Virgin River showrunner talks season 6 setup of potential prequel and other burning questions

Warning: This article contains spoilers about Virgin River season 6.

Mel (Alexandra Breckenridge) and Jack (Martin Henderson) are finally getting their happy ending. Sorta.

Season 6 of Virgin River, which dropped all 10 of its episodes on Netflix on Dec. 19, focused on the run-up to Mel and Jack's wedding, including all their wedding planning (featuring a ton of meddling courtesy of Hope (Annette O'Toole)), their bachelor and bachelorette parties, and the big day itself.

They do eventually make it to the altar and have their special day, but there's plenty of strife along the way, including Mel's attempts to forge a bond with a reluctant Everett (John Allen Nelson) and include him in her wedding. That also includes Everett recounting parts of his love story with Mel's mom, which features a series of flashbacks to the summer they fell in love and other meetings.

Netflix has previously confirmed that they're developing a spinoff about young Everett (Callum Kerr) and Sarah (Jessica Rothe). Now, Virgin River showrunner Patrick Sean Smith tells Entertainment Weekly that he hopes this season might serve as a backdoor pilot to a prequel. "I'm currently developing a script for a potential spinoff that focuses on Sarah and Everett's love story," he says.

In the current Virgin River timeline, Doc (Tim Matheson) and Everett finally have it out about their longstanding grudge (but not without causing significant drama with Mel first). It turns out Doc has spent years feeling guilty about the death of a kid in Virgin River, who died while he was off tending to a drunken Everett, who had wrapped his car around a tree.

Meanwhile, Doc must also contend with a threat from Grace Valley hospital to come after his medical license. It's an issue that's worsened when Hope accidentally reveals that Doc's been mentoring an intern who hasn't gone to med school.

Other romances continue to bloom (and falter), including the bond between Denny (Kai Bradbury) and Lizzie (Sarah Dugdale) as they face disagreements about whether or not to have their future child tested for Huntington's. Lizzie also reconnects with Ricky (Grayson Maxwell Guernsey), who stops by town in between boot camp and shipping out.

Muriel (Teryl Rothery) tries to move on from Cameron (Mark Ghanimé), while also facing a potential breast cancer diagnosis, which is confirmed by the end of the season. Preacher (Colin Lawrence) and Kaia (Kandyse McClure) deepen their romance, particularly after he is found not guilty for Wes' death. Even if Kaia isn't sure she ever wants to get married again.

In short, there was no shortage of drama to go around this season. So, we called up Smith to ask about all the questions he left us with.

With Doc and Hope, I think that Doc was in the right here. Hope made a major error. So why did you decide to have him be the one to apologize?

PATRICK SEAN SMITH: What I thought was an interesting thing to explore in season 6 was the spirit of Hope from the beginning of the series as one who likes to meddle. She's always doing it with the best of intentions. Sometimes people in general, especially women, can be looked at as "too much," which can be incredibly offensive. It's something that Hope has heard before, and Doc realizes that when it comes out. It's a touchy subject for her as a woman who lives outside the boundaries. So, for what felt like a flaw in her character. I wanted to celebrate the fact that she comes at it from a place of love.

Everett and Doc finally open up to each other. Then, Doc helps make sure Everett can attend Mel's wedding after Everett has a heart attack and surgery. Is that bond mended? Are they going to be friends now?

I would say frenemies. It's hard for me to buy that a decades-long feud can be resolved that quickly. It's almost muscle memory to a certain extent, where you resolve with somebody and then you see them and you're just like, "Ugh." I like playing with the grumpy-old-men dynamic between them in the way that we've seen it so much with the women on the show; Muriel and Hope's friendship at the beginning was very adversarial. So, I want to try to keep that spark between them alive as much as possible.

Everett comes with no IV or anything to play and sing a song at Mel's wedding hours after a heart attack and surgery. Do you feel any guilt about getting viewers' hopes up about what is medically feasible?

Well, we spoke with our medical consultant, and they said [it could happen] under certain circumstances. So I encourage everybody to consult a doctor before leaving the hospital post-heart surgery to perform at your daughter's wedding.

Why does Grace Valley want to make this move into Virgin River? It's ostensibly a small town. Is that enough business for them?

To bring in Cameron and have the amount of patients that we had for a few seasons with Cameron and Doc and Mel, it seems easy for a hospital network to want to come in and at least, not take it over, but own it, invest in it in some way to expand their network. I grew up in a small town in Texas, and that's something that happened to my small town. We're seeing this proliferation of corporations and money in medicine becoming a bigger thing, especially in the health insurance world. Their ulterior motive is just expansion. The overarching theme of season7 is the outside world encroaching into this little slice of heaven, which seems inevitable for most small towns.

How tough of a fight does Doc have ahead of him?

It's a David and Goliath situation.

He doesn't want to lose his medical license, but he is old, the clinic has to go to someone. How much is the fight worth it? What is the ideal scenario for him? 

In my small town, one of the local doctors retired at 82. I read this incredible article about how he served the community for decades, how he delivered babies from women who he delivered as babies. It feels like a unique, special point of view for a practitioner to have as Doc does. So, I don't think he has any plans of hanging up his stethoscope anytime soon. He's ready for the fight and to protect his legacy, which is also important to him.

Preacher's trial is a big part of the first half of the season. Was there ever any desire on the writing team's side to get Paige to come back and testify for him? Was that something you explored and it didn't work out? Or was that never on the table? 

I wanted to move past Paige and Preacher. This was the last vestige and loose thread from their relationship. So I was interested in this gesture of Preacher protecting her and sacrificing himself where he had been so much her protector and savior from the beginning of this series. By extension, him laying himself on the line for her and [encouraging] her absence to protect her felt like a good way to wrap that up. 

Ricky returns. Where did that idea stem from, and is there a possibility we'll see him again?

I love the character of Ricky. I had considered doing it during the holiday episodes, but there was too much story at the time. So, we finally had a little more real estate to bring his character back in. I'm looking at Ricky, Lizzie, and Denny as a bit more mature than their characters were introduced in the beginning. They're getting into adulting; they're dealing with bigger life issues like pregnancy and serving in the military.

It also felt like an opportunity to bring Ricky back in from bootcamp in a place that could affect Jack, as somebody who loves this kid and knows that he's going off to serve. While he's very proud of his service, it also came at a cost with his PTSD and self-medicating with alcohol. It felt like a good time to bring him in to have Jack reassess his relationship with the military. But ultimately, it was always the plan to have Jack proudly in his dress blues at the end of the altar during the wedding.

In terms of having them in a more adult space, would there ever be potential for Ricky to be an obstacle to Denny and Lizzie? They clearly have their pressure points this season. 

No current plan, but never say never. We're still working through her pregnancy, and we'll have to move through that storyline, which won't be Charmaine-length, but will definitely continue to be a part of their story.

For Muriel, she gets this diagnosis that she ends up sharing with friends and family at the wedding. What lies ahead for her? And was that the show's farewell to Cameron with his return? 

I love Mark, and I love the character of Cameron. Unfortunately, he won't be returning in season 7, but he'll always be a part of the world. I could absolutely see his character coming back when it's the right time in the story. It was a bit of a send-off as far as expectations from the fan as to where his character fits in the storytelling. But for Muriel, season 7 is about her entering treatment and doing that with the support of Walt, but more importantly, the sewing circle.

Mel and Jack finally get their happy ending with plenty of challenges along the way. Are they closer to getting a baby than they think? We get this offer with Mel's patient, but also, could whatever is going on with the twins be something, too?

All options are on the table and explored in season 7.

In terms of Kaia and Preacher, she blurts out this honest truth about herself, but it seems like they are pretty strong by the end. Should we take heart in that? 

Yes. They're are a couple that I personally love and am excited to explore deeper and further. It's odd to say that entering [their third season together] we're still getting to see them settle into their relationship, but there's still a lot more room for them to get to know each other on camera and have the audience experience that with them.

Can you tease what else is to come in season 7?

Season 7 will see Mel and Jack as newlyweds and starting to explore their beginnings as a married couple. We will see them continue on their path to parenthood. We will be digging into Hope's backstory more as far as what her relationship is with her family. In the pilot, it was referenced that people within 50 miles know about McCrea Cabin, but we've really never scratched the surface of the McCrea legacy and what she's an extension of. We'll be testing out the intensity of the Brie-Mike-Brady love triangle. Season 6 is big, but 7 is shaping up to be a big one, too. 

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

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