With the usual drama kicking off in the sleepy town of Virgin River, it also saw the return of Stacie Monroe (Melinda Dahl), who first appeared in season 2 and caused tension for Mel Monroe (Alexandra Breckinridge).
Stacie then returned to Virgin River season 4 and dropped a bombshell, so with her explosive comeback, fans are wondering who she is and how she fits into Mel’s story…
Who is Stacie in Virgin River?
Stacie is Mel’s sister-in-law and the sister of Mark Monroe (Daniel Gillies), Mel’s late husband who died in a car crash.
She previously showed up in Virgin River to ask that Mel return Mark’s engagement ring to her as it belonged to their grandmother and said that it should remain in the family.
Mel protested her demands, saying she was still family even though Mark died and refused to give it back.
Now in season 4, an exhausted Mel received a phone call from Stacie asking to meet for dinner.
Mel initially ignored the calls as she was furious with Jack Sheridan (Martin Henderson) for taking up his drinking habits again to deal with his trauma.
Later on, when the pair eventually met up, it was clear that Mel still had hostile feelings towards her former sister-in-law.
A guilt-ridden Stacie was eager to build bridges between them and apologized for trying to take back the engagement ring.
Mel was surprised by her apology and forgave her, before Stacie told her that she was going to name her daughter Monroe after Mark as a touching honor to his memory.
However, their cheery conversation soon turned sour when Stacie made a shocking revelation.
“Mom hired a lawyer to seek custody of your last two embryos,” she confessed.
Previously, Mel and Mark had been going through multiple rounds of IVF in a desperate bid to have a baby.
Prior to Mark’s death, the couple argued about whether to continue or give up IVF, while Mel wanted to carry on.
Stacie further revealed that her mother wanted to hire a surrogate and raise Mark’s baby.
Mel was blindsided by Stacie’s announcement as this meant that Mel’s ex mother-in-law could potentially have the chance to raise the baby if she won custody.
This astonishing turn of events led Jack and Mel to get a paternity test to find out if he or Mark was the father of the baby.
And after a highly-anticipated result, we discovered that Jack was the father.
Virgin River season 4 is available to stream on Netflix now.
