Virgin River Season 4 had one of the most shocking finales so far. Jack (Martin Henderson) and Mel (Alexandra Breckenridge) grew much closer, finding a very stable place in their relationship. Now, the couple is engaged and expecting their first child together. However, Charmaine (Lauren Hammersley) revealed a major bombshell when she explained that Jack is not the father of her unborn children.
The series continues to inch along in time, but going forward the writers will be forced to pick up the pace.
‘Virgin River’s timeline moves at a snail’s pace
Fans have always marveled at the strange pacing and timeline of Netflix’s Virgin River. The biggest sign of this is the fact that Charmaine, Jack’s ex-girlfriend, has been pregnant with twins since season 1, but she only began showing in season 4.
Ahead of season 4, Breckenridge broke down exactly where we are in the Virgin River timeline, and quite frankly, it’s rather shocking.
“Things move slowly in Virgin River,” she told Glamour. “I think Mel’s only been in Virgin River for maybe four months,” Breckenridge guesses. “It’s a hundred and some odd days; there’s a chart for it. She’s only nine weeks pregnant at this point, and Charmaine is like five months, apparently.”
The show will move a little faster going forward
Since the timeline is a bit absurd, even by television standards, new showrunner Patrick Sean Smith, who also created the hit TV show Greek, knows that some things will need to shift and change.
“One of the things I noticed was how slowly things move on the show,” he told TV Line. “We want things to keep flowing, and it’s hard to find time jumps within that, but I am trying to expand the timeline as organically as possible without it feeling like a departure.”
Since this is Smith’s first season on the show after taking over for Sue Tenney, we think he’s going to pace himself just a bit before speeding things along.
A time jump will be needed soon
Unless we wait to see Mel and Jack’s baby girl until season 17, a major time jump is needed on the series as soon as possible. Since season 5 opens the day after season 4 closes, the time jump, unfortunately, won’t be happening anytime soon.
However, the cast and crew can feel one brewing for the future. Zibby Allen, who portrays Brie in the series, says the timeline is an ongoing joke with the cast.
“I’m like, ‘You guys, eventually, you’re gonna have to do a time jump because we’re just aging way too fast for a five-month span,’” she told TODAY. “But yeah, I think that the pregnancy thing was one of the first sort of tells because even I, when I was watching the show before I was on, was like, ‘Oh, this covers way more time in the story.’ it really doesn’t.”
It’s going to be interesting to see how Smith and his writers push the story forward.
