This post contains spoilers for Virgin River season 5 episode 8, Full Moon.
It’s a full moon in Virgin River and the town residents have all kinds of ideas going through their minds.
As Mel continues to work through her grief, Jack is busy with work and Preacher gets to know Kaia better, hoping to find out if their relationship can last.
What else is going on with the characters of the show? Let’s recap this new episode of Virgin River season 5...
The power of the moon
Mel is feeling better. Or at least, that’s what she says. Dancing in her cabin to the beat of Lizzo’s “Exactly how I feel,” she wants to drown out the thoughts surrounding her miscarriage. When Jack walks in on her, he is glad to see she is doing better but doesn’t realize that Mel’s full schedule (which includes going fishing with Doc, hitting the sewing circle and having a girls’ night with Brie) is designed to keep her from thinking about her loss and keep him from talking to her about trying again.
When she goes fishing with Doc, Mel admits she is keeping busy to avoid confronting her feelings. He tells her about Cameron accepting to take over the clinic and how they both need her to come back to work with them, and it does not take more than asking for Mel to agree. She misses being a nurse.
After catching a fish, Mel meets up with the sewing lady and informs them she wants to finish her baby dress. While they command her for it, they decide to lighten the mood by teasing Muriel about moving in with Cameron. Muriel pretends there is nothing going on between them but that very night, the moonlit dinner she shares with the young doctor quickly heats up. They get closer and closer and eventually share a kiss, which Cameron interrupts when he remembers he promised Doc he would be more professional. Boo!
The full moon is also shining on Mel, Brie and Ava’s night, who are hanging out at Brie’s. With Mel still struggling with her loss and Ava being riddled with guilt about losing Lily’s farmhouse (she admits she fainted during the fire at her mother’s house because of an endometriosis crisis) and Brie revealing she and Brady broke up, they decide to perform a little ritual to help them let go of their burdens. The idea is to write down on a piece of paper what is bothering them, and burn it to let it go. Ava and Brie comply, but when it comes to Mel’s turn, she cannot bring herself to let go of her fear of trying again for a baby and experiencing another loss.
Brady takes charge
After the debacle at the food and clothes drive, Mike and Brady have a tense meeting down by a lake. The former assures Brady that he and Brie are just friends but Brady still has a hard time unclenching his teeth at the sight of Mike. They manage, however, to put the issue aside to focus on their plan to take down Melissa. They need her to admit she is laundering money through Jack’s business, so Mike gives Brady a wire to wear in order to record her.
While Denny is off to a job interview at Bert’s auto shop, Lizzie is ready for her new job as Hope’s Chief of Staff, all dressed up with her to-do list in hand. Hope informs her the first order of business is to help the displaced people from the fire to find a new, temporary home.
The solution Hope is looking for is about to be served to her on a silver platter when Brady finds Hazel and her mother Lark squatting in one of the Airstreams at Jack’s campsite. When Jack arrives, Lark admits why she is there and he offers her to stay until she can figure out her next move. In fact, he decides to let Hope know anyone who needs a place to stay can come use his Airstreams. Brady watches helplessly, knowing all these people are going to be in the middle of Melissa’s new criminal venture.
Speaking of the devil, she comes to visit the construction site and uses Jack and Mel’s loss to tell Jack to take some time off and, more importantly, let Brady handle the bookkeeping for the glamping project. While Brady has hardly been informed of this new responsibility, he tries to get information from one of Melissa’s minions, who checks him for a wire when Brady starts asking too many questions. Conveniently, Brady has decided to not wear the wire Mike gave him at that moment, and only shows off his abs to the minion (and the audience).
See, Brady is moping because Brie won’t return his text. She is too busy watching baseball with Mike, so Brady ends up accepting Lark’s offer to have a drink with her. Is something cooking there? Probably. If Brie and Mike are going to get closer, it only makes sense for the show to now set up Brady with a new love-interest.
Moving on
While everyone is busy working or flirting, Preacher is spending the day with Kaia. After a lovely breakfast made of panettone french toast (when is the official Virgin River Preacher’s cookbook coming out for goodness’s sake?), they hit their motorbikes and drive around the woods. They swap childhood stories and while he reveals the meaning behind his nickname, she confides that her father does not approve of her divorce.
Later, as the two of them cuddle on Preach’s couch, Kaia explains why things went south between her and Jay. Turns out the firefighting world is pretty competitive and if Jay initially supported her, they eventually fought over the same promotion and Jay asked her to give up on her dreams to be a stay-at-home mom. And that was out of the question for Kaia.
When Denny comes home from his interview, he tells Vernon he did not get the job although Bert agreed to take him under his wing as an apprentice. Doc is happy that Denny has decided to stick around Virgin River, but is slightly less thrilled when his grandson tells him that Grandma Rose wants to come for a visit. Doc’s first thought is that he needs to consult with Hope. Rose is the woman who had Doc's child in secret and never said anything about it for 50 years, so Hope has strong feelings on the topic, but when Doc tells her he wants to be able to put the matter to rest, she agrees to Rose's visit.
The episode concludes on Jack coming home from a hard day of helping displaced people and once again bringing up to Mel the idea of trying to have a child again. Beyond the fact that it has hardly been DAYS since her miscarriage, Jack has not noticed the face Mel makes every time he mentions this, so she has to spell it out for him. As much as she has hoped that one day she would have a baby, she no longer wants to try again. Jack is obviously heartbroken, but does he understand where she is coming from?
It looks like between this news, Grandma Rose’s visit, and Brady snooping around Melissa’s business, there is still a lot of drama ahead in the last two episodes of Virgin River season 5, part 1.
Will Preacher and Kaia find a way to make their romance work? Can Doc forgive Rose? Will Muriel and Cameron get to be together after all?
Tune in to the next episode of Virgin River, available on Netflix, to find out.
