Virgin River Finale: The Showrunner Just Dropped Major Details ...

The Virgin River finale did not disappoint–if anything, it overachieved as far as cliff-hangers go—so consider this your spoiler warning now if you haven’t finished watching all 10 episodes of season six.

The episode starts off straight out of Runaway Bride, with Jack and Mel literally riding away on Sugar the horse. If the moment is supposed to be romantic—Jack whisks his anxious bride away from the hubbub of the wedding, on top of her father’s sudden heart attack—then is offset by a stressed-out Hope, Lizzie, and literally everyone else who has planned the big day down to the second. But this is Virgin River, so I digress. Of course there’s going to be a wedding; it’s just going to be slightly delayed.

That delay allows for the rest of the characters—Brie, Brady, Lark, Kaia, Preacher—to sort out their love lives (or create more of a mess). Lark confronts Brady about seeing him talk to Brie (you know, where they basically admitted they’ll always be in love with each other), and he scrambles to figure out what to say, settling on, “You should give Brie the benefit of the doubt.” Lark is like, “Really? That’s it?” Brady poorly assures her that it is. Poor guy is stuck between a rock and a hard place, but oy, things are about to get worse. A lot worse. (Read our interview with Benjamin Hollingsworth for more on that.)

As for Muriel’s love life, she’s grappling—rather well, I might add—with her breast cancer diagnosis. It’s one of the most uplifting storylines this season, even though Muriel has a challenging journey ahead of her. She’s found romance with Walt, but it’s obvious that her spark with Cameron is always going to be there. Alas, Cameron is back with his ex, Michelle; he wishes he could be with Muriel to see her through her breast cancer treatment and assures her he’ll always be there to support her.

Meanwhile, Kaia and Preacher are happier than ever. She even seems willing to give marriage a shot after previously being reluctant to the idea. Preacher tells her they have “nothing but time,” so either something is going to happen in season seven that dispels that notion, or I’m completely overthinking things.

Kaia and Preacher end season six on a high note.

Oh, and Jack and Mel tie the knot, with Jack making a quick wardrobe change to surprise his bride by wearing his uniform from the Marines. It’s a beautiful touch, and other than me still being annoyed with how they delayed their own wedding by escaping on a horse, the nuptials are perfect.

So perfect in fact that Everett—who had to be airlifted earlier in the day after suffering a serious heart attack—is able to make a surprise appearance at the reception to sing the song he wrote for Mel’s mom. (Dr. Cameron is there as his escort, making this slightly more believable, but again, it’s Virgin River, so we’ll go with it.) By the way, I found out that the original song has a really cool backstory—more on that below.

At the reception, Mel and Jack comment that Charmaine is a no-show, but that mystery can wait until tomorrow.

A little while later, Mel finds Brie, who has been crying. Kaia comes over, too, and Brie admits she slept with Brady. She knows she’ll always be in love with Brady, but Mike’s a good guy so she doesn’t know what to do. Mel says the kindest thing she can do is let both of them go. (Of course, Mel says this without knowing Brady and Lark are about to be dunzo for good.)

Speaking of, when Brady goes looking for Lark—who had previously gone to find Hazel—he runs into JoEllen instead, who tells him they’ve left the reception and went back to the B&B. To make matters worse, JoEllen tells a stunned Brady that Lark has also given up her housekeeping job and left town. Brady is stunned, and then stunned even more when he looks at his phone and sees that his bank account balance is $0. Oh boy.

As if that wasn’t shocking enough, things are about to get more wild for Mike and Brie. As they’re sitting outside on the patio, he proposes to her. Not only does she respond by admitting that she slept with Brady, thereby making it easy for Mike to take back his proposal, but he responds by saying, “I know.” (I gotta admit, in all six seasons of Virgin River, nothing has shocked me more. Frankly, it was amazing.) Of course, we’ll have to wait until season seven to see how she responds.

The next day—their first as newlyweds—Mel tells Jack that she left Charmaine several voicemails, but never heard back from her. Mel is especially worried because Charmaine recently took out a restraining order against Calvin. Ever the dutiful husband, Jack says he’ll go check in on her while he’s out.

Meanwhile, Vernon tells Hope that the California State Medical Board has suspended him, pending an investigation. Vernon says it feels personal against him, but Hope thinks otherwise because earlier that morning she got a call from a woman on the Grace Valley Hospital Board of Directors who spoke as if she didn’t know Hope and Vernon are married. (They do have different last names, remember.) Hope says, “The woman was excited to share with me—the mayor—that Grace Valley is looking at expanding their network into Virgin River.” In other words, they’re planning on Vernon being out of the picture and want the clinic. Doc is adamant that neither he nor the clinic are going anywhere. “Not without one hell of a fight.”

But the Virgin River finale doesn’t end there. Nope, we have two more cliff-hangers to get to.

Mel is sitting outside on her porch, taking in the scenery and drinking her coffee, when her patient Marley shows up out of the blue. She assures Mel that her unborn baby is fine, but Phil and Darla are backing out of the adoption. Mel says the four of them can find a solution, but Marley says she already knows the solution: “Mel, I want you to have my baby.”

But wait! We then cut to Jack walking into Charmaine's house, as the door is suspiciously unlocked. Tables and decorative items are knocked over. Jack walks to the nursery, opens the door, and we cut to black. Is Charmaine there tied up? Where are the twins? Or is it empty?

We’ll have to wait until season seven drops to find out the answers to all those questions and more. But we got on a Zoom with showrunner, writer, and executive producer Patrick Sean Smith—who’s already hard at work on season seven—to get the scoop on what happened and more.

They're finally official!

Glamour: We start episode 10 with Mel and Jack on the horse, Runaway Bride style. They could have texted Hope to say, “Hey, we’ll be back!” after she has planned this whole thing with swans. Just say you need an hour alone! Or am I being too hard on them?

Patrick Sean Smith: [Laughs.] They were caught up in the moment. Everything with weddings is big and emotional. In that moment, Mel’s emotions were getting the better of her, so Jack did the hottest thing in the world, which was, “Let’s go. Let me support you. Let me help you. Let’s take care of this together.”

We knew early on that we wanted the wedding to be two episodes, so we blocked that out as we were arcing the season. We knew we had to get to one final cliff-hanger before we actually got to the altar. It felt that the best way to do that is through an internal conflict as opposed to an external conflict. We kind of built back from that, and then the horseback getaway, so it all just started to fall into place. But yeah, if there’s a vow renewal at some point, they’ll have to hit Hope up.

Was there any consideration of having Mel ask both Everett and Doc to walk her down the aisle together?

I was open to the idea, but for me personally, it’s so much more effective just to stay as OG as possible. When you get to these moments, you gather people along the way, and it’s nice. But I think people have been dreaming of Mel and Jack’s wedding since she walked into the bar. So I feel like as much as you can keep it with those original players would be the most satisfying. And then the compromise in that was the surprise of having Everett show up to perform the song for her.

After having a heart attack, which was both great and hysterical given the serious of his condition.

Yes. Also, I want to mention that Wesley Schultz, who wrote “This Heart of Mind,” the song that Everett performed at the wedding, is available on Spotify. It was our first opportunity to feature a song in a season of Virgin River. He wrote it special [for us]. He’s from the Lumineers, and it’s a really beautiful song. Every time I listen to it, it takes me back to the season. It’s a great way to revisit it.

John Allen Nelson as Everett Reed in episode 610

I loved seeing Jack in his uniform at the wedding. Was that something that was always planned?

It was always planned, and it really kind of informed his arc this season. When we started talking about what they were going to wear, the first thing I thought of was, Well, he’s got to be in a really sexy tux. But then I was like, Why not his uniform? That kind of broke it down to be like, Well, he’s been dealing so much with the thorn in his side of his service while he’s been a proud Marine in the entire series, and he’s evolved past the trauma he had when Mel first met him because of Mel.

It felt like a nice way to just manifest his level of comfort with his service, with his pride in his service, and it just looked really sexy. And then in the [promos], it’s nice we can show Jack in the tux, but then the audience will get that special bonus of seeing him in uniform at the end.

How hard was it to get Stacey Farber as Tara and Libby Osler as Ava back for the finale?

They were pros, and they were game to come back. Stacey, I wanted to do more with her in season five, and then she had booked a series. That’s part of the challenge of the show—trying to get actors you don’t have contractual obligations with to show up. But she was there in a heartbeat. It felt like full circle. We needed to have Chloe there because she was such a big part of Mel and Jack’s beginning of their relationship. And then, getting to see Tara and Ava was an extension of Lily. Keeping our world populated with those familiar faces is important.

Let’s talk about Muriel. Her breast cancer diagnosis is heavy, but is handled in a way that is so helpful and powerful.

When I joined the show, I wanted to pick up and carry a lot of the wonderful things that had been established in the series. One of them was focusing a lot of our medical stories and character stories on female health issues. So when we were thinking about Muriel this season, we knew that we had lost Lily to cancer, but there are so many different forms. My number-two on the show—Richard Keith—his wife had dealt with breast cancer while we were shooting season five. So we knew we had somebody who was close to it who could offer insight. We did our research. But it was really putting it on the character of Muriel, who’s such a light and is so positive, that it felt like a new way to look at the cancer journey where it’s not all doom and gloom. It’s more about somebody moving through it with positivity and love and support as opposed to dramatizing it in a really dark negative way.

I also love what Cameron said about how there are so many new treatments…there’s so much hope that I feel a lot of people will respond to.

Good. I hope so. That was the intent behind it, so I’m glad it resonated.

I still do think Muriel has amazing chemistry with Cameron. For people like me who want to still see the two of them give this May-December romance a shot, is this done for good, or might we still see him next season?

I love Mark Ghanime, and I thought what he did with Cameron was incredible, but he won’t be returning as a series regular next season. I would love to see his character return when the right story presents itself, and I believe Mark is game. So I hope that we have not seen the last of Dr. Cameron.

Troy McLaughlin as Walt, Teryl Rothery as Muriel St. Claire, Mark Ghanimé as Dr. Cameron Hayek in episode 609

No offense to Walt, he seems like a lovely guy, but I don’t see the chemistry there yet. So what about Muriel and Everett?

We’ve explored that. We have talked about that. That’s a never-say-never too. I do hope that John Nelson (Everett) will return. He really was such a highlight of the season. His relationship with Mel, and especially his chemistry with Alex Breckenridge, was just so easy and so winning that I feel like that was a gift that I don’t want to not continue to use.

He just has such an “old movie star” quality to him. And Muriel needs some spice in her life because she’s so much fun to watch.

Yeah, I think Walt is a bit of a nod for the fans of the book. Muriel and Walt Booth did have a relationship. So as we pivoted to this during her cancer storyline, sky’s the limit on Muriel. Who knows? She can steal Jack. [Pause.] Just kidding. Don’t come for me. That would never happen.

So let’s jump to Brady, Lark, Mike, and Brie. When Mike proposes to Brie, and she reveals that she slept with Brady, and he says, “I know.” I couldn't believe he knew and was still willing to propose. When I talked to Benjamin Hollingsworth (Brady), he said it wasn’t originally in the scene that he saw. Tell me everything.

So, we knew we would end the season with a proposal. We knew that we would end with Brie’s confession, and it always felt fun and spicy to have her confession come right after the proposal. We came up with the idea to shoot it both ways of him knowing. We had the first cut that I watched with the staff because the writers didn’t know. Aaron Rich and I were on set and we threw it in there. And Marco Grazzini’s performance [as Mike] was so incredible in that scene anyway that you’re already kind of pulled into it. You see Zibby Allen [Brie] getting pulled into it and getting emotional. When we all watched it together and he said “I know,” there were screams and gasps. I was like, I think we’re keeping that in. We unpack all of it in season seven, but it just felt like something I hadn’t seen before. It felt like an interesting move for a character that you really want to understand how that came to be.

Is he just desperate to hold onto her? It was such a good way to end that scene, but I was like, Holy crap.

I think he loves her so much that I think he’s willing to look past a lot just to keep her in his life.

Marco Grazzini as Mike Valenzuela, Zibby Allen as Brie Sheridan in episode 609

I told Benjamin Hollingsworth [Brady] that I have a theory Brie will find out she’s pregnant next season and not know if Brady or Mike is the father. How close am I?

I’m not seeing that in the crystal ball for season seven.

Really?

That’s not to say it might not come about. Well, we kind of did it. They kind of did it with Mark’s embryos, and Jack [and Charmaine]. Maybe Brie will have a baby, and they somehow fuse together, and she has a little cop baby with a motorcycle jacket. [Laughs.]

That’s what Benjamin said! So let’s move on to Brady and Lark. I was beginning to wonder how much Lark overheard of his conversation with Brie because she seemed to be somewhat satisfied with what he said to reassure her while dancing. And then, as we know, she did hear everything and took all of Brady’s money.

I think the moral of the story is to not have a bank account at Clear River Credit Union. If you can access somebody’s bank account that easily through a child playing Candy Crush, then you’re at the wrong bank. That aside, I feel like she heard enough to know that she was always going to be second to Brie. We get into it in season seven, but she’s been conning this guy for a long time. She fell in love along the way, but in the beginning she was selling it. So, what’s the real story? Is she a sociopath? Where is she operating from? And I thought Elise Gatien, who plays Lark, really was incredible this season.

Elise Gatien and Ben Hollingsworth as Lark and Brady in happier times (or so we thought) in episode 608

Yes, very much so. Let’s move on to Charmaine. She doesn’t show up at the wedding, and when Jack goes to check on her the next day, it’s clear something has happened to her or the twins at her house. Where will we pick up in season seven? Are we going to find out right away when Jack opens the door to the baby’s room? Are the babies there? Is Charmaine there? Is nobody there? How fast will we get those answers?

We’re picking up one hour later.

Interesting. A lot can happen in an hour.

Exactly. But then, while that’s going on, we’re living in post-wedding newlywed, all that bliss for Mel and Jack.

Speaking of Mel and Jack, while Jack is at Charmaine's, Marley comes over to see Mel. She says, “Phil and Darla are backing out of the adoption.” And Mel says, “Are you sure? Did they say that?” And Marley says, “Well, not exactly.” When I first watched the scene, I was thinking she’s going to give Mel and Jack the baby. But then I went back and realized that when Marley says “not exactly,” does that mean it may not happen? Are Phil and Darla not backing out? Are we going to find out they changed their mind? Or am I reading way too much into Marley’s “not exactly?”

Maybe a little. We have a sense of where we want things to go in season seven, and we’ll get more into the specifics of that as far as what the Phil and Darla and Marley thing was. We always knew from when we cast Marley that she would eventually become a viable option for Mel and Jack. So that was by design for season six. We’ll understand the Phil and Darla side of it early on in season seven.

Once again, the road to parenthood is paved with twists and turns for Mel and Jack.

After what Mel and Jack have been through, fans will revolt if adopting a baby is another five-year journey where they don’t get a baby after it falls through. We have to give this couple some happiness with a child at this point. So what do you want to say to fans who can’t bear more heartbreak?

I’m going to choose my words carefully here. I think we’re all excited to see how and when and where this baby will come into their lives.

Well said. So, Doc and Hope. He’s been suspended by the California State medical board. They’re about to face one of the biggest fights they’ve ever had to contend with: political foes with an agenda.

Yeah, I think it’s sort of an extension of our show, which is not a traditional medical procedural but has a strong medical lens in which we experience a lot of the lives of our characters. I think that we have a special opportunity to tell different kinds of medical stories, one of which is a timely thing of corporate medicine and how that affects patients. How it affects lives. How it affects even smaller clinics like Doc’s. They’re looking to challenge his legacy, to threaten his legacy, which we’ve seen for Doc has always been so important. He prides himself on being a practitioner with strong integrity. And this is being challenged now on a bigger scale involving the state medical board. We’ve found in exploring this that it also affects Hope directly, not as just his wife who supports him, but as the town mayor who’s also wanting to make sure that her town is safe and is taken care of.

I grew up in a small town in Texas, and I saw the big chain restaurants and the big chain stores come in; in my lifetime, all the mom-and-pop shops were wiped out. So a big theme of season seven is outsiders invading our little slice of heaven and how our town bands together to protect what’s special about Virgin River.

Finally, what’s your message to fans who are probably already getting impatient as we wait to see what happens next?

Watch it again. It’s better upon a second viewing. Also, we are working feverishly to get season seven up and running and get it back in everybody’s homes in 2025.