Virgin River returned to Netflix for a second season on November 27.
When the first season wrapped up a year ago, viewers were left hanging about the future relationship between Virgin River’s bar owner Jack (Martin Henderson) and Mel (Alexandra Breckenridge).
Not only did Charmaine (Lauren Hammersley) turn up pregnant, but Mel did not learn about the pregnancy from Jack. Sadly, the shocking news came from Hope (Annette O’Toole) instead.
The meddler of Virgin River
The Virgin River mayor really should not have been involved in this scenario.
But, as everybody in the tiny Northern California town knows, Hope tends to meddle in everybody’s business.
Because Hope crossed the line by telling Mel about the impending birth, Jack said he wasn’t going to have anything to do with the town mayor going forward.
The Virgin River backstory on Jack, Charmaine, and Mel
To understand his frustration, let’s look at Jack’s history.
He had been dating Charmaine before Mel came to town. Two years before then, in fact.
However, Jack always maintained that Charmaine and he were involved in a casual relationship.
But to Charmaine, it was far more serious, she considered Jack her boyfriend. In fact, she told him she loved him at a town gathering called the Mingle. Unfortunately, he was unable to say those three meaningful words back to her.
At the time, Jack did not know Charmaine was pregnant. To let him in on the situation, Charmaine wrote him a letter.
Jack has had it with Hope on Virgin River
Jack put off reading Charmaine’s missive even though Hope told him that he should get going on that. Meanwhile, she had read the letter herself.
Later on, Hope was the one who unwittingly told Mel about the letter, and hence the pregnancy. Jack found out and became outraged with Hope.
This situation put Jack in a tough situation since, just before that, he and Mel had finally gone out on their first official date where it was obvious that they were taken with each other.
Charmaine tells Mel to get out of Virgin River
Meanwhile, Charmaine told Mel that Jack would use his sense of honor to be a dad but she wanted him to actually pick her and their baby to be in his life. She admitted he would find it impossible to parent with Charmaine if Mel remained in Virgin River.
Mel mulled that over, but when she arrived back home Jack was there.
After Mel told Jack about her own pregnancy, her stillborn baby, and her probable inability to ever have children, she stated that she could not stay around town. After all, Charmain had been able to provide a family for him and she would never be able to do that.
Cue the romantic music. Despite the situation, Jack admitted to Mel he was falling in love with her. He told her he wanted to be part of her future.
Mel was conflicted so she asked him to give her space. She needed to think.
He left as instructed, and sadly, she started packing her bags.
Virgin River is based on a popular book series by Robyn Carr. The series stars Alexandra Breckenridge, Martin Henderson, Tim Matheson, Annette O’Toole, Lauren Hammersley, Colin Lawrence, Grayson Maxwell Gurnsey, and Sarah Dugdale.
Virgin River’s two seasons are available to stream on Netflix.