Bombshells
Episode 9 of Virgin River Season 4 starts with a very worried Mel back home. Cameron heads over to comfort her while Preacher is driving through town to find Jack. Brie and Brady are walking the riverbank. The whole town is on high alert and Mel is worried sick. In the middle of this, Stacie rings Mel and asks to meet but obviously this is the absolute worst time to do that. Preacher finds Jack asleep in his car. 4 minutes and 24 seconds folks, that’s how quickly this episode wraps up the cliffhanger. Anyway, Jack has lost track of time and realizes he’s missed the whole wedding. When Preacher drives him home, Cameron does the same. Jack shrugs off his condition and claims that something came up and he needed to sleep it off. Jack apologizes but that’s not going to cut it this time. Mel shuts the door and Jack is forced to head to Preacher’s, crashing on the sofa. Preacher is straight with him and urges Jack to talk professionally to Barry Martinez, a psychologist. He does one-on-one sessions and may be just what he needs to get through this. At the clinic, Jack ends up talking to Cameron who brings up that Mel is a brilliant woman. Naturally, Jack throws his weight around, telling Cameron to back up. Mel overhears and that makes the whole situation even worse. Given he’s shrugged off getting help, claiming that he’s “done drinking”, Mel is not so sure. Mel speaks to Doc, who points out that Jack’s issue is complex and some trauma is buried deep inside. He urges Mel not to give up on him… but her phone is blowing up the whole time so she’s not fully concentrating. It’s Stacie, again, constantly ringing and wanting to hang out. It’s obviously not a good time for Mel though. Remember that car from before belonging to Melissa? Well, we get our first look at her this episode. She shows up at Emerald Lumber and decides that Brady is good to keep around given his “collateral.” The drug night business running through the lumber yard could spill into the day business, with Melissa convinced he’s going to play ball. If he doesn’t, then something bad could happen to Brie. Meanwhile, Vernon speaks to Denny and calls him out for the files and the bottle of Klonopin. It’s here, Denny admits the truth. It turns out when his father died he was given a big insurance pay-out and since then, has wanted to put his money to good use and to help people. He’s used the funds to pay off the clinic’s mortgage and to thank Vernon for his hospitality. As for the prescription, Doc promises he won’t look at him differently for unveiling the truth… but we don’t see what that is – yet. Elsewhere, Hope finds her bench all made up by Muriel. As she sits down and closes her eyes, Hope ends up seeing Lily next to her. It’s a really beautiful segment and honestly, the best moment of the whole season so far. Mel eventually visits Stacie, who apologizes to Mel for asking for her wedding ring last season. She wants to put water under the bridge and is even naming her daughter Monroe after Mark, as a way of honouring his memory. “Mark would be thrilled,” Mel says. Unfortunately, there’s more to this story. It turns out Mel’s mum has hired a lawyer to seek custody for Mel’s last two embryos, believing she can get a surrogate and raise Mark’s child. Mel is shocked at how insane this is. Charmaine shows up at the bar with an invite for Jack and Mel to show up t her baby shower. The pair do patch up their differences too, with Jack promising to be there for her. Jack eventually meets with Barry, Preacher’s psychologist. He encourages Jack to try and piece together the fragments of his life, going on to mention there’s no timeline to how long this could take to resolve. Elsewhere, Preacher and Julia patch things up. Only, Christopher suddenly rings. He claims that “Uncle Vince is acting weird” and he that he’s been driving around a lot. He doesn’t recognize the location or the room he’s calling from. He wants to come home but when Vince stirs, he hurriedly hangs up. That night, Brie and Mike track down Calvin’s boat. Only, there’s movement in the woods and he hurriedly steps out of view. As he does, the boat suddenly explodes.
The Episode Review
These later episodes have been much better than the drama we got earlier in the show. Jack seeking help for his trauma is certainly a good progression for his story, while we also see Preacher and Julia patch up their differences – along with a surprising call from Christopher too. The ending involving Calvin’s boat is another big shocker, although it seems clear that this Melissa character is going to step up as the real ringleader behind all of this. The ending hints that we’ve got an explosive (no pun intended) set of episodes to come, with everything left wide open for the future. Virgin River is just starting to get interesting now though, with the drama ramped up to fever pitch and looking to really kick things into high gear.
