Virgin River is back, and it may have truly outdone itself.
The Netflix drama has returned for season three, and once again it ends on a shocking note, even if no one's in danger of dying (at least, we hope not). In fact, this cliffhanger might actually have much bigger ramifications than Jack (Martin Henderson) being shot in his kitchen, depending on the directions the writers decide to take this in. Season four (assuming there is one) is going to either be really sweet or really weird.
Basically, Mel (Alexandra Breckenridge) is pregnant, and the father is either Jack or her dead husband. She and Jack briefly broke up in the middle of the season, and it sent Mel running to LA and the clinic where her dead husband's frozen sperm were being kept. It wasn't entirely clear if she went through with it until that finale admission, and now we're genuinely wondering about Mel's sanity and wellbeing.
"She wants a baby so badly that she goes to the fertility clinic and gets inseminated with her dead husband's sperm," Breckenridge reiterated to E! News. "That's a huge thing for a person to go and do."
You can say that again.
Breckenridge blames the decision on Mel's emotional stress after her breakup with Jack, and her continued grief over her husband.
"I've been through a lot, and what I've noticed is that people who are under extreme emotional circumstances just aren't thinking clearly," she said. "So it kind of makes sense to me that she decides to go through with it, because she doesn't believe that Jack's gonna ever come back to her."
Jack, of course, did come back, and now Mel may have quite the dilemma, especially after his initial reaction to the pregnancy was so surprisingly positive.
Breckenridge said she knows which way the writers are leaning for season four, but she's got her own opinions, and she "really hope[s] that it's Jack's baby."
If it's not Jack's baby, Jack and Mel are naturally going to have some tough times ahead.
"It would be immensely difficult," Breckenridge said, which is an understatement. "That would be extremely challenging, especially for Jack. If he's gonna stick around, if he's devoted to Mel, that's gonna be hard to have a baby that's her dead husband's baby. That's just, like, asking a lot."
Even before the whole dead husband insemination storyline, Breckenridge was just as surprised that Jack initiated the breakup, though it made more sense to her when she actually watched the episodes and saw what a "lovely" job Henderson did with the scenes. Plus, what are we here for if not an emotional roller coaster?
"I think you just have to, at the end of the day, understand the show is Virgin River," she said. "This is why we come to Virgin River. It's these storylines...Just ride the train. We don't have to think too deeply about it."
Elsewhere in Virgin River, Preacher (Colin Lawrence) is currently poisoned in the woods, and Lilly (Lynda Boyd) has now died, and in her quest to get back in time for the funeral, Hope (Annette O'Toole) got into a terrible accident and is now in an induced coma.
That development came after she was absent all season long and only occasionally seen on video calls, and Breckenridge said it was "logistically" hard for O'Toole to make it to Vancouver to film the show during the pandemic.
"They had to write around that and moving forward, hopefully she'll come back," she explained. "She's a beloved character. It wasn't a decision that was made for any other reason."
Virgin River hasn't officially been renewed for season four just yet, but with so much still lingering after that finale, that news had better be coming soon!