Be My Baby
Episode 1 of Virgin River Season 4 starts with Jack and Mel discussing baby names. She’s got a clear bump and suddenly, Mark shows up! The baby could be his and he kisses Mel in front of him. Of course, this is a dream! Five weeks have passed since the embryo situation, and Mel heads off to see the doctor. They discuss the paternity situation and how the baby could be Mark’s. Jack is there for her but he’s worried, especially when he learns this is a high-risk pregnancy. Mel reassures him that it’s going to be okay but Jack is not so sure. In fact, he doesn’t want anyone knowing about their pregnancy – not even her sister. But that promise lasts all of 10 minutes, as Mel breaks her promise and tells her sister the truth. Elsewhere, Hope is having trouble with her mental issues and Doc is feeling the effects of that. He’s not focusing at the clinic, wracked with worry, as Hope doesn’t remember that Lily has passed away. There’s a new doctor in town though, Cameron, and Vernon gets him settled in. If you’ll remember, this was a big part of last season’s story. Still, Vernon is busy and when he learns his grandson has checked into the B&B, he heads off. When he does, Lizzie decides to watch over Hope and do some gardening. While fertilizing the roses, Hope shows up and asks about Lily. Lizzie – unaware of Hope’s mental state – panics and mentions the cemetery. Sooner or later, Hope needs to face the truth but no one seems to be in a position to do that just yet. Thankfully, Hope has figured it out herself. When she wakes up on the sofa later on, she comments how there aren’t any cards around. Doc finally opens up and admits the truth, including Lily’s pancreatic cancer and everything that happened to her. Speaking of keeping secrets, Charmaine finds out she’s having boys… but wants it kept hidden from Jack for now. Ricky’s secret about enlisting comes out in the open, and he tells Jack what he intends to do. Jack is proud of him and gives the kid a big hug. Mel does eventually admit to Jack that she’s told her sister about the pregnancy but Jack has ideas of his own. He wants to fly down to LA to a special clinic he’s been banging on about all episode long. Mel doesn’t want to though, pointing out she did everything by the book before and that ended badly. In prison, Brady ends up butting heads with Jimmy. He points out that this heat is all on him and he bemoans Brady not taking out Spence when he had the chance. Brtady is outnumbered behind bars and it would appear that something bad is brewing. As the episode closes out, more details of what happened to Jack during the season 2 cliffhanger (the one where Jack was bleeding out and then in S3 he’s absolutely fine 10 minutes later) is revealed. Video footage from Preacher’s PI blows the case wide open. It’s a video of Vince, the guy who has taken Christopher. When Jack sees his face, he flashes back to the kitchen and recognizes the guy as the person who shot him. It wasn’t Brady after all! We then cut to the prison one more time as Brady is stabbed and left to bleed out on the floor.
The Episode Review
Virgin River is back, and the show wastes absolutely no time digging into the drama from the previous season. The prison drama with Brady, and Jack remembering more of his attack, is certainly welcome, and given last season dragged out its drama across 10 episodes, it’ll be interesting to see how Virgin River handles that this time across 12 episodes instead. There are still a few contrivances here and bursts of drama that are resolved quickly, including the Hope issue and Mel talking to her sister, but beyond that the first episode mostly settles into a familiar, soapy rhythm of past seasons. That ending certainly hints that things are about to pick up in a big way.
