Virgin River season 6 binge recap: Have you RSVP'd to the wedding of the century? 

Welcome back, Virgin River fans! We saved you a seat at Jack’s Bar, and we’ve got so much town news to catch you up on. 

The biggest thing you need to know going into season 6 of the Netflix hit is that Mel (Alexandra Breckinridge) finally met her biological father, Preacher’s (Colin Lawrence) on trial for murder, and the sleepy northern California town’s planning the wedding of the century.

Got it? Good. You’re up to speed, so let’s recap.

Episode 1: “Hope Spring Eternal”

It’s wedding season in Virgin River, and we open the season with the most important step of that journey: Mel’s wedding dress.

She’s ready for the big reveal at the bridal shop, but when she steps out of the dressing room, it’s clear on the faces of Brie (Zibby Allen), Muriel (Teryl Rothery), Lydie (Christina Jastrzembska), Connie (Nicola Cavendish), and Jo Ellen (Gwynyth Walsh) that something’s not quite right.

And indeed, the store owner admits that she’s given Mel the Vanna, not Ophelia. More puzzlingly, the woman doesn’t seem to care, despite Brie stating, “She has receipts. There have been transactions.”

The shop owner, who is clearly unconcerned about her Yelp reviews, suggests that they alter the Vanna. The women of the sewing circle volunteer to be her fairy godmothers to turn it into the dress of her dreams.

Not to bring this recap to a dead stop already, but whatttt? Mel paid for the Ophelia! What do you mean she’s going home with the Vanna? Will there at least be some kind of refund? Rivers of complimentary champagne for the group? Store credit toward Mel’s third wedding? (JK on that last one.)

The other thing we learn at the bridal shop, other than that Hope’s (Annette O'Toole) officiating and Charmaine (Lauren Hammersley) offered to do Mel’s hair, is that while the RSVPs are pouring in, Mel’s biological father is on the fence about coming because of his shaky reputation with some people in the town, especially Doc (Tim Matheson). Other than Everett being quite the man about town once upon a time, nobody’s really sure what happened between the two men.

At dinner with Everett (John Allen Nelson) that night, Mel and Jack (Martin Henderson) don’t make much progress learning about his background. He was a musician who cut a couple of EPs, he’s having some breathing problems, and when Mel brings up her mom, he flees the table.

Over on the male side of the wedding planning, Jack’s bachelor party plans are overshadowed by the little issue of Preacher’s murder trial getting underway. 

As this first episode unfolds, Preacher’s stubbornly optimistic about his chances of being acquitted and refuses to involve Paige and Christopher even though Brie, as Preacher’s lawyer, says Paige’s testimony about her late ex would pretty well put an end to the prosecution’s already weak case.

Jack’s not happy that the closest thing he has to a brother could end up in prison, and it gets Kaia (Kandyse McClure) all riled up too. While working out with Brady (Benjamin Hollingsworth) — he’s a volunteer firefighter now, and Kaia's his boss — they talk about what a good man Preacher is and what a good lawyer Brie is. 

We’re reminded once again that Brady and Brie broke up because he kept things from her. To be fair, he had reasons! Reasons that involve Brie’s new boyfriend Mike (Marco Grazzini), which adds salt to that still-open wound.

Anyway, what Kaia takes out of this conversation is that secrets ruined his relationship. She looks worried.

Not worried? Brady. But he should be. He’s still with Lark (Elise Gatien), but she’s still with Jimmy (Ian Tracey) in secret. That’s right, Calvin’s right-hand man might be in prison, but he’s still guiding his little puppet Lark to squeeze Brady for all the money she can from the insurance payout he got after last season’s fire. 

She insists that she’s not falling for Brady and sets out to steal his money and destroy his plans to open a motorcycle shop.

Meanwhile, Doc and Hope are still going strong. His eye treatment was successful. Yay! They’re canoodling like teenagers. Get after it! And they’re interrupted by a very visibly pregnant Lizzie (Sarah Dugdale) and Denny (Kai Bradbury) the online-schooling pre-med student. So that’s how much time has passed, apparently!

Lizzie’s grumpy about her gestational diabetes test as they head to Virgin River’s new birthing center, which is sunny and spacious, with a birthing tub and big windows. Kudos to Mel. It’s a lovely space, and lord knows every woman in this town’s gonna have some kind of birth trauma if the previous seasons are any indication.

One apparent non-trauma is the end of Muriel’s relationship with Cameron (Mark Ghanimé), who left to be with his ex-fiancé (and possibly to start a family with her). While her friends watch closely for signs that Muriel’s ready to crumble over the end of her May-December relationship, she’s embracing new romantic possibilities. “It is April, and hope springs eternal,” she says.

It’s also fire cleanup season, and as Hope works with a crew to clear brush, she finds Sugar, her late friend Lilly's horse, bloody and wrapped in barbed wire. 

Hope’s horrified and takes Sugar to Mel and Jack’s barn — it used to be Lilly’s barn, after all — and promises that she’ll move Sugar out of their wedding venue before the event.

She gets Sugar settled in time to make it back to Doc’s, where the town surprises him with a celebration honoring the 30th anniversary of his clinic. He’s relieved that he’ll be able to keep practicing thanks to his renewed eyesight.

Mel’s having less luck with both father figures in her life. Doc refuses to explain the bad blood between him and Everett, and Everett refuses to take his health concerns seriously.

She strong-arms him to the clinic and then back home with reminders to change his diet and get some exercise. He’s taken aback by having someone worrying over him after so long, and it shakes loose a memory about Mel’s mom: she carried a camera with her everywhere, and their love story started long before the letters Mel found at the end of last season.

Then we get the first of what’s sure to be many reversals and upsets this season when Brie breaks the news that the prosecution wants Jack to testify against Preacher.

Episode 2: “The Broken Places”

As it turns out, Everett and Sarah’s love story really does predate those letters. It goes all the way back to the groovy peace-and-love days of the Vietnam war, when a young Everett (Callum Kerr) picks up an attractive young hitchhiker (Jessica Rothe) on her way to a protest.

Everett warns her to save her political talk because he’s a sex, drugs, and rock ‘n’ roll kind of guy who scoffs at protesting a war he’ll probably be sent to die in. And nothing’s going to keep him from the Rolling Stones concert he’s headed to.

As the young couple wonders aloud where they are, geographically speaking, we see them drive past a sign welcoming them to Virgin River.

In the present, Mel’s shocked that this is her parents’ meet cute. Everett describes her mom as beautiful and sharp as a tack. Gee, kinda like a certain strawberry blonde we know.

As the episode unfolds, Mel learns the rest of the story. When Everett’s van breaks down in Virgin River, the mechanic offers them an affordable repair, but one that’s going to take 48 hours. Since they’re both broke as a joke, he suggests they spend the night at the campground by the river. (We also see the mechanic’s red-headed kid: a very young Bert!)

At the river, Sarah takes pictures as Everett struggles to set up the camping equipment in the back of his van. As night falls, they settle into folding chairs with a fire, whiskey, and Everett’s guitar. It’s the perfect setting for him to launch into a Cliff’s Notes version of Kevin Costner’s speech from Bull Durham: “I believe in love at first sight, the power of songs in minor keys, and listening to your heart when it’s trying to tell you something.” 

It’s no treatise on the designated hitter, but it gets Sarah to kiss him already.

Once his van’s back in service, he drops Sarah off at the protest, where she cheerfully kisses him goodbye and disappears into the crowd. 

Thankfully, he listens to his heart once again and wades into the crowd to find her. He fights his way through the masses, calling her name, but she doesn’t want to make plans to see him again and blithely assures him that fate will bring them back together.

Ugh nooooo, she Serendipity’d it! Run, Everett. Find yourself a woman who’ll tell you her last name and a reliable way to get in touch with her. Also, she described Bob Dylan’s singing voice as sounding like a cat complaining. I don’t see these two making it work.

Of course, present Everett doesn’t feel anything but love for his long-lost Sarah. Mel, in turn, opens up about the death of her first husband, and before she heads out, she notices Everett’s copy of A Farewell to Arms. 

The book is one of Jack’s favorites, about a nurse who falls in love with a soldier, and at Everett’s insistence, she takes it with her when she leaves to teach a prenatal yoga class.

... prenatal yoga? Geez, Mel really can do anything.

Lizzie’s in Mel’s class along with a young pregnant woman named Marley (Rachel Drance), who’s being observed by an older couple fretting about her wellbeing. Phil and Darla are the adoptive parents of her baby. This interests Mel, who tells Marley afterward that she and Jack plan to adopt, although that’s on the back burner while they’re planning the wedding.

Romance is also in the air for Muriel’s, who’s been fixed up by her well-meaning friends. Thankfully the chosen man, Walt Booth (Troy McLaughlin), has “very kind eyes,” so she lets her girl gang help pick out her date outfit.

Unfortunately, the group vetoes her very cute gingham top that looks like it’s straight from Reese Witherspoon’s Draper James collection, and she’s getting changed and doing the patented “scoop, lift, and settle” move to get situated in her bra, a strange look crosses her face. Oh gosh, we’re getting a Muriel breast cancer story this season, aren’t we? NOT MURIEL!!!

Hope’s not present for the pre-date festivities because she’s barely left Sugar’s side. Lilly’s horse is lethargic, laying on his side in the straw likely because of an infection from the barbed-wire cuts.

Hope summons Doc, and together, the two of them do their best to help Sugar until the vet can make it later that night. They use antibacterial Manuka honey on the wound, and we learn that Hope’s ex-husband owned a ranch, which is where she learned about horses. Did… did we know any of this before? I don’t recall talk of Hope’s ex or a ranch history.

Doc’s a little jealous over the mention of the man who came before, but Hope says she stuck around as long as she did for the horses, not the man.

Then we get to the root of her concern over Sugar (beyond wanting to ease the suffering of one of God’s creatures, of course): There’s so little of Lilly left in Virgin River now, and Sugar’s the last link to the Anderson family. Thankfully, the horse is back on his feet, literally and figuratively, by the end of the episode.

At the clinic, Doc again dodges Mel’s attempts to talk about Everett, but he’s not able to escape when Denny hits him up for an internship. He wants to do emergency medicine, and interning at the clinic lets him get started right away. He’s willing to do any type of grunt work (as well as internet router maintenance) and is so earnest that Doc hires him.

Now to the serious stuff: Preacher’s trial. Nobody’s quite sure what the prosecution wants to get from Jack, and I’m not an attorney, but it seems like a big gamble to call someone who’s likely to be hostile to your side and who you haven’t spent any time prepping.

At first, Jack’s testimony is fine. He and Preacher served in the Marines together, which is where his friend earned a Purple Heart.

But when Prosecutor Jenkins brings up whether Preacher’s honest, he backs Jack into a corner, using a voicemail Preacher left Jack that proves Preach lied about his whereabouts the night Wes died.

This new evidence has Brie in an uproar, but Jenkins smarmily assures her it was part of their electronic discovery, buried but included, so there’s no Brady violation.

Although Brie assures the concerned group that it’ll be fine, she has a mini breakdown in the ladies’ room, flashing back to her own trial against the ex-boyfriend who sexually assaulted her. Then a text comes in from Brady that reads, “Thinking of you and Preach. Give ‘em hell.”

First, I don’t see Mike texting his girlfriend exactly when she most needs it. Second, I’m intrigued that Brady texts with punctuation and capitalization. Third, Virgin River’s curly-haired bad(ish) boy’s spending his time at the fire station lifting weights and casually defending Kaia when his loudmouth coworker Roy (Jayce Barreiro) gripes about all her time off. 

Notable: this occurs while Brady's sweaty in a tank top, taking a break from bicep curls to read old texts from Brie. This show and this couple are going to be the death of me.

When Brady gets home, he finds Lark in tears because her mother needs dialysis but has no insurance. He immediately asks if there’s anything he can do, but Lark just asks him to hold her. When she positions herself in his arms facing away from him, the distress vanishes from her face. Treachery!

Back at the trial, Mike’s joined the group and blames himself for letting Jenkins get his hands on that voicemail. (He gave Jack’s phone to Jenkins the night he got shot.) Although Brie says she’ll move to have the voicemail excluded and Jack’s testimony struck, every attorney knows you can’t un-ring a bell.

Jack arrives home disheartened and takes comfort in Mel's arms ifyounowwhatimean. Afterward, they lounge in the bath together and Mel talks about her parents meeting. Jack says it’s a coincidence, but Mel suggests that all the pain in their past brought them together. 

She then shares a quote Jack recognizes from A Farewell to Arms: “The world breaks everyone. Afterward, many are strong at the broken places.” That's him, she says. Stronger because of the damage.

The next morning, Brie presents Preacher with a plea deal from Jenkins: manslaughter, with a minimum of two years but possibly out in one for good behavior (which we all know would be how Preacher would roll in prison).

The alternative is a jury trial, where he’d face 25 to life. Furthermore, a plea could embolden the prosecution to go after Paige next. Brie says taking the plea is probably smart, but she’ll fight for him in trial if that’s what he wants.

Preacher steps into the hallway to consider, and Kaia follows him and says she wishes the jury could see that the man she loves was trying to help a woman in need. It’s the first time she’s told him she loves him, and it helps him make up his mind: no plea. He’s going to testify.

Episode 3: “The Jury’s Out”

First things first, Ricky (Grayson Maxwell Gurnsey) came home! He’s been away for what feels like years (but is actually a matter of months) in basic training. He got Jack’s invite to the wedding, and he’s preparing to ship out in a few weeks.

Lydie’s elated, of course, and Jack’s delighted too. Then Lizzie knocks him for a complete loop when she emerges from Paige’s Bakeaway to reveal her extremely pregnant belly.

Ricky completely bungles their reunion by saying he’s surprised at her excitement about becoming a mom, considering that life as she knows it is about to be over. Not good, my guy! When Lizzie leaves in a hurry — she’s helping Hope plan Virgin River’s royal wedding equivalent, after all — he pulls out a flask and takes a drink. Really, really not good, my guy!

Everett and Mel are still getting to know each other, this time on a walk with Mel's puppy Pony. Good grief, Pony got huge. Do dogs grow that fast? Anyway, Mel asks Everett to continue his story about falling in love with her mom.

Everett says they got separated after the march, but since they agreed to meet again in Virgin River, that’s where he waited until she came to him. Life pulled them apart over and over, but they always found their way back to each other. 

Of course, after Sarah married Mel’s dad, Everett thought it was over over, but we see a flashback of Sarah showing up to find young Everett strumming his guitar and singing as he stares at the river. Like, that was authentically how he was spending his afternoon, unaware that Sarah was planning to pay a visit. Life before the internet was weird.

Sarah sought him out after the death of her daughter Chloe when she and Mel’s dad were going through a rough patch. Everett tells Mel that they helped each other heal, and “out of that came you.”

Mel asks a question that’s undoubtedly kept her up at night: did the man she thought was her father know? Everett confirms that he knew that he wasn’t Mel’s biological father, but he accepted her and Sarah out of love, just like Everett let her and Sarah go out of love.

If you’re digging this storyline, by the way, good news: Netflix is developing a spinoff story focused on young Everett and Sarah!

At the clinic, it’s time for Denny to start his internship. Doc describes general medicine as part doctor, part detective, and that day's appointments deal with irritable bowel, heat rash, and folliculitis.

Doc checks to be sure his patients are okay with Denny sitting in on their appointments that morning, and why wouldn’t they be? Sure, go ahead and invite the doctor’s college-age grandson who has no training or qualifications!

But Doc and Denny's routine morning is interrupted by an SOS call about a child who fell into a sinkhole, and despite Doc’s reminders about the importance of general practice medicine, he excitedly scampers out the door to the scene of an emergency.

The sinkhole emergency also interrupts Brady’s conversation with Lark as she’s starting to reel him in with her money-extraction scheme. He almost swallows his tongue when she tells him that her mom’s dialysis treatments will be $120,000, but he doesn’t say no. 

When he gets called to help rescue the trapped kid, they have a cute exchange where she tells him, “Be all that you can be” and as he jogs to the truck, he playfully shouts that in the Marines, it’s “Oorah." Love him, hate her, somebody save Brady!

The fire crew rolls up to the sinkhole, where they learn from Frank, one of Brady’s old drug camp buddies, that his nephew, Jake, is trapped. Despite being a rookie, Brady offers to get lowered in for the rescue. After all, he did three tours in Iraq, and Jake knows him. 

After a bit of debate, the crew agrees, and the rescue goes smoothly until the edge of the sinkhole collapses. The crew manages to pull Brady and Jake to safety so Doc can work his magic, and by the end of the day, Denny’s equally into emergency medicine and community doctoring. 

Brady, the hero of the hour, sticks around to chat with Frank, who says the drug camp crew are doing their best after being displaced by the wildfire. He asks after Hazel (Ava Anton) and Lark, and when Brady mentions the sick mom, Frank’s baffled since he plays cards with Mama Lark every week and says she regularly drinks him under the table. I’m relieved to see Brady put on his thinking face at this news.

Left alone at the clinic during the excitement, Muriel asks Mel to check the lump she felt in her breast. Based on a scan, Mel gently tells Muriel that she’ll need a biopsy, but she also reminds Muriel not to put her life on hold based on this new development.

To the courthouse! Jenkins lawyer-splains to Brie that a murder conviction comes down to character, and Preacher's a proven liar. But actually, no. A murder conviction comes down to beyond a reasonable doubt based on evidence. And yeah, there’s some character judgements in there too, but Jenkins von Blowhard has oversimplified things quite a bit there.

Then Brie calls John Middleton to the stand, and I was baffled for a moment until I remembered that it’s Preacher’s real name. Ha!

Preacher admits to burying Wes’ body in the woods but insists the man died in a fall down the stairs before Preacher got to Paige’s house. They didn’t call the police because Wes was the police. Preacher says he did what he did to protect Paige.

During a break, Jack bumps into Charmaine on the steps of the courthouse mid-fight with her baby daddy Calvin (David Cubitt). He’s furious that she was just granted sole custody. Jack tells Calvin to beat it, leaving Charmaine to beat herself up for all her bad choices. Is there a more pitiable character in Virgin River than this woman, who was chasing after Jack while pregnant with a villain’s twins for at least a dozen years and now has to deal with the villain and the twins?

Anyway, in closing arguments, Brie argues that Preacher protected a domestic abuse survivor whose trauma and tormentor both followed her when she tried to escape, as they so often do. Brie says that Preacher was trying to end a cycle of abuse, and now the jury has the power to end yet another cycle right here.

The jurors leave to deliberate, and everyone scatters. Jack gets a visit at the farm from Ricky, who’s drinking and driving and slurring his words. Jack sits him down for coffee and a talk, and Ricky admits that he’s scared about being deployed, and seeing Lizzie building her life here made him realize that he might not make it back to do the same.

Jack says that a good Marine doesn’t act in the absence of fear, but in the face of it. He was strong enough, and Ricky will be, too.

Brie, meanwhile, tries to get a little something something going with Mike while they wait, but he stops her and asks if she wants to talk about the closing arguments when she clearly called on her own experiences with the trauma of sexual assault.

She snaps that she just wants to feel normal and wanted and doesn’t need whatever support Mike’s trying to give her. Rest assured, this kills the mood and leads to nothing nothing.

After a montage of the major players anxiously waiting for word, everyone’s summoned to the courthouse, where they learn that the jury’s deadlocked. 

Brie, in an absolutely dynamite green blazer, suggests that Preacher plead guilty to a misdemeanor and 100 hours of public service. Jenkins says make it 300 and she’s got a deal. Heck, Preach was probably planning to do 300 hours of community service-type activities out of the goodness of his heart anyway. They have a deal. The trial's over.

You know what that means, right? Time to celebrate! Everyone gathers at Jack’s, where we get a ton of forward plot motion.

Muriel tells Mel that she scheduled her biopsy and rescheduled the date she cancelled with Walt Booth. In fact, she might even let him get to second base so she can enjoy ‘em while they last. It should be noted that this follows the advice from Hannah (Clare Filipow), a server at Jack’s and an all-around queen, who earlier in the episode told Muriel to get under someone new to get over Cameron. Queen Hannah is wise.

Mel breaks the news to Doc that she wants Everett to walk her down the aisle. Doc’s disappointed, but he understands and agrees to do a reading instead. When Hope joins him, she sympathizes that his surrogate daughter chose her newly discovered bio dad, then says, “Hey, at least she didn’t ask you to do a reading.” Oh, Hope. Never change. 

Brie enters to applause and heads to the bar, where Brady’s making a Shirley Temple for Hazel. Brie orders the same, but with alcohol, then tells Brady she heard he went all Mission Impossible earlier. He, in turn, heard that she went all To Kill a Mockingbird. Aww, they’re getting reports on one another!

Later, Brie’s shooting pool when Lark comes in and makes awkward small talk that ends with her thanking Brie for letting Brady go for her to scoop up. That’s… not really what you want to say to the ex that your boyfriend’s still hung up on, if the look on Brie’s face is anything to go on.

Liddy’s there, too, and tells Jack that she’s scared about Ricky’s deployment. Jack reassures her, but he turns to Mel for help easing his guilt over getting Ricky to enlist in the first place. Then Preacher and Brie start talking about bachelor and bachelorette parties, and the mood lightens again.

Heck, Charmaine even shows up to congratulate everyone, but the music turns ominous when we pan outside to see Calvin lurking alone in the dark.

Episode 4: “Brothers & Sisters”

Grab your feather boas and your protective goggles — it’s party time!

Everybody’s ready to let off some steam at Jack and Mel’s “goodbye to singledom” parties! The dress code is urban cowgirl for the women and fatigues and combat boots for the men.

But before we get to the highs and lows of the bachelor(ette) bashes, let’s check in with the rest of the town.

Lizzie, reeling from a care package from her mom that includes chapped-nipple balm, meets up with Ricky to try to smooth things over before he ships out. And it works!

They confess their fears about the crossroads they’re facing. Ricky says he has a friend at boot camp who gets what he’s going through, and he pauses long enough over the word “friend” that I’m left wondering just how friendly they are. If so, good for them!

Lizzie in turn says she’s scared to become a mother but doesn’t know how to tell Denny. Ricky wraps an arm around her and echoes her words to him before their first kiss in season 1: he sees her, and the person she’s become is beautiful. Being scared just means she’ll be a good mom.

Sidenote: Virgin River is one of the most gorgeous shows on television. I’m always delighted when the camera lingers on the scenery at the edges of the action in pretty much any outdoor scene.

Okay, at the clinic, Denny watches as Doc meets with a Parkinson’s patient and his stressed and worried wife. When Doc recommends live-in home health care, every fear Denny has for his own future living with a neurodegenerative disease flashes across his face. (As you’ll recall, Denny has been diagnosed with Huntington’s Disease.)

That evening, he can’t stop worrying about what this means for Lizzie. Doc says, “Loving you is never a burden” and promises to always support him. A+ grandpa work there.

Muriel, meanwhile, asks Hope to drive her to her biopsy, and Hope locks down her emotions to keep things as normal as possible for her friend. But she can’t help fussing afterward, and Muriel tells her to knock it off and make every day a celebration instead.

When they find the sewing circle at Jack’s, hard at work altering Mel’s wedding dress, the women decide to throw their own party in the spirit of the bachelorette bash.

So let’s catch up with those partygoers. As they're getting ready for the day’s festivities, Brie ogles Mike when he strolls into the kitchen in a tight black T-shirt. 

They have a quick “we’re good, right?” check-in after their mid-trial weirdness, and when Kaia asks Brie to choose between a cop or a firefighter for Mel’s stripper, Brie says, “Cop, obviously.” Then they join Mel and her sister Joey (Jenny Cooper) in the hot-pink stretch limo they rented for the day.

To celebrate Mel, Brie and Kaia planned stops at places representing her past, present, and future. First up is a boozy brunch, not that Mel wants to put those in her past, and things get awkward when Joey learns that she and Brie are co-maids of honor. (Mel insisting that Joey’s actually a matron of honor doesn’t help things.)

Next stop is axe throwing to represent Mel’s present as a farm-dwelling horse-owner. (“Horse babysitter,” Mel quickly says. Hope's finding Sugar a permanent home!) But Joey’s axe-throwing is downright violent, and the three Virgin River residents decide to add an event that the city girl would enjoy.

This means canceling the stripper, and Brie asks Kaia, “Are you good to call the firefighter?” Brie’s confusion over cop versus firefighter amuses Kaia to no end, and at their new third stop, a karaoke bar, Kaia compares Brady to her own ex: unpredictable and fun to play with—until he leaves you burned. Brie doesn’t quite look convinced, but she raises her glass to the stable men they’re with now.

But later that night, Kaia realizes they didn’t actually cancel the stripper when she gets a text saying he's arrived. Oops!

Happily, the original third stop was Jack’s bar to represent Mel’s future. Even though the bachelorette party isn't there, the sewing circle's stuck around far past closing despite Queen Hannah trying to kick them out, sharing stories about their best-ever sex. Heck yes let’s normalize older people as sexual beings! 

The non-cancelled stripper struts in dressed as a cop (Mike wins this round) and asks which one is Mel. Everyone points to the newly single Muriel as the replacement bride-to-be. This leads to an enthusiastic performance by the dancer, much to the delight of all involved.

At the actual bachelorette party, Joey’s bad mood’s gotten impossible to ignore, and it comes to a head when the sisters hit the stage to perform “Hit Me with Your Best Shot.” Mel drunkenly defends Joey from a heckler, savagely mocking the guy’s “Tommy Bahamas coconut shirt from the midlife crisis catalog” until Joey drags her offstage.

Joey admits that it’s hard to see Mel with a new sister and a new dad. Mel, of course, says Joey means everything to her. The weirdness gone, all four women hit the stage to butcher the Spice Girls in karaoke, as is the custom for this type of gathering.

Afterward, a tipsy Brie slips away and leaves a voicemail for one of the bachelor party attendees, telling him she can’t stop thinking about him and she wanted to hear his voice. Cop or firefighter, though?

At this point, let's rewind to catch up with the male half of the festivities. It starts off with Brady asking Lark to explain why her allegedly sick mother’s been drinking and playing cards with Frank every weekend.

Lark blames her mother for not following doctor’s orders and guilts Brady for not trusting her. “You know you can tell me anything. I'm not Brie,” she says. You're definitely not! Brady clearly agrees with me because he makes a hasty excuse and bails.

The bachelor party gets underway on the paintball battlefield, where the members of Jack’s platoon discuss whether to wear suits or their dress blues at the wedding. The realization that the last time they were all in uniform was for a fallen comrade’s funeral brings down the mood until they start razzing Mike about whether he'll be next at the altar. He says no, but that doesn't erase the glower from Brady's face.

This ex-military force faces off against a gang of aggressive Gen Z trash-talkers who call them Boomer bush campers, an insult that neither Jack nor I understand. The young'uns swiftly hunt down and eliminate each member of the wedding party, most of whom are fine with it because they can start drinking sooner.

Mike tries to make an elaborate attack plan, but Brady ignores him and dives in like a berserker. It ends badly for both of them, but at least Jack gets to fire one last vindictive paintball at the gloating opponent who's just eliminated him.

Over a dinner of ribs, Mike jokes that Brady went rogue again and tanked the paintball mission. The “again” gets Brady’s hackles up, and he fires back that he didn’t go rogue in Mosul, he trusted Mike’s intel. But Mike screwed him over then just like he did with...

Here, Brady stops himself before he says “Brie," muttering that they should just drop it. But Mike gets in his face to say that Brady's the one screwing up his own life. The men leap at each other and have to be separated. Fun party!

Once they settle down, Jack and Preacher ask them all to please put the war behind them, accept that they’re the lucky ones who made it home, and salvage the rest of their night. All good suggestions, but might I also add: therapy. So much therapy.

But salvage the night they do, taking over a football field for a boisterous game that includes Ricky as a last-minute addition to their band of brothers. It’s delightful to watch the lads being lads. Brady and Mike even apologize to each other, and the night ends with Jack hugging Ricky and saying they’ll be rooting for him until he comes home.

Brady swings by Lark’s place to say he wants to get past their mutual trust issues so they can build a home together because he’s falling in love with her. Instead of confessing her schemey scheming ways, Lark says she’s falling in love with him too. Much kissing ensues. Many thumbs down from me.

Brady's leaving the BNB where Lark and Hazel are staying when he gets a voicemail from Brie. As we all suspected, she chose the firefighter!

Finally, a tipsy, giggly Mel gets dropped off at home, where Jack’s there to greet her. They agree that their nights hit rough spots but ended well. Also, Jack has decided not to get married in his dress blues so they can focus on their future, not his past.

Mel’s only regret from the night was not getting a stripper. Lucky for her, Jack's right there to pull up a cover of “Pony” on his phone (LOL of course it’s “Pony”), and he launches into his (actually quite good) version of exotic dancing for his delighted bride. It’s the perfect end to their celebratory night. 

Episode 5: “Love Story”

Who’s up for a drive-in movie?

The town’s organizing a movie fundraiser at Twin Lakes for victims of the wildfire, but Hope freaks out when she realizes the chosen flick is Love Story that (spoilers for a 50-year-old-filim) ends with the heroine dying of cancer.

Lizzie's baffled that Hope won’t explain why she’s insisting the movie be changed and points out that tragic deaths drive at least a third of all movies (LOL).

She tracks down replacement options at the library, but Bert, as the head of the Virgin River Film Society, vetoes them. To be fair, the choices are Porky’s, Texas Chainsaw Massacre, and Enter the Dragon. The sewing club all insist on sticking with Love Story, so a frustrated Hope drags Bert away to explain that an anonymous friend might have cancer, so she’d like to avoid the topic.

Then Bert drops some truth bombs: supporting his wife after her lupus diagnosis meant being scared with her, not running away from reality, and Hope should do the same. This changes her perspective, and she rewards him with a hug, which probably scares him more than his wife's diagnosis did.

When Muriel arrives to help with the drive-in setup, the ladies fill her in on Hope’s irrational hostility toward Love Story’s cancer story line. This prompts Muriel to share the news that she’s the one waiting on biopsy results, and everyone hugs her and promises to fight with her if it comes to that.

A few of the wedding party members are having rough mornings after the revelries of the previous night. Jack proves his good-husband bonafides with a morning-after care package on the bed next to Mel, then he unleashes news that no hungover bride-to-be wants to hear: his dad Sam (Tom Butler) is in town and wants to have lunch. Mel suggests bringing Everett, and although he agrees, he spends the meal ill at ease as the rest of the group jokes and trades stories. 

Mel’s surprised to hear that Everett designs and builds custom furniture, and he shuts her down when she suggests he perform the song he wrote for Sarah at the wedding.

When Mel drops back at home afterward, he says he’s too overwhelmed at trying to fit into a new family, and although he said yes when Mel asked if he’d walk her down the aisle, he’s now rethinking that. Mel is crushed.

Jack faces his own challenges when his father takes him shopping for a wedding suit and congratulates him on getting his life back on track. Jack wasn’t aware that his life was off track, which raises their old disapproval over him choosing the Marines, not Berkeley.

Brie’s also having an unpleasant morning, although this one involves regrets of the “I left a voicemail for who?” variety. Mike leaves for the day, telling Brie that he's sleeping at his place that night to catch up on paperwork. This gives Brie the opportunity to call Brady. She claims not to remember exactly what she said in her message, but Brady tells her it’s nothing to worry about.

Friends, I do think it's something Brie ought to worry about.

Brady immediately comes clean with Lark about the phone call, telling her that although it wasn’t a big deal, he wants total honesty between them. Lark continues to look uneasy about this deception she's trapped him in.

Bad luck for Lark, then, that she's visiting Jimmy on the same day that Brie's at the prison to talk to a witness. When Brie spots Brady's girlfriend with one of his sworn enemies, it gets her wheels turning.

On the medical side of things, Doc and Denny respond to a panicky call from a kid named Cody whose dad fell off a ladder while changing a lightbulb and knocked himself out. Doc thinks Henry’s got bleeding on the brain, and with the ambulance 30 minutes out, he realizes it’s on him to act.

He gets a neurosurgeon from nearby Grace Valley Hospital on the phone to talk him through the procedure he needs to do. But the call’s glitchy, so he’s on his own to take care of the subdural hematoma. This involves a portable electric drill and a queasy college-aged intern. Please take a second to process that thought.

Doc sends Cody outside, tells Denny to hold Henry’s head still, and picks up a power tool with the biggest drill bit I have ever seen.

In easily the funniest moment in Virgin River history, we cut from the sounds of Doc’s drill to a blender mixing protein shakes at the firehouse. Somehow, Prosecutor Jenkins McDoofus didn’t bar Preacher from doing his public service hours where his girlfriend can oversee them, so he’s got a front-row seat as Roy, who wanted the fire chief job, hassles Kaia.

Brady quietly tells Preacher to ignore it, but as the day wears on, Preacher finally tells Roy to show Kaia some respect. The two men are about to square off, but Kaia doesn’t need her man protecting her and efficiently drops Roy to the mat herself. Well, I’m sure that’s the end of that, right? Most entitled men with a grievance give up and go away quietly, right!

At the drive-in that night, Kaia thanks Preacher for nudging her to finally deal with Roy in her own way. Then they adorably bicker over movie snacks, and I think we should all try unbuttered popcorn with an entire bag of M&Ms at our next movie outings.

Doc’s less upbeat when he arrives at Twin Lakes. Although Henry survived the giant drill, Dr. Oliver Hayes, the chief medical officer at Grace Valley Hospital, informs Doc that he’s going to be investigated for performing the drill procedure without a neurosurgeon overseeing it. 

Doc sputters that Henry would’ve died without his intervention, but Hayes says it’s his hospital and his ass on the line, so Doc will have to explain himself to the medical board.  Is... is that how it works liability-wise in a medical setting? It seems weird that Hayes’ hospital would be on the hook for what Doc did as part of his own clinic work.

Bless Hope’s heart, though. She’s not worried about Doc's medical license and reminisces with him about watching Love Story together for the first time — and doing other stuff afterward. *eyebrows eyebrows*

Jack and Mel are also down when they meet for the movie. Mel’s upset that she pushed Everett too hard, but Jack assures her that she didn’t do anything wrong. He, meanwhile, is irked that his dad’s only proud of him now because he’s ended up with the life Sam always envisioned for him. They promise that they’ll do better by their own kids.

Ooookay, it’s time for the next round of But Daddy I Love Him: The Brie and Brady Story. *flexes fingers, cracks knuckles, chugs Gatorade* 

Brady’s locking up at Jack’s so he can meet Lark and Hazel at the drive-in when Brie knocks on the door.

She kinda sorta admits to remembering her message from the night before after all, then breaks the news that Lark wasn’t at a birthday party with Hazel that afternoon. She was visiting Hazel’s dad Jimmy in prison. A guard even confirmed that Lark is Jimmy’s girl. 

Brady doesn’t take the news... shall we say... well. He accuses Brie of trying to ruin the one good thing he has left, kicks over a table, and yells at her to leave. Then he immediately deflates at the realization that Lark’s been playing him for the insurance money this whole time. Pretty sure that emotional progression broke a land speed record for a human to move from denial to anger to acceptance. 

When he mutters that this is what he deserves, Brie demands that he look at her as she assures him that he's worthy of love, and she's sorry for making him feel otherwise. “The only reason I know anything about love is because of you,” is his halting reply, and how do you not hug a guy after that?

Of course, a hug is dangerous with these two. When they pull away, Brady kisses her, then immediately apologizes, but Brie pulls him right back. After that, it's on.

Shirts are ripped open, buttons go flying, and belts are removed, all while Brady maintains an intense level of eye contact. Also, I see you, Virgin River music supervisor. That’s Two Feet on the soundtrack for this scene, which is the same artist that underscored the Brie/Brady hookup after he was released from prison in season 4.

So yeah, these two gorgeous creatures are about to do unspeakable things to each other on the pool table at Jack’s bar. Unsanitary? Yes! Taking place between two people already in relationships? Also yes!

Listen, I’m sorry that I am the way I am about these two, but... shhh. Let me enjoy this. (Okay, fine, I’m also sorry that Brie cheats on Mike here. He’s not a bad dude; he’s just not Brady. Lark, however, can kick rocks.)

Speaking of Lark, we cut to her on the phone cutting ties with Jimmy because she and Brady are in love for real. Too little, meet too late.

At the drive-in, Ali McGraw dies beautifully onscreen as everybody cries and, hopefully, agrees that believing love means never having to say you’re sorry is terrible advice. Also Kaia got her popcorn and M&Ms.

The episode ends with the long-awaited face-off between Everett and Doc that concludes with Doc saying loud and clear, “Because of you, a boy is dead.”

Episode 6: “Ghosts”

We’re days out from the wedding, which means it’s time to visit the exes! 

The clerk processing Mel and Jack’s marriage license tells the groom that he needs to produce his dissolution paperwork from his first marriage because she’s not about to be dragged into “polygamy hell” by another still-married license applicant. (I would love to hear this woman’s work stories.) Looks like Jack's headed to Sacramento for an awkward visit!

This leaves Hope and the wedding committee to their last-minute plans. Task 1: Hope needs to swallow her pride and ask her ex-husband Roland to accept Sugar at his ranch so the barn is free for the festivities.

When she arrives at the ranch, I half expected it to be Taylor Sheridan on that horse, but that man only wrangles cattle for Paramount. Roland (John Ralston) and Hope immediately start exchanging insults, but Roland eventually agrees to take Sugar as long as the horse is able to be ridden — and provided Hope says she's sorry for leaving him 40 years ago without a word.

The famously prickly Hope is worried enough about Sugar’s welfare that she grudgingly apologizes for leaving a marriage that was stifling her. 

In other ex news, Cameron’s in town for the wedding! He tells Doc that he got a call from Dr. Hayes, who’s clearly deep-diving into Doc’s past for more evidence to bury him with the medical board. Cameron assures Doc that he’s got nothing but good things to say.

He then starts to catch up with Muriel, but she gets the call with her biopsy results and brushes him off to take it. He follows her outside and becomes the first person to hear that she does, in fact, have breast cancer. NOT MURIEL!!!!

Cameron immediately offers to call the best oncologists he knows, but what Muriel actually needs is for him to just sit with her while she processes the news. So he does.

Two things about this scene: one, Cameron looks great. The grey-flecked beard is doing the work. And two, Muriel told her girl gang at their impromptu bachelorette-adjacent bash that Cam’s the best she ever had. How bittersweet that he's also the first person to learn her life-shaking news.

Lizzie and Denny aren’t exes… yet. But they seem to be headed in that direction thanks to their lack of communication. With Doc’s encouragement, Denny tries to talk about how they'll manage his Huntington’s in the future. But Lizzie's got a baby monitor to choose and doesn’t want to think about Denny getting sick or whether they should get their daughter tested for the disease after she’s born.

When Brie and Brady bump into each other at Paige’s Bakeaway, Kaia picks up on the tension between this pair of exes immediately. After Brie darts away, Kaia jokingly asks if they hooked up or something, and Brady spills his guts.

He's frustrated that Brie's been ignoring him since their pool table encounter so he doesn't know what she's thinking. But he gets a pretty good idea when he walks into Jack’s later that day to find her kissing Mike, who’s been promoted to head of major crimes.

Brady rides that wave of bad mojo right into telling Lark that he knows everything and shuts her down when she insists that she really did fall in love with him. He tells her it's over, although after she's gone, his face falls when he spots a plastic tiara that Hazel left behind. Sorry about the additional upheaval in that child's life, but byeeeee, Jimmy’s girls!

And hellooooo, Jack’s former love! His second journey to the altar brings him back to Mandy (Michelle Morgan), the girl he impulsively married at 18. (Mel passes on joining him for this visit to his ex-wife since she’s already scheduled to babysit his ex-girlfriend’s twins that evening.)

Is it me, or do Mandy and Charmaine look more than a little alike? Behold, Jack’s type before Mel! Mandy moved on from their marriage to create a happy, thriving family of her own, and in her cheerful kitchen, she hands him a copy of their dissolution papers as well as a medal Jack earned during his deployment that was mailed to her parents’ house back in the day.

We get the deets on why they split up: he enlisted instead of going to Berkeley like they’d planned, and not only did that upset her, but she spent the entirety of his enlistment worried that he wasn’t going to come home.

We also learn that Mandy’s maintained a close relationship with Jack’s mom. As Amelia (Gabrielle Rose) shows Mel old pictures of Jack (but actually young Martin Henderson in a variety of hilarious hairstyles), she says that even after the couple split up, Mandy kept her sane as they both worried about Jack while he was deployed. “I will always love her for the role she played in my life,” Amelia concludes. And isn’t that lovely? 

That night, Mel watches in delight as Jack sweet-talks Charmaine’s twins. But his playful demeanor disappears when she finds the Navy and Marine Corps Achievement Medal that was awarded to Pvt. 1st Class Sheridan, who distinguished himself with valor and composure under fire for his heroic and decisive actions as a rifleman.

Jack didn’t even bother to read the letter that came with it, saying it doesn’t matter. What happened still happened. Mel suggests that the medal says otherwise.

She also took her conversation with Amelia to heart and decides to send the hotly contested family wedding ring back to her late husband’s mother. (The note she sends with the package concludes with “Warmly,” which is about the coldest signoff I can think of.) She’s also decided to make her married name her middle name when she marries Jack and become a Sheridan. 

The evening ends with Jack, who's bedding Sugar down in the barn to avoid the oncoming storm, being confronted by Calvin, who blames Jack for convincing Charmaine that he’s an unfit father. He threatens to hurt anyone who tries to keep him from his kids.

Time for a million restraining orders!

Episode 7: “I Climbed a Mountain and I Turned Around”

I’m pleased to report that Jack’s first step after his rainy nighttime encounter with Calvin is talking to Charmaine about a restraining order — not that Calvin’s the type to abide by a legal requirement to stay away from the mother of his children, but hey, work with what you’ve got.

And what Jack’s got is a lawyer sister. He interrupts Brie’s cozy morning with her boyfriend (um, Mike, to be clear) and enlists her help. Mike offers to come along, but Brie suggests he’d be more useful upping the patrols past Charmaine’s house and looking for legal reasons to lock Calvin back up.

Brie and Jack chat with Charmaine at the beauty salon, where Brie gathers enough evidence for the restraining order. When Charmaine wonders aloud why she didn’t wait to find another nice guy after Jack, Brie’s facial expression is quite loud as she thinks about her own situation.

The Sheridan siblings’ day then takes an unexpected turn when they find Hope trying to teach Sugar how to be ridden, as that’s the only way Roland will take him. Wanting to keep the recent TBI patient away from the bucking horse, Jack lies and says that Brie’s a great rider. (“They, uh, used to call me the little horse whisperer,” she says unconvincingly.)

This frees up Hope to be a tyrant to the wedding planning committee. She yells at them for making organza bags of rice to throw because it kills birds, and she ignores Lizzie when she (correctly) points out that this is an urban legend.

A typo in the program welcoming people to the "weeding" instead of the wedding sends Hope over the edge, and she blames Lizzie for it. Lizzie shouts right back, unimpressed with Hope’s “I’m old, and that beats pregnant” argument.

Both women then unpack their various stresses: Roland and Sugar and Doc and the medical board for Hope, and Denny and the baby and Huntington’s for Lizzie. They make up and decide to throw all that rice at the printer that messed up the programs. (Hope makes plans to sweep it up afterward as an exasperated Lizzie says, “It’s a legend!”)

Preacher’s also stressing as he preps for Mel and Jack’s rehearsal dinner, but he gets a surprise assist from Jamie (Carmel Amit), the gorgeous San Francisco chef who tried to lure him away from Virgin River in season 2. She’s now a critic for Food & Wine magazine and pops into Jack's while she's in the area. She's blown away both by his pork chop marinade and how much he's grown into owning his talent in the kitchen.

Once she’s eaten her fill and is ready to hit the road, Preacher suggests a piece on the culinary wonders happening at Jack’s Bar. Here’s hoping she takes him up on the suggestion!

Returning to the equestrian escapades, Brie reminds Jack that she has no experience with horses, so teaching Sugar to accept a rider's all on him. Jack’s all “How hard can it possibly be?” which means he’s clearly not a Yellowstone watcher because PEOPLE DIE.

When Jack jokingly suggests that Sugar could lend Princess Bride vibes to Brie and Mike’s wedding, she confesses that she slept with Brady. Jack is, unsurprisingly, taken aback. 

Brie says she loves Mike, but when she told Brady about Lark, all her feelings came rushing back. Jack suggests that this is a result of her ongoing trauma from being sexually assaulted by her ex-boyfriend. So instead of Xanax, she's doing Brady. (Um, ouch.)

They agree that their family didn’t talk about the hard stuff when they were kids, and if they can't be "fixed," then they need to grow strong from that darkness. And part of that, Jack says, means Brie believing that she deserves a good guy like Mike.

While the Sheridan siblings are bonding, Brady finds Lark at the playground to return Hazel’s tiara and to make sure the kid’s doing okay. (Tell me again how Brady's such a terrible guy?) Lark begs him to give her the benefit of the doubt, but fool me once, ya know?

At the fire station, Brady’s all concentration as he takes his turn at Jenga until Mike strolls through the door and Brady’s whole stack topples.

Mike’s there to ask if Brady knows about any illegal activities Calvin might be up to. Brady’s about to get worked up over the insinuation that he’s still doing crimes, but an emergency call comes in and Brady races out with the squad, leaving Mike with a jaunty, “Gotta go save lives!”

What’s the emergency, you ask? Why, a rockslide, of course! But first, Mel and Everett need to make up. Despite his radio silence after the lunch with Jack's dad, she pops by his place and apologizes for pushing him to participate in the wedding. He confesses that he never did finish the song he wrote for her mother. Also, his run-in with Doc at the drive-in convinced him to stay out of Mel’s life.

Even if he doesn't walk her down the aisle or perform Sarah's song, Mel still wants to get to know him, so he volunteers to take her someplace to help her honor her mother during the wedding.

It’s on their drive to this undisclosed location that they come across the rockslide, which has pummeled several vehicles and injured the people inside of them.

Everett turns out to have a calm and steady bedside manner, and while Mel checks on everybody else, he stays with Pauline Barker (Melanie Merkosky), who’s trapped and bleeding in her car. He notices candy wrappers in her back seat and engages her in conversations about her sweet tooth to keep her from completely spinning out about leaving her daughter an orphan after the death of her husband last year.

Doc arrives at the scene and is all business as he barks at Everett to get out of the way, then at Mel when she questions his decisions, then at Everett again when he sticks up for Mel. It's more Mr. Hyde than Dr. Mullins than Mel's used to.

Kaia and her crew are also on hand to free the people trapped in their cars, and Brady volunteers to sit with Pauline since he was friends with her late husband. But she freaks out when she sees Brady because she blames him for Jeb’s death. (Jeb was the lumber yard worker who insisted on joining Brady in the fentanyl ring last season and was killed for his troubles.)

Brady immediately backs away, and when Pauline starts dramatically spitting up blood from a collapsed lung, Doc and Mel work quickly to stabilize her.

Once everyone’s been treated, Doc curtly takes his leave, leaving Mel confused. But Everett’s proud of her and offers to continue their journey to her mother’s special place. He even puts a tentative, yet paternal, hand on her back as they head to the vehicle.

Despite Kaia assuring him that he’s a good guy, Brady heads to Lark’s place to let her convince him that it’s real between them so they can try again. Sigh. Hi again, Jimmy's girl.

Mike, meanwhile, is blissfully Team Brie as they meet at Jack’s Bar and he talks about Brady jumping down his throat for being lumped in as a known associate of Calvin’s. Brie’s “nothing to see here!” face continues to need some work, but Mike’s happy to make out with her anyway.

Mel arrives home to find Jack riding Sugar like a champ, complete with a slow-mo galloping shot as his hair billows in the breeze. Is breaking a horse that easy? Are hospitals liable for what unaffiliated small-town doctors do? Is sex on a public pool table grosser for the people having sex or the people playing pool on it the next day? Only Virgin River is brave enough to ask these questions.

Mel tells Jack that her day was rocky (a punning Mel is my favorite Mel) and takes him to the place Everett showed her: a field near a waterfall where her mom planted wildflowers during her visit following Chloe's death.

We see a flashback of young Sarah scattering the seeds and promising Everett that she’ll come back to see them bloom. The Everett of today told Mel that he hadn’t been back since Sarah died. My goodness, this love story is heartbreaking! But Mel and Jack look for the good and pick some of Sarah’s wildflowers for their rehearsal dinner. 

The last thing on Mel’s list for the day is checking up on Doc, but things devolve quickly when she brings up Everett. Doc says he wants to keep her from getting hurt, and Mel snaps, “It’s not your job. You’re not my father.” It's clear that she immediately regrets her words, but Doc orders her to leave the clinic since it's her day off because “You’re not my daughter, you’re just my nurse.”

Reader, I gasped. I slapped my hands to my cheeks Home Alone-style. And I dove into the next episode.

Episode 8: “Going Overboard”

Know who can hold a grudge? Mel. Know who else can hold a grudge? Doc.

No surprise, then, that we see a return to the earliest days of their relationship the day before the wedding. Mel tells Jack that she’s perfectly happy to accept Doc’s apology, but until then, the wedding is for family only and she is too busy to care.

Good fiancé Jack realizes he’s gonna need to fix this himself, so he gives Hope permission to meddle. (Remember, he put a moratorium on that after she got involved with Charmaine’s ill-fated letter in season 1.) Hope does some quick scheming and decides that she'll take Mel, he’ll take Doc, and they’ll both tell some white lies to get them talking again. If all else fails, Hope says, Jack needs to put on his sad puppy dog face.

The plan goes poorly. Hope finds Mel at the riverboat where the rehearsal dinner is happening (a riverboat!!! I don't know why this delights me so, but it does!!) and is genuinely shocked to hear that Doc said Mel is just his nurse. Jack, meanwhile, horrifies Doc with his truly terrible puppy dog face. Back to square one.

The rehearsal dinner itself is also in jeopardy when the power on the riverboat goes out, ruining Preacher’s refrigerated prep work. (As Queen Hannah puts it, it’s all now “rotten pork yogurt.”) He scrambles to make a new plan and sends Hannah to buy paella pans and Kaia, notably not a chef, to buy fennel, lobster, and the rest of the supplies.

At Hope’s meddling — er, suggestion, the rehearsal moves to the playhouse, where she barks at the wedding party to run it again and again while she waits for Doc to respond to a fake emergency call that will force him and Mel to talk.

From the back of the playhouse where they're trying to avoid being yelled at by Hope, Brie is confused to see her divorced parents looking thick at thieves. Based on their body language, Mike's pretty sure that they're sleeping together, which moves Brie's confusion to horror.

Amelia and Sam then hassle the young couple about marriage and grandchildren. In fact, Brie invited Mike to move in with her just that morning, but Amelia points to research showing that cohabitation decreases the chances of a successful marriage. For Brie’s sake, I hope the riverboat has an open bar.

When Doc arrives for the fake medical emergency, he and Everett immediately start sniping at each other. Disgusted by it all, Mel says she didn’t have her father at her first wedding but hoped she'd have two at her second one. She then gets an emergency call — a real one this time — and makes her exit.

It's pregnant Marley and the future adoptive parents, who are worried that she’s having complications after they were caught in the rockslide. But Mel declares that it’s just gas, and she has a side conversation with dad-to-be Phil about how much he loves that baby already, even without a biological connection. Seems like this season’s setting the stage for a future Mel/Jack adoption, no?

Doc and Everett use this break in the wedding action to clear the air. Their conversation happens over the grave of a long-dead boy named Jordan Pullman, the reason for their falling out. Doc was pulled away from Jordan’s sickbed when a drunk Everett wrapped his car around a tree, which is why he wasn’t with Jordan when his illness worsened and he died. He's blamed Everett ever since.

But today, Everett admits that he drove into that tree on purpose. He was despondent over Sarah’s death and her husband’s refusal to let him get in contact with Mel. But now that Mel is in his life, he’s grateful that Doc saved him in his darkest hour, just like Doc saved Mel in hers. So that's the story. Hopefully both of Mel's remaining dads can find harmony moving forward.

Okay, before we hit the rehearsal dinner, let’s take a quick side trip to the non-wedding happenings in Virgin River.  

As the sewing circle's putting the finishing touches on Mel’s re-made Vanna dress, Muriel tells them that she has breast cancer. To avoid wallowing in their pity and reassurances, the women recite their own medical ailments (hyperthyroidism, gallstones, diabetes, irritable bowel) and promise to be there for each other.

Denny and Lizzie finally have an honest conversation about their future that leads to a compromise. Denny wants his daughter to know if she has Huntington’s so she can talk with him about it while he’s still around. He doesn't want her to feel as alone as he did when he was diagnosed following his mother's death from the disease. 

Lizzie agrees, but she wants to wait on the testing until their daughter's old enough that they all know who she is outside of any diagnoses. She also jokes about needing a copy of What to Expect When You’re Expecting a Catastrophic Demise.

Denny appreciates her dark humor, makes her mac and cheese and hot dogs, and sneaks them into the birthing center to use equipment he’s not trained on to perform an ultrasound of the baby. Ooooh, Doc and Mel would be mad if they knew!

Brady and Lark are sigh back together and siiiighhhhh full speed ahead. Brady visits Jimmy in prison to smugly say he’s going to take good care of both of Jimmy’s girls. Enraged, Jimmy lunges across the table at him, screaming that Brady's the same kind of lowlife he is. Lark then takes him to the motorcycle shop he’s been dreaming of opening and says she used all her saved-up money to lease the space for him. 

Although he declines to stay the night with her, he does invite her and Hazel to the wedding the next day. Good thing, too, because Lark says Hazel’s already picked out the earrings she wants him to wear. He agrees, then adds, “Not the purple ones. Those hurt.” I will never not side-eye Lark, but even I, the internet’s most obnoxious Brady and Brie shipper, can admit that he's great with Hazel.

Time for the rehearsal dinner! The riverboat’s about to pull away when Doc comes running down the pier, shouting for them to wait. Whew!

The table is lovely, the paella looks incredible, and Doc gives a beautiful toast praising Jack as a pillar of the community and Mel as his perfect partner. He says that his talk with Everett made him realize how important Mel is to him. “I needed you,” he tells her, and if I teared up a little bit, nobody’s going to know but me and my laptop.

When the dinner breaks up, Brie and Mike head back to her place, where Mike catches Sam and Amelia in bed together. Brie’s whole body cringes away from this knowledge as Mike jokes, “Nothing gets by me.” For Brie’s sake, let’s hope that’s not the case. (Okay, I’m actually torn on that. If it was really a one-time thing with her human Xanax substitute, should she tell Mike and risk their relationship, or keep quiet to avoid causing him pain? And even if it was a one-time thing, are there still feelings there, and does that change her calculus? Ethics are hard!)

Alone in his home, Everett strums and sings his way into completing his song for Sarah. “I finished it, baby,” he tells his well-worn photo of her. Then he starts sweating and coughing, and he grabs at his arm as he falls to the floor.

I’m not a doctor, but I am a veteran TV watcher, and I can recognize a heart attack when I see one. Thankfully, he manages to call Mel, and that’s how we roll into the penultimate episode of the season.

Episode 9: “Prelude to a Kiss”

Things we learn in the final run-up to the wedding: Lizzie’s an amazing event planner, near-death experiences are real, Queen Hannah’s a Trekkie, and you should never hire your fiancé’s ex-girlfriend to do hair on your wedding day.

But first, we’ve got a medical crisis. Jack kicks open Everett’s door, and in her panic, Mel shouts, “Dad!” 

Everett has no pulse, but Doc arrives with a defibrillator, and they revive him so he and Mel can be choppered to Grace Valley Hospital. 

By the time Jack, Hope, and Doc make it by car, an exhausted Mel tells them that Everett’s in surgery to have a stent placed. As Doc waits with her, he explains the source of their longstanding animosity and assures Mel that she’s given Everett something to fight for.

Mel flies to Everett’s bedside as soon as she’s allowed, and it’s the first time he hears her call him "Dad." He’s loopy from the drugs but says he saw Sarah while he was non-response. He wanted to stay with her, but she sent him back to be with their little girl on her wedding day. He insists that they not postpone the ceremony — “So I came back from the dead for nothing?” he retorts when she suggests this — and promises that both he and Sarah will be with her.

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Everett’s next visit is with Doc, who agrees to walk Mel down the aisle in Everett’s place. Then the men start to make plans to surprise Mel at the ceremony. More details to come...

Hope, meanwhile, spots the evil Dr. Hayes in the hallway and gives him a piece of her mind, accidentally letting it slip that Doc’s intern is an undergrad student. Hayes is downright giddy to add more evidence to Doc’s negligence case.

This leads to a blow-out fight between Hope and Doc. He’s livid that she’s so flippant about jeopardizing his legacy and snaps, “You’re just too much." This wounds Hope to the core, but Doc refuses to apologize.

Who, Hope? The woman who planned a flyover of the wedding and has an ice sculptor working in real time at the venue? No idea where Doc would get the idea that she's too much.

At least Lizzie has things well in hand, assigning wedding tasks to the townsfolk in a calm, efficient, and altogether impressive manner. Denny has hearts in his eyes as he thinks about her parenting their daughter like that.

Brie’s day starts over breakfast with Mike and her parents. She requests champagne in her juice and Bailey’s in her coffee and has to remind Amelia that she wasn’t the one who drank too much, too early at her sister Mary’s wedding. That was her other sister, Donna. I do hope we get to meet these mythical Sheridan siblings today!

She then asks for a relationship update from the ‘rentals, who explain that they may not look perfect on paper, but they know that they're soulmates. And if Sam’s trying to be a better man for Amelia, she owes him the chance to try. Yet again, Brie’s conflicted thinking face speaks volumes.

When she swings by Paige’s Bakeaway to grab coffees for the bridesmaids, she bumps into Lark. Assuming that Brady cut all ties with her after the Jimmy reveal, she tells Lark that she's thrilled that she doesn't have to pretend to like her anymore. Well, that's gonna be awkward when Lark shows up at the wedding on Brady's arm...

The bridal party gather to get ready, but Charmaine, their hairdresser, is MIA, having sent Mel a short text saying something came up. I understand it’s a busy day after a draining night, but hello? Recent restraining order against her terrifying ex? Is not one of these women concerned?

In the end, Joey handles Mel’s hair while Paul (Taz Van Rassel), the Christmas elf from Santa’s village, documents the day with his video camera. (His presence is a “gift” from Hope.) Joey also gives Mel their father’s cuff links to wrap around her bouquet so their parents will be included in the ceremony. They have some lovely sister moments as Joey gets her ready to walk down the aisle.

Less lovely is when the women arrive at the ceremony site and are greeted by the ice sculptor’s noisy chainsaw. None of this was Mel's idea, but what Hope wants, Hope gets.

Hope also gets petty revenge on her ex-husband, who’s mad that he spent $100 in diesel to drive to Virgin River to pick up Sugar only for Jack to decide he’s keeping the horse. (He didn’t like the thought of Sugar being used as a show pony for kids to ride in the paddock when they book a birthday party at the ranch.) As Mike says, that’s classic Jack: no man (or horse) left behind. 

Muriel, meanwhile, has a conversation with the man who left her behind, filling Cameron in on her cancer treatment plan: chemo to shrink the tumor before surgery, which could be a lumpectomy or could be a full mastectomy.

We learn that Cameron decided he wanted kids with his ex after all, and although Muriel understood, it left her brokenhearted. The good news is, she seems a bit smitten with Walt Booth, and when she introduces the men at the wedding, the much younger Cameron calls him “sir.” Ha!

The assembled guests include Lilly’s daughters, Jack’s Marine buddies, Queen Hannah (who does the Vulcan salute for Paul’s camera), and Joey’s children. When the kids ask Lizzie how she managed to get pregnant without being married, Lizzie jokes that this better be their next step.

The elusive Donna and Mary Sheridan are in the house! They’re impressed that Brie snagged all the hot men in Virgin River and warn her not to mess up her second relationship attempt with a local. Mike's quick to blame Brady for the breakup, which is about when Brie's shocked to see the man in question stroll into the wedding with Lark and Hazel.

Brady gets them settled in their seats, then goes on a lemonade run — everyone at this wedding is seriously obsessed with lemonade — and Brie corners him and demands to know what's up. I’ll do my best to be normal about the conversation they're about to have, but honestly, no promises. 

She asks why he’s still with a known con woman, and his defense isn’t great: “She’s not a con woman, okay? She’s a woman who was... committing… a con.” (Thank you, show, for letting the cast be funny in moments like these.)

He says Lark owned up to it and he forgave her, and he practically begs Brie to let him move on. Brie replies that she wants him to be with a woman who challenges him and brings out the best in him.

“I was,” he says. “But she didn't want me.”

“Yes, she did,” Brie whispers.

When Brady asks Brie if she still loves him, her non-answer is that she’s with Mike. And when Brie asks Brady if he still loves her, he answers so quickly that she can barely get the question out: Yes. Since the moment he saw her. And he'll never love anyone the way he loves her. He chose her immediately and forever; the question was always whether Brie would choose him back.

It's a stunning amount of honesty from him, and it staggers Brie so much that neither of them notice Lark listening from around the corner with narrowed eyes. Ohhh, this is bad, Brady.

With the ceremony ready to get underway, Mel’s starting to panic and sends for Jack. He’s overwhelmed at the sight of her in her dress (the sewing circle really did work miracles!) but is immediately concerned when she admits that she’s drowning in anxiety over all the losses in her past.

Jack suggests they get out of there, and the next thing we see is a runaway groom and a runaway bride racing for freedom on Sugar’s back.

Episode 10: “The Big Day”

Jack knows just where to take Mel for their escape from the wedding: the banks of the river. It's where they had their first date, where they fell in love, and where they started building their life together. We see all of this in flashbacks before returning to the couple standing on the river bank in their wedding finery.

Mel says it's not that she doesn't want to marry him. She just doesn't want to do it with the ghosts of her mother, her father, and her daughter rattling around her head, making her afraid of losing Jack, too. Jack reminds her that he accepts her as she is, broken places and all. “We both bring a life that’s been lived,” he says. “I get you, and I’ve got you. Always.”

“I've got you too,” she replies.

Forget about any words they'll speak in front of their wedding guests; these are their true vows.

At the ceremony site, Hope’s even more tightly wound than usual as she tries to keep the wedding on track in the absence of the couple, so when the couple returns to get things underway, it's a relief for everyone. Things are back on track with one change: Jack's traded his new wedding suit for his dress blues.

Before they head down the aisle, Mel and Doc agree that Hope went above and beyond, which is what she always does for the people she loves. Then they walk arm in arm toward Mel’s future. The sun glows bright, but the bride glows brighter, and the people of Virgin River reflect all that joy right back at her as Mel and Jack exchange their vows and seal it with a kiss.

Afterward, Mel eats barbecue with her bare fingers and listens as Sam tells Jack that he was selfish all those years ago when he put his own fears about losing another son over Jack’s choices. He tells Jack how proud of him he is and how much he loves him. We all agree this is the most emotionally healthy conversation Sam Sheridan has ever had with his son, right?

Doc and Hope also make amends after the ceremony, and to prove that he loves her too-muchness, he pulls her into his unfolding plan to do perhaps too much for someone they both love. And they enlist Jack to help them pull it off.

Kaia and Brady meet at the bar, having been through it at this wedding so far. Brady’s rattled from the conversation with Brie and from Lark’s coldness to him afterward. (She got sarcastic about the long lemonade line and alluded to how plans can change. Also, if you didn’t get a very bad feeling when Brady gave Hazel his phone to play Candy Crush, you probably ought to start thinking like a con woman scorned.)

Kaia, meanwhile, had a mini-freakout when she listened to Preacher extoll the virtues of marriage as he practiced his best man speech. She's doing her best, but this weekend is bringing up all her marital baggage, which has turned her skittish.

The immediate solution to their problems is alcohol, naturally, so Kaia orders a Mel-Mosa and Brady asks for a Jack & Ginger, hold the ginger.

The reception gets underway in the gorgeously decorated barn, and Kaia’s reservations about marriage has Preacher changing his speech to focus instead on Jack’s courage in falling in love again and trusting in his partner’s love, too. As he speaks, Kaia visibly melts.

Next, they cut the cake — my kingdom for a taste of whatever deliciousness is happening there! — and launch into their first dance. But instead of the song they’ve chosen, it’s Everett playing and singing the now-finished song for Sarah. Gotta say, that man looks good for someone who was dead 24 hours ago.

Mel and Jack sway to lyrics that recount her parents’ love story: “Over and over, the river will carry me home.” Yep, this is the best example of pulling a Hope! Mel's overwhelmed that her father made it after all.

He was only released from the hospital under Cameron's supervision, and the good doctor says goodbye to Muriel before returning Everett and heading back to his life in San Francisco. This better not be the last time these two see each other, show!

Muriel seems to be doing fine, though, and she and Walt show up Doc and Hope on the dance floor.

On a break from dancing, Denny asks about Lizzie’s marriage joke, but she’s not in a hurry, and they agree to take things slow.

After hearing Preacher's best man speech, Kaia chokes on the word “marriage" but says if she ever does it again, it would be with him. That’s good enough for Preach, and they step into the photo booth to capture some memories.

Lark gives Brady a chance to come clean about his talk with Brie, but Brady’s evasive and says he asked Brie to give Lark the benefit of the doubt. That may be technically true, but his omissions could fill a phonebook. Lark slips away to check on Hazel, and her parting words are, “Just remember: this is your fault.” She delivers them playfully but OH MY GOD RED FLAG RED FLAG RED FLAG.

Outside of the barn, Mel and Kaia find Brie crying. She admits to sleeping with Brady (Kaia has to act surprised) and berates herself for lying to Mike and messing with Brady’s life. She claims to want to commit to Mike, but Kaia says if she’s not all in, she needs to let him go. Then Mel adds that if she can’t do that, she needs to let both of them go.

While the women hear Brie’s confession, Jack and his Marine buddies are chatting around a fire. They remember the good parts of their service along with their losses, and they tease Brady for becoming a family man while Mike holds up the plastic ring from the cap of his bottle, looking pensive.

After the town sends the newlyweds off in their classic convertible (only sparklers — no bird-threatening rice to be found!), Mike asks Brie to go for a walk, gets down on one knee, and proposes to her with that plastic bottle ring. Instead of answering, Brie admits that she slept with Brady. Mike then proves his detective bonafides (and causes my jaw to DROP in the process) by saying, “I know.”

He knows? HE KNOWS?? I have SO MANY QUESTIONS.

Brady, meanwhile, returns to the barn to discover that not only have Lark and Hazel left early, but she quit her job at the B&B and told Jo Ellen she was checking out. When Brady recovers his phone, it’s not a new high score on Candy Crush that he finds but a bank account balance of zero.

So that leaves our central love triangle with a few thorny issues to sort through as season 6 draws to a close.

The next morning, Doc gets a letter from the medical board stating that his license is suspended pending an investigation, and Hope thinks she knows why Dr. Hayes is going after Doc with such a vengeance. As mayor, she took a call from a member of the Grace Valley Hospital excitedly informing her that they’re expanding their network to Virgin River. So they want Doc out of the way.

Big mistake, Grace Valley Hospital! The mayor of Virgin River is married to the man they’re trying to bulldoze, and he's prepared to fight like hell to preserve his life's work.

The newlyweds wake up hungry after a passionate wedding night, which is when Mel remembers that Charmaine never did turn up yesterday. Jack offers to check in on her, which means Mel’s alone when Marley shows up in tears because the adoptive parents of her baby have backed out of their agreement.

Mel offers to talk to them for her, but Marley has another solution: Mel and Jack should adopt her baby. Oohh, convenient... assuming Mel and Jack are really ready for that step.

At Charmaine’s, Jack finds the front door ajar and her living space trashed — like way beyond what an overworked mother with twins could manage. He walks toward the nursery and slowly pushes the door open, his expression turning horrified by what he sees.

And that’s where we leave things at the end of season 6! The good news: Virgin River’s already renewed for season 7, making it Netflix’s longest currently running scripted series. So we'll see each other again... when the river carries us home.