This post contains spoilers for Virgin River season 5 episode 3, Calculated Risk.
As wildfires are raging in the valley around Virgin River, the community gathers to support the first responders while several of the show’s main characters are confronted with new challenges.
What is going on with Mel, Jack, Hope and the others? Let’s recap a new episode of Virgin River season 5...
Taking life as it is
No one is ever safe from being flooded by unwanted feelings, not even Jack Sheridan. And as the third episode of Virgin River season 5 starts, Jack has to admit he still needs quite a bit of therapy. Calculated Risk indeed opens on a nightmare sequence during which Jack finds himself at his and Mel’s engagement party, falling off the wagon and doing a lot of drinking while being hit by the vision of his deceased brother, Adam. When he wakes up, Jack is clearly troubled by the dream he had, but refuses to talk to Mel about it.
He does, however, tell his shrink about the nightmare. Barry explains the dream seems to be about Jack’s need to always be in control, and he suggests doing an activity that mimics being out of control, so that Jack can learn to be more comfortable with that feeling. When he goes to the bar after his therapy session, Jack tells Preacher how Barry recommended he try to take a “calculated risk” and as Preach just talked to Denny, who is getting ready for a day of rock climbing, the cook brings up the idea of Jack tagging along with the young man.
If the climbing adventure goes well at first, things go south when, mid-climb, Jack is again reminded of his brother’s death. He slips against the rock, but Denny catches him and guides him up to finish the climb, but Jack is shaken from losing control for a moment. Later, as he and Denny are enjoying the view of the valley below them, the latter tells Jack about having Huntington’s disease and how it has opened his eyes on the value of enjoying the present. He admits he used to be depressed about his diagnosis but that he eventually learned that worrying about what is to come was robbing him from focusing on what he has now, and Jack realizes he can learn something from Denny’s outlook on life.
Feed the firefighters
It is somehow comical that Denny and Jack spend the day climbing while in another part of the Virgin River region, wildfires are raging. News reports about the Grace Valley fires play on the TV in Hope and Vernon’s living room as she is still reeling from the fact that she has been removed from her job as mayor. Watching the news, Vernon wishes they could do something to help and Lizzie comes up with the idea of making packaged meals for the firefighters. Seeing it as a chance to show the community that she still has value, Hope jumps on board and decides to enlist the help of Preacher at the bar and put a plan into action.
Soon after, at the clinic, Vernon gives a call to his eye doctor. He has noticed a change in his vision and would like to have it checked as soon as possible. Seeing that he is preoccupied, Muriel suggests that he take the day off and Vernon decides to go help Hope at the bar, where he finds her, Lizzie and Preacher making bánh mìs and po’ boys for the firefighters. Leave it to Preacher to make the best sandwiches even in the most dire situations.
When the food is ready to be loaded into Connie’s truck, the woman warns Lizzie of an unfortunate surprise: her mother is in town. The reason for her visit is quite simple: she wants Lizzie to go back to college. While Hope is very upset with Jo Ellen after finding out she told Nick-the-new-interim-mayor about her car accident when she wasn’t cleared to drive, she takes a moment to give Lizzie’s mom her two cents and points out that Lizzie is the king of young woman who has great ideas like organizing this food distribution. However impressed Lizzie’s mom might be, she still insists that Lizzie should go off to college, or be ready to say goodbye to her parents’ financial support. Lizzie requests some time to think it over.
Urgent delivery
While Jack is off climbing and Doc busy making sandwiches, Mel runs into Cameron in the woods as she gets ready for her run. Interactions between them are awkward ever since he tried to meddle in her relationship with Jack, and as much as Cameron tries to be polite and wants to find a way to bury the hatchet with Mel, she isn’t keen on chatting with him.
Later on at the clinic, Cameron tells Muriel about his encounter with Mel and about the reason why things are off between them. Reminding him that one should never get in the middle of someone else’s relationship, Muriel suggests he gives Mel time and space, but an urgent phone call from a firefighter named Kaia changes the situation. Indeed, Kaia is trying to bring a lady in labor to the clinic as soon as possible, and it so happens that Fiona, the mother-to-be, is a patient of Mel and urges Cameron to call her for help.
Mel will never ignore the needs of a patient so she quickly goes over her issues with Cameron in order to help Fiona. However, more road closures prevent Kaia from getting to the clinic in time and she has to help Fiona give birth in the wild, with the help of Cameron and Mel over FaceTime. The delivery is not the smoothest, as Fiona first passes out from low blood sugar before delivering a newborn whose umbilical cord is wrapped around his neck. Eventually, all is well and mother and child are healthy, and while Kaia is relieved, Mel and Cameron make peace.
Trouble in paradise
While everyone else is busy helping pregnant women or feeding first responders, Brady puts on a suit and goes to Jeb’s funeral while Brie goes off to prepare her testimony against Don. After seeing the prosecutors, she tells Brady about her concerns that Don’s lawyers might use the fact that she leaned on Xanax a lot when she was with him as a way to discredit her during the trial. But even if they want to paint her as an addict, which could lead her to lose her license, Brie still wants to testify.
Running into Jeb’s wife later, Brie finds out more concerning news. While Brady told her he and Jeb barely knew each other, she instead learns that not only were they friends, but Jeb died of a drug overdose. So when she sees Brady that evening, Brie confronts him about lying to her. At last, Brady comes clean and admits there is a fentanyl traffic going on at the lumberyard, and that he is wrapped into it. Although he argues he had no choice as Brie’s life was threatened, and that he pleaded with Jeb not to get involved, Brie is disappointed in Brady and asks him to leave.
While things are turning sour between Brady and Brie, something is brewing between Preacher and Kaia, whom he met at the firefighter lunch. The two of them hit it off so fast that she shows up at the bar and ends up in his bed faster than it takes her to order a glass of tequila.
At least some people in Virgin River are having a good day. In fact Jack is so pleased with his rock climbing experience that he decides that his next “calculated risk” will be to let Melissa invest in his glamping business, a bad idea that he follows with another one: going on a camping trip with Mel. In the middle of wildfire season. What could possibly go wrong?
What will become of Brie and Brady’s romance? Did Preacher’s soulmate actually walk into his bar? Can Hope forgive Jo Ellen?
All episodes of Virgin River season 5, Part 1, are now available to stream on Netflix, so tune in to the next one to find out.
