This post contains spoilers for Virgin River season 5 episode 1, A Second Chance.
When fans last saw the people of Virgin River, they were all facing their own kind of hurdles.
Now the Netflix hit series is back and ready to let viewers know what is in store for Mel, Jack, Preacher and all the others in Virgin River season 5.
What’s the latest in Virgin River? Let’s recap the events of the first episode of season 5, titled A Second Chance.
Starting again or starting over?
Virgin River has no time to waste and dives right back into the meat of its story as the season 5 premiere opens on the aftermath of the confrontation between Preacher, Vince and Paige. Mike arrives on the scene to arrest Vince, who doesn’t go quietly and argues that Preacher and Paige are responsible for the murder of his brother. However, he doesn’t have much of a case against them and Mike brushes off his accusations.
Paige is now free to go back to living her life. She reunites with her old food truck and thanks Connie for looking after it while she was gone. She also apologizes to Preacher for dragging him into her mess. The thing is that Preacher would have gone through hell and back for Paige, and he is more than happy to ask her if they can start their relationship over. Before they truly can, however, he needs to break things off with Julia, the martial arts instructor he has been seeing, and although she isn’t happy with the news, she tells him she wishes him and Paige the best.
Can Preacher and Paige really find happiness together at last? Well, it appears that it isn’t in the cards for them. When the two share a meal later on, their evening takes a sour turn when Paige admits to Preacher that she cannot see herself staying in Virgin River. What happened with Wes has made the town a place where she no longer feels at peace, and she feels the need to move but asks if Preacher would like to join her and Christopher. As much as he wants to be with her, Preacher considers Virgin River to be his home and turns her down. At the end of the episode, the three of them share an emotional goodbye as this chapter of their life seems to be definitely closing.
- Virgin River season 5 episode 2 recap
- Virgin River season 5 episode 3 recap
- Virgin River season 5 episode 4 recap
Moving on to something new
Last time we saw Mel and Jack, they found out that Charmaine’s twins were not his, and the fact that she has been lying to them for so many months is a tough pill to swallow. The next day, Mel finds Jack chopping wood instead of dealing with his feelings. As much as she is mad about the fact that Charmaine lied, Jack says he doesn’t want to dwell on it and would rather talk about what Mel is going to do now that she quit her job at the clinic.
Speaking of which, Mel later goes to the clinic to pick up her things and finds Doc and Cameron arguing about it. The latter tries to convince her that he should be the one leaving, but while he is in the other room, Mel helps Doc understand that he needs Cameron more than he needs her and that her decision is what’s best for the clinic. They are interrupted by Bert who comes in feeling rather unwell.
Chatting with her sister over the phone, Mel mentions the idea of making her own baby clothes, just like her mother did for them, so we soon see her going to Jack’s bar to find the ladies of the sewing circle and ask them to teach her how to saw. There, she meets Tara’s older sister, Ava, who is visiting her hometown but doesn’t seem entirely thrilled about it. Talking with Lydie and Jo Ellen, Mel realizes that the latter spilled the beans about her pregnancy and her engagement to Jack, and that soon enough the whole town will know about it.
Hope and dreams
While Preacher and Paige’s relationship came to an end, another one blossomed. After telling Lizzie about having Huntington’s disease, Denny was pretty sure he overwhelmed her to the point that she might not even want to be Hope’s caretaker anymore. However, the young woman turns up for work, ready to follow Doc’s instructions regarding what to do with Hope, who is just as keen as ever to do as she is told… Or not. Hope actually tells Lizzie she picked her to be her aid because of her rebellious nature, and kindly asks her to ignore Vernon’s to-do list. Instead, she wants to work on the upcoming town council meeting agenda, but when the meeting comes, Hope finds out that the town council is questioning whether she should remain mayor of Virgin River.
When Denny sees Lizzie next, he apologizes to her for not telling her about his diagnosis sooner. He also admits that he likes her but before he can say more, Lizzie kisses him and confesses she likes him too, and says she wants them to focus on the present rather than worry about the fact that Denny “has no future.”
Focusing on work rather than on Charmaine, Jack is making progress with his glamping project. Nick comes to check on him with his sister Melissa tagging along, and they listen to Jack’s plans to expand this budding business. Melissa, who is also Brady’s boss and pretty much the drug lord of Virgin River, offers to invest in the adventure to allow Jack to make it bigger than he planned, and unfortunately he is unaware that Melissa’s money is far from being clean. It indeed appears that Melissa’s fentanyl traffic is booming.
Danger looms
Early on in the episode, we see Bert trying to assist a man stranded on the side of the road with a flat tire. When he looks under the car for a spare, Bert cuts himself and is quickly dismissed by the man. When we see him rush into the clinic, he is having a drug reaction. Doc doesn’t want to believe it when Cameron makes this diagnosis, but tests confirm Bert had fentanyl in his system. When Doc asks Bert about it, he swears he is not doing drugs, and recalls what happened to him before he came to the clinic, including the cut he got from trying to help a man with a flat tire.
At the lumberyard, it turned out the man Bert tried to help was one of Melissa’s minions, and that his spare tire was filled with drugs. Poor Brady is still caught up in the middle of this local mafia, and things are not going as well as he would want them to, especially when Melissa tells him to work with Jeb, as Brady is unwilling to drag anyone else into their shady business.
On a more positive note, things between Brady and Brie are going well. She is feeling ready to press charges against Don, the man who assaulted her, and decides to move out of Jack’s bar. She talks to a lawyer about Don and finds out that several other women are suing him. But as much as she feels safer now that she has confronted him, the end of the episode sees Brie moving into her new house and being scared to death when someone throws a rock through her window.
Brie is not the only one facing a dicey situation at the end of this episode of Virgin River. Trying to improve her sewing skills at the bar, Mel runs into Eva again, who starts experiencing tremendous pain while they are talking. Meanwhile, Jack is on his way to Preacher’s when he sees a man and his sons. The sight finally makes him realize he needs to confront Charmaine about her lies, and the episode ends as he shows up on her doorstep.
Who threw a rock at Brie’s? What’s wrong with Ava? How will the conversation between Jack and Charmaine go?
All episodes of Virgin River season 5, part 1, are now available to stream on Netflix, so tune in to the next episode to find out.
