Virgin River is ringing in the holiday season the only way they know how — with criminal intrigue, pregnancy drama, and one woman’s quest for her biological father.
But while chestnuts may be roasting on an open fire somewhere, the only thing burning here at EW are our questions for the Netflix drama’s showrunner Patrick Sean Smith.
The two holiday episodes, which hit the platform on Thursday, transform the small town into a winter wonderland, complete with fairy lights, a skating rink, and a holiday musical extravaganza. But for Mel (Alexandra Breckenridge), Christmas is all about finding her biological father — and finding him she does, only for him to initially tell her he’s not the guy. Eventually, however, Everett returns to Mel with a Christmas gift in tow — and one mother of a cliffhanger.
Meanwhile, Lizzie (Sarah Dugdale) grapples with telling her mother about her pregnancy, Doc (Tim Matheson) frets over his upcoming clinical trial, and Charmaine (finally!) has her twins. Cameron (Mark Ghanimé) contends with the return of his ex, only to have it confirm his relationship with Muriel (Teryl Rothery), even though she doesn’t want kids. Preacher (Colin Lawrence) deepens his relationship with Kaia (Kandyse McClure), only to be blindsided by the identification of Wes’ body.
We called up Smith to see if he would spill some secrets about these plot developments and what might lie in store in season 6.
ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: Looking back at the season at large, outpatients and immunotherapy are very real challenges, but why did you decide to have Mel lose a baby again? Can the poor woman ever just be happy?
PATRICK SEAN SMITH: It was something that I was interested in exploring before I came onto the show, and I talked to the network about it, and I eventually talked to Alex about it at great length. It felt like she had gotten pregnant so quickly and so easily with Jack after having so many issues that it really challenged reality. The show does have a fantasy element to it, but it felt like an opportunity to use her character to explore the issue more thoughtfully. But also more importantly, I wanted to see her and Jack go through it together because it was the fatal flaw of her and Mark’s marriage. He literally did not survive it — she wanted to have kids. I wanted to see Jack be the opposite of that.
I wanted to see her and Jack go through this experience together, and they both came to each other with these respective traumas that they were both healing from. By season 5 of a series, you want the couple to experience something together, and that’s where the workshop felt the most organic given everything. So I didn’t start with, “How can I inflict pain on this woman because I don’t love her?” I love the character so much, and what I loved being able to show was her strength in that adversity. She and Jack do end up in a happy and accepting place by the end — to be able to look forward to say their happiness might not be what they thought it was going to look like, but that doesn’t mean they can’t be happy again together in a different way.
Charmaine (Lauren Hammersley) asked Mel not to tell anyone that Calvin (David Cubitt) is the twins’ father. But will the truth come out in season 6? How hard might he fight to stay in the picture?
It will all become clear in season 6. But in bringing his character back at the end of part one and then having her deliver in part two, it did feel like a natural progression, given who their characters are, to bring a bit of a threat back into the world through Calvin. Not through a drug distribution storyline, but something more personal, which is what we’re looking at for the next season.
