficult together. But to see what Mel and Mark [Daniel Gillies] went through that was ultimately their undoing that she and Jack grew stronger for was always my intention.

As we see at the end, Lark (Elise Gatien) can’t be trusted. What can you say about what Jimmy (Ian Tracey) has her doing with Brady (Benjamin Hollingsworth)?

Well, they have history, so I think Jimmy’s looking for revenge and Brady’s in the crosshairs. That’s a lot of what we’re looking at in Season 6 is just this relationship that he has with this woman who he puts all of his trust in, but at the same time, there’s always Brie (Zibby Allen).

Is there any part of the relationship with Lark on her side that is real?

You’ll have to see Season 6.

Courtesy of Netflix

Brie is with Mike (Marco Grazzini), but there was that moment with Brady and the mistletoe, even though that they ended the season both with other people. Then there’s a matter of the truth about Lark. Brie could go back to Brady or stay with Mike. So what are the feelings and conflicts we’re going to see from the triangle going forward with what you’ve set up?

With Brie, she is seeing an opportunity of being with a good man like Mike, but with Brady, he’ll always be an important person in her life and they’re always going to have that connection and that chemistry. So there’s a lot of push-pull in Season 6 between those dynamics, while also Brady is sort of barreling towards this realization that Lark is taking advantage of him. I think we’ll feel like there’s always hope for Brady and Brie.

And it seems like Brady is getting closer to being the man that Brie wants him to be. And Mike may be seeing that, too, which then complicates things because Mike and Brady have history.

Exactly. And I think all of that we’ll explore in Season 6, especially the history.

Hope (Annette O’Toole) and Doc (Tim Matheson) renewing their vows — what makes this the right time for them to do that? I loved that moment so much.

Oh, good, good. It was something that had happened in a prior season, and I think it was hard to find the opportunity to do it, so it felt perfect to do it during the holidays. They’re such a lovely couple and to get to tell their storylines when so many shows aren’t exploring older couples’ romantic relationships… So anytime we get to do that, and Tim and Annette are some of the best actors in the business, so getting to work with them has been a dream. I think that in Season 6, we’ll continue on that path.

Calvin’s (David Cubitt) the father of Charmaine’s (Lauren Hammersley) twins. What does that mean, not only for those two, but also for Mel, Jack and perhaps all of Virgin River?

Mel’s promise to Charmaine that she wants to support her keeping Calvin out of her boys’ lives becomes a promise that will have bigger consequences down the road, given who Calvin is.

I really like what you did with Mel and Charmaine in these episodes, to see where they’ve gotten to this point after everything else.

Oh, thank you. I really appreciate that. I’m really proud of that. I love the way Alex played it when she delivers the twins, that it should probably be a little bittersweet for her considering the struggles that she’s had with her fertility issues. But she seems genuinely happy for Charmaine because she sees Charmaine is incredibly moved in that moment. So it was one of my favorites.

Related

What’s Coming & Going From Netflix in November 2023

And you got to do a little bit of humor with the Jack of it, too.

Oh, yeah. We were like, how’s Jack going to react to this, given everything? And we were like, let’s go lighter. And I think in general, these two episodes I definitely wanted to feel lighter and more of a two-hour holiday gift to the fans, given the intensity of Season 5.

Wes’ body has been found and ID’ed. What can you say about how Preacher (Colin Lawrence) will react and what this means for his relationship with Kaia (Kandyse McClure)?

Their relationship is going to be tested and put through the ringer of the pressure that Preacher will be under, given this moment from his past where he wanted to help Paige [Lexa Doig]. It will definitely be a make or break moment for Preacher and Kaia.

Is there anyone that Preacher’s going to be able to talk to about all of this? He’s not telling anyone the whole story.

Yeah, the question at the end of the holiday episodes was, how much will he tell Kaia as it starts to blow up? And we’ll do a bit of a time jump, so in Season 6, more people will be privy to what happened and the plight that he’s in given it.

And so we’ll be getting more Preacher and Jack scenes? I love that dynamic.

Me too. Me too.

Cameron (Mark Ghanime) and Muriel (Teryl Rothery) have some things to figure out about their relationship and future together, and I like the honesty and trying to be realistic about kids/not having kids. What did you enjoy about putting them together and the places that’s allowing you to take them with these conversations they have to have?

Muriel is such a light, and after pursuing Doc for the time that she did and to have that not come to fruition, it was just exciting to be able to bring her into somebody else’s life romantically and to see what that was like. And given Cameron might have had a crush on Mel in the beginning, and then that didn’t happen, it felt like they kind of were unlucky in love and then to throw them both into this May-December relationship was a lot of fun. Doing the musical number during the holiday episodes was a lot of fun. Teryl choreographed that herself. They’ve been a really fun couple. But the truth has always been since Cameron came to Virgin River, he wanted to find love and he wanted to start a family, and I’m glad that we played it in a realistic way because that’s kind of hard to overcome as a couple. So it’s a question of how that will affect them, and we’ll answer that in Season 6.

Speaking of Season 6, is there anything else you can preview about it besides what you’ve said so far?

It’s amazing. [Laughs]

Of course. The first five seasons have been amazing.

We’ll continue on the amazing trend. We’re still kind of in the room. We had that time off during the strike, so we’re back in it. But yeah, it’s hard to say anything too specific that I think would be meaningful enough for you to write down, so I’ll leave it at amazing.

Virgin River, Season 6, TBA, Netflix