‘Virgin River’ Showrunner Unpacks Season 6, Teases Season 7

SPOILER ALERT: The story contains particulars about Season 6 of Netflix‘s Virgin River.

One other Virgin River season ended on a Charmaine-related cliffhanger. She dropped the being pregnant bomb in Season 1 then admitted that Jack was not the daddy within the Season 4 finale, with Calvin revealed because the dad a yr later. Now, Season 6 ended with Jack stopping by to verify on her after she didn’t attend his and Mel’s marriage ceremony to seek out her home ransacked and her and the infants probably lacking after she had taken a restraining order towards Calvin.

Season 6 adopted Mel (Alexandra Breckenridge) and Jack’s (Martin Henderson) journey to the altar, with each dealing with the ghosts from their previous earlier than the massive day. Making an attempt to construct a relationship together with her organic father Everett (John Allen Nelson), Mel asks him as a substitute of Doc (Tim Matheson) to stroll her down the isle. Everett is overwhelmed, Doc is upset. The 2 males stay hostile till they bury the previous after Everett reveals he was attempting to finish his life on that fateful evening many years in the past, leading to one other affected person of Doc’s, a boy, dying.

Mel and Doc additionally reconcile by the rehearsal dinner. However then Everett suffers a coronary heart assault the evening earlier than the marriage. He survives however, considerably inexplicably, Mel and Jack proceed with the marriage, which Hope (Annette O’Toole) has changed into an elaborate manufacturing with flying doves and ice sculptures. It’s all an excessive amount of for Mel, and Jack whisks her away on their new horse to that spot by the river the place they first bonded in Season 1. His transferring “I’ve received you” speech works, and Mel is able to get married.

Doc walks Mel down the isle, and Everett comes out of the hospital to carry out a track on the reception, which he had began writing after assembly Mel’s late mother, Sarah. Everett and Sarah’s love story was charted by way of flashbacks with the thought to probably flip that right into a prequel collection starring Callum Kerr and Jessica Rothe.

Star-crossed lovers Brie and Brady proved as soon as once more that they will’t avoid one another for lengthy and had intercourse whereas each had been in relationships, Brie with Mike and Brady with Lark who had tried to con him.

Issues come to a head at Mel and Jack’s marriage ceremony, with Lark overhearing Brady telling Brie that she is going to at all times be the one, resulting in her in some way draining Brady’s checking account by way of his telephone (that’s some actually poor financial institution safety) and disappearing together with her daughter. In the meantime, Mike proposes to Brie, she admits that she slept with Brady and Mike tells her he is aware of.

Additionally on the marriage ceremony, Preacher and Kaia, who efficiently went by way of his trial, and expectant mother and father Lizzie and Denny, each focus on marriage. Doc’s clinic is underneath risk of being taken over by a big community, Muriel was recognized with breast most cancers and Cameron visited a few occasions earlier than jetting again to San Diego.

In the meantime, newlyweds Mel and Jack could turn out to be mother and father a lot earlier than anticipated when Mel’s affected person Marley asks her within the finale to undertake her unborn child.

Season 7, which was ordered forward of Season 6’s debut, is now being written. Scripts are anticipated to be prepared in January, with filming scheduled to start within the spring, based on showrunner Patrick Sean Smith.

In an interview with Deadline, Smith breaks down Season 6’s marriage ceremony storyline, teases Season 7’s overarching theme and divulges whether or not there will likely be a time soar. He addresses whether or not scrapping the nuptials was thought of, the cliffhangers involving Charmaine’s disappearance, Mike’s proposal and Lark’s revenge in addition to what number of weddings and infants we may count on subsequent season and whether or not it may very well be the collection’ final.

Smith discusses the proposed prequel and divulges which different Virgin River characters’ again tales will likely be explored subsequent season in addition to which Season 6 and Season 7 storylines had been impressed by the Robyn Carr books the collection relies on, and by his private experiences. He additionally reveals why Mel and Jack’s canine Pony was MIA for a lot of the season, hinting at a doable recasting, and whether or not Cameron and Everett will likely be again subsequent season.

Moreover, Smith explains that “maintain house” line in Mike’s proposal and its impeccable timing on the heels of the viral Depraved meme and the way ‘This Coronary heart of Mine’ track took place with The Lumineers star.

DEADLINE: Let’s begin with the very finish of the finale, the Charmaine cliffhanger. What are you able to tease about what Jack sees in that nursery, and whether or not she and/or the infants are secure?

SMITH: I wish to say the infants are secure for positive. So far as the circumstances surrounding what Jack sees, I believe you’ll have to attend and see subsequent season. Nevertheless it got here out of one thing that felt attention-grabbing for us to discover in Season 7, so we form of knew the place we had been leaping on this cliffhanger earlier than we jumped.

DEADLINE: Will we see extra of Charmaine? She has been a cliffhanger machine on the present however, outdoors of the restraining order, we barely noticed her this season.

SMITH: In Season 5, I used to be glad that we had been in a position to around her out somewhat bit extra, to humanize her somewhat bit. I believe since we already had the variety of characters that we’ve got, we’ll see her be an analogous quantity. However I believe in Season 7, it’s extra about characters which might be reacting to the circumstances that outcome from the cliffhanger which might be introduced again into our story.

DEADLINE: Onto the principle storyline, the lead-up to Mel and Jack’s marriage ceremony. We received some basic romantic film tropes, together with a runaway bride (and groom). Discuss the truth that they virtually didn’t get married after we had been constructing in the direction of that your entire season and them going again to the place of their first date. You weren’t on the present when that scene was filmed in Season 1, how did you resolve to do this throwback?

SMITH: I regarded on the marriage ceremony because the occasion that has been six seasons within the making so wished to offer a nod to as many pivotal moments for Mel and Jack all through the episode with out it turning into a clips episode. It felt like an attention-grabbing place for them to return, particularly for his or her characters, simply the truth that Jack intuitively knew that it will be a spot that Mel may emotionally reply to, given the trauma that she was bringing to her new life in Virgin River.

With it cropping up by way of Everett’s well being scare, I believe he knew that it will have the identical impact on her. And it simply proved, in a approach, the magic of Jack to Mel, to have the ability to assist her and be there for these moments the place she doesn’t have the religion and confidence that she’s going to have the ability to have the power for what life and us are throwing at her at that second.

DEADLINE: Jack’s speech on the riverbank served as his vows. Did you contemplate not having an actual ceremony in any respect? Or did you assume followers could be too upset? It will’ve been comprehensible, Mel’s father virtually died; it felt virtually too rushed to have a marriage the identical day.

SMITH: Given the sudden nature of Season 5, I felt there was already an inherent query mark whether or not this marriage ceremony goes to really occur or not however I knew from the start that I did wish to ship on the marriage. It virtually felt just like the blissful end result was the extra sudden end result, given the historical past of the present — and in addition tv typically. And it felt very a lot within the spirit of the present that the massive twist of this marriage ceremony season is that the marriage truly occurs they usually cross the end line collectively and simply as a lot in love as after they had been first on these riverbanks collectively, as to after they return there for that personal second of sharing their vows.

I actually had no intention of depriving the followers of 1 second of marriage ceremony bliss that we may discover. I discovered, traditionally, for me, that I’ve seen some marriage ceremony episodes that I simply wished to dwell in it extra, and I wished the viewers to be as satiated as doable with the marriage.

DEADLINE: With Jack sporting his Marine uniform and Mel within the white costume, the marriage had virtually a fairy story really feel to it. Was that intentional?

SMITH: It wasn’t intentional to be that literal with the fairy story imagery. I knew that I wished him to put on his costume blues in the long run, which simply felt like a strategy to honor his service, which, by way of a lot of the collection, had been a supply of ache, however I like that it turned a supply of delight over the course of the season, that manifested in him sporting his costume blues. However no, I believe these fairy story components did pop in there in a approach that felt enjoyable and candy and appropriate for the way particular this relationship has been between them.

DEADLINE: Will there be a time soar? Roughly when is the following season selecting up?

SMITH: At present, the following season picks up like two hours later, there’s not a time soar this time.

DEADLINE: Along with Mel and Jack’s marriage ceremony, the finale teased three extra probably, with Danny and Lizzie beginning to discuss marriage in a extra severe approach, Preacher and Kaia attending to that place. and Mike proposing to Brie. What number of extra weddings may we count on subsequent season?

SMITH: I can’t promise any extra weddings. We’re somewhat weddinged-out after Season 6, but it surely felt like, at weddings, typically the thought finds its approach into {couples}, so exploring it felt like much more of a approach of bringing our supporting characters into the occasion itself by them evaluating or reevaluating their very own particular person or couple relationship to marriage.

DEADLINE: Mike’s proposal. I watched a pair occasions that scene with the fellows by the fireplace that preceded it, and I’m nonetheless unsure what precisely in that dialog prompted him to do it. Why did he resolve to suggest and, extra importantly, how did he learn about Brie and Brady and the way lengthy has he recognized?

SMITH: We are going to unpack all of that in Season 7, for positive. We dropped hints Within the earlier episodes, particularly in 608 when Mike has the speculation that Brie and Jack’s mother and father are sleeping collectively, and at one level he says, ‘I’m a detective, I detect issues’. So the thought was that we felt like by career, let’s make him a very good cop, and let’s have him decide up on these breadcrumbs and clues alongside the way in which.

On the fireplace with the boys, it’s off Jack figuring out that Brady and Brie slept collectively when it’s referenced that Brady may very well be a household man on this relationship with Lark, Jack shoots a glance to Brady that’s considerably accusatory, so it was tremendous tremendous refined. However once more, it’s one thing that we’ll unpack extra in Season 7.

DEADLINE: Assume you’ll be able to’t tease what Brie’s reply is to the proposal?

SMITH: She says both sure or no.

DEADLINE: There’s a line in Mike’s proposal that had me howling. He says, ‘All I’ve wished to do is to care for you and maintain house.’ You wrote this months earlier than “holding house” took social media by storm after a Depraved press interview with Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo. I nonetheless don’t fairly perceive what that phrase means. What does it imply for Mike? And what do you concentrate on the loopy coincidence and timing?

SMITH: It’s actually a coincidence. It’s a phrase that I’ve heard in my peer teams and we use within the author’s room so far as the thought of supporting anyone whereas they’re going by way of one thing I believe is my interpretation of it. If it’s mistaken, I stand corrected and I defer to Ariana and Cynthia respectfully.

I believe the thought of Mike is at all times that he’s there supporting her and being a secure place for her, in comparison with Brady, the place she’s endured disappointment and heartbreak, however she’s additionally nonetheless carrying this torch and nonetheless has very passionate emotions For Brady.

DEADLINE: Brady and Lark’s tumultuous relationship got here to an abrupt finish after she swindled him and took off. Did she at all times plan to take his cash or was {that a} response to her overhearing Brady profess his like to Brie?

SMITH: Our intention was in seeing her emotional response to the dialog when she was in tears. That’s when she form of indifferent. What we’re exploring in Season 7 is what she sees as how Brady emotionally conned her, that whereas it felt like they had been strong, he was at all times in love with Brie, and when she received that info, she retaliated in a giant approach.

DEADLINE: Will Brie and Brady’s star-crossed lovers arc proceed? They each had been in dedicated relationships with different folks this season, however in the long run, they discover themselves the place they had been a season in the past.

SMITH: Yeah, we’ll proceed to discover that relationship with Brie and Brady in addition to Mike, and searching on the three of them as extra of a right away love triangle, versus this previous season, which is somewhat bit like a love rectangle.

DEADLINE: We talked about weddings, what about infants? Clearly one is on the way in which with Lizzie and Denny. However we additionally received an anticipated doable immediate household with Jack and Mel when Marley requested Mel to undertake her unborn child. For me, it got here out of the blue as a result of sure, the adoptive mother and father had been somewhat overbearing, however that appeared to be coming from a great place. How did this twist took place?

SMITH: Properly, there’s a nod to the guide collection the place Marley and Phil and Darla had been characters in an analogous state of affairs as Mel was, the physician to Marley who was trying to give her child up for adoption. In order that’s what impressed the storyline. After which carrying that by way of, I can assure no less than one child in Season 7, probably two.

DEADLINE: Like Charmaine, Mel and Jack’s canine Pony solely appeared sporadically in Season 6 regardless of the duo spending plenty of time of their cabin. Why was that?

SMITH: It turned out Pony wasn’t as ready for the position earlier than we solid Pony. And I say once more, respectfully to the animal wranglers, that they had the very best of intentions. Pony, I believe, was possibly borderline feral when he began on set, and we realized that the exhausting approach. Martin and Alex had been troopers, I truly despatched an electronic mail to manufacturing with a topic line in a reference to an 80s track the place it mentioned,
“Pony, Pony, Pony has carried out it once more.” Pony was utterly uncontrolled, so we pulled Pony from the scene. And I believe we had been feeling form of much less our greatest of intentions and extra Pony’s received to return to performing faculty.

DEADLINE: Will you recast the position or will Pony stay largely within the background?

SMITH: I’m hoping we’ll discover a lookalike that’s ready for what the position calls for. Alex and Martin had been simply — that they had the clickers, they had been performing, we had been throwing infants at them and every thing, they signed up for lots. [Mel and Jack volunteered to babysit Charmaine’s babies at their cabin.]

DEADLINE: Another character we barely noticed this season was Cameron, regardless of Mark Ghanimé, who performs him, being a collection common. His scene with Muriel within the finale felt like a goodbye. Is that this the final we noticed of Cameron?

SMITH: Cameron will at all times be a part of our world, and I might like to see his character come again once more. He sadly gained’t be a collection common in Season 7, however I really like Mark, and I really like the character, so when alternative presents itself, I’d like to have him again.

DEADLINE: Talking of Muriel, who simply discovered a brand new love post-Cameron, will Season 7 observe her most cancers battle?

SMITH: We’ll proceed to discover as she enters remedy and endures that with the assist of the brand new love curiosity, but in addition, and extra particularly, with the sawing circle and Hope.

DEADLINE: The Everett and Sarah flashbacks. Discuss crafting the Nineteen Seventies timeline, telling that backstory, and what the standing of the potential prequel is.

SMITH: it’s nonetheless in growth, so I’m engaged on that now. I personally see it somewhat bit like Queen Charlotte to Bridgerton. I believe if there’s a possibility to take what Virgin River as a guide collection was, which was every guide was specializing in one couple and increasing the world outdoors of it, to place Sarah and Everett within the foreground of their very own story, whereas populating, as Virgin River has, the world with supporting characters and different relationships — however all nonetheless working it by way of the romance lens — to me, is what defines plenty of what an enlargement of the present and the franchise could be.

So it’s nonetheless conserving issues romance-forward, character-based, strong story engines, the great thing about the world, however then placing that in a time interval that may inform a few of the problems with the time, and that may nonetheless converse and really feel related to problems with at present, which I believe is what Virgin River itself has carried out superbly In its stability of not being so boxy, but in addition having one thing to say that also issues.

DEADLINE: I’d prefer to see Hope as a younger lady in Virgin River, and Doc, in flashbacks. Season 6 launched her ex, a rancher. We are going to see him once more?

SMITH: Roland, sure, her ex-husband will come again in Season 7. Quite a lot of what we’re doing in Season 7 that marries itself considerably to the prequel is wanting extra in Hope’s historical past. From the start of the collection, it was acknowledged that the McCrea cabin was one thing that individuals knew inside 50 miles, and we’ve by no means actually explored her household legacy to that space.

DEADLINE: Along with Hope, are there another characters whose backstory will likely be explored subsequent season?

SMITH: We’re exploring somewhat bit extra of Mel’s origins as a midwife, which we perceive led to her selection of turning into a nurse, and a little bit of her calling got here from the emotional expertise she had together with her mom’s sickness and passing. It’s getting to know in a deeper approach Mel’s relationships with infants, her relationships with delivery moms, and digging into that a part of her calling as nicely.

DEADLINE: Mel and Everett’s relationship was fairly bumpy, he pulled again at one level, she later saved his life. Speak concerning the trajectory of that relationship, with the 2 finally accepting one another and Everett exhibiting his love for her with the track on the marriage ceremony.

SMITH: The introduction of Everett was actually one thing to recontextualize Doc and Mel’s particular bond with him as a surrogate father. And I believe what we had been concerned with was attempting to discover it as authentically as doable: an estranged, organic little one dropping into your life 40 years later while you haven’t been a guardian, you remoted your self from most private relationships, and now you’re the daddy of the bride. It was placing plenty of the strain on Everett and seeing Mel navigate that, which felt contemporary and new since we hadn’t seen her coping with a dwelling guardian.

He had closed off his coronary heart due to all the previous loss, and it was Mel’s love that made him in a position to open his coronary heart once more was what we had been going for. And it felt, in a approach, that it was much less concentrate on Mel’s heartbreak and her loss, which had been a lot initially of the collection, seeing Mel carry a few of the experiences that she has had and beginning to use these in lifting Everett up in a approach that I don’t assume she anticipated to have the ability to do initially.

DEADLINE: I’ve to ask concerning the track, “This Coronary heart Of Mine”, it’s so easy however so catchy. Who wrote it? Are you releasing it? Did John Allen Nelson sing it on the present?

SMITH: Wesley Schultz from The Lumineers wrote the track. I wished to get some greater name-y folks to have a featured track for the season, and he and I texted backwards and forwards a couple of occasions. The problem of it was capturing the inspiration for Everett, which was Sarah, however then additionally capturing Mel & Jack’s relationship on the identical time.

We’re completely releasing it in Wesley’s model. Callum, who performed younger Everett, who occurs to even be a recording artist in Nashville, has a model of it, after which the model of John Nelson, who did sing the track himself, will dwell within the present. So we’ve got a number of variations of it, however I believe it actually turned a season spotlight for me, and it’s one thing I used to be actually proud that it labored in addition to it did. And I’m so glad that it resonated for you too.

DEADLINE: With Doc and Everett additionally reconciling after Everett got here clear about that accident many years in the past, will Everett be again subsequent season? Are there extra tales to inform about him?

SMITH: He’ll proceed to be part of the present. I believe we’ve instructed a bulk of his story with Mel for now. However I believe one other factor that the present has at all times carried out so superbly is maintain secondary characters alive and pop up in locations the place you wouldn’t essentially at all times count on it. So I believe he’s a resident of Virgin River who’s right here to remain.

DEADLINE: Doc and Mel received into a fairly ugly battle earlier than they mended fences simply in time for the marriage. Was Doc at all times going to stroll her down the aisle?

SMITH: I believe that was the thought. She requested him initially. Everett got here into her life, she made the change, which I believe damage Doc deeply, however in a approach that he didn’t wish to disappoint her by letting her know that, which is what I believe culminated of their battle. However then we noticed the chance in Everett’s well being scare to sideline him, to place Doc again in that rightful place, being the one which walks Mel down the aisle.

DEADLINE: The upcoming battle for the clinic. You talked about how the present displays realities, and small-town medical practices being steamrolled by bigger networks is a actuality. The place are you taking that storyline?

SMITH: The present, whereas we’re not a medical procedural, we do have a medical story engine that I believe is particular by way of taking a look at small-town medication. I had the good pleasure and privilege to start out out my profession engaged on Everwood, carrying the wish-fulfillment thought, and I believe what Virgin River has carried out nicely so far as the way it displays on small city medication. I’m inquisitive about seeing somewhat of the present state of medical healthcare and our realities of it seeping into that world.

There’s an overarching theme for Season 7 of the surface encroaching into Virgin River. All of it comes from a private place for me. I grew up in small city in Texas. Our small city hospital has been taken over by a community. I’ve seen the repercussions of that on the folks that dwell there. One of many city medical doctors who was 82 solely not too long ago retired, and that’s been an inspiration for me, so far as Doc in his longevity, which I might like to see go for so long as humanly doable, as a result of it feels actual. I really feel like we’ve got a possibility to take a look at it in a approach that different reveals can’t.

DEADLINE: Final query. Are you contemplating Season 7 a possible remaining season, and the way lengthy are you able to go together with the present?

SMITH: No plans to wrap up the collection anytime quickly, and so long as folks maintain coming again for it, we’re proud and blissful to maintain telling these tales.