A new rivalry has emerged in season 5 of Virgin River between the small town’s notorious bad boy, Dan Brady, and local police detective Mike Valenzuela.
Although the ex-Marines served together alongside Jack (Martin Henderson) and Preacher (Colin Lawrence), they have never seen eye to eye.
To cope with the transition to sleepy civilian life, Brady (Benjamin Hollingsworth) fell into local criminal operations with Calvin in the past, while Mike (Marco Grazzini) has always adhered to and enforced the law.
In season 5 of the hit Netflix show based on Robyn Carr’s best-selling novels, the contrasting duo become part of a love triangle around Brie Sheridan (Zibby Allen).
In part 1, Brady appears to have reformed, as the young veteran becomes more involved in the community and his relationship with Brie flourishes.
Until this season, Mike (Marco Grazzini) remained on the outskirts of this close-knit community, showing up in a professional capacity whenever his friends needed him, such as when Wes’s twin brother Vince tried to attack Paige and Preacher in season 4.
Mike develops a more prominent role when Brady is recruited into Melissa Montgomery’s drug smuggling through Jack’s new caravan park in season 5. It’s taken Jack most of season 3 and 4 to trust Brady again after his involvement with Calvin in the past, but Brady won Jack over and Brie’s heart.
In an effort to take down Melissa, Brady offers to go undercover for Mike, so there is an inside man to provide evidence of her criminal activity. Mike is initially skeptical about Brady’s intentions, knowing of his shady past, but he reluctantly agrees.
In order to protect his girlfriend, Brady doesn’t tell her about his undercover work or the truth about Melissa’s operations. His paranoia about Brie’s safety only increases when his colleague Jed was murdered, after he volunteered to cover a shipment arrival so Brady could spend more time with Brie.
Later, Brie calls Brady out on his lies, as he denies knowing the man who died on the lumberyard site. Brie says that she “can’t handle being lied to”, so Brady tells her the truth. Yet, now he’s broken her trust, she struggles to believe him.
Brady distances himself from Brie, which Mike encourages him to do, before Mike starts to turn up at places that he knows Brie will be. The ex-marine opened up to Mike about the difficult time that Brie was having, as she brought her abusive ex-boyfriend and colleague to court on a charge of rape.
As the trial begins, Brie says she doesn’t want Brady to join her at the courthouse. Instead, on the challenging day, when she needs support most, Mike is there for her. He turns up at the court, saying he is conveniently there to give evidence for another trial.
This is even though he didn’t reveal this to Brady in their previous conversations or give any details about his case to Brie, which begs the question, why was he really there?
When Mike knows that Brie can’t trust Brady, he begins to weave himself into her life more. Gradually, Brie’s focus shifts away from her lying, rebellious boyfriend to the supposedly reliable, trusted man in front of her.
From an audience’s perspective, it seems that Mike manipulated the situation to get what he wanted. He exploited the general consensus in town that Brady is untrustworthy, as Mike knew that even his closest friends still had their doubts about Brady’s morals.
Even though Mike knew the whole situation – that Brady’s criminal activities were a front to help the police – he let Brie think the worst of Brady, and even took advantage of the situation.
