A city woman moves to a beautiful mountain town and finds a love that helps her heal her wounds. This was the starting point for Virgin River. Over time, we discovered the extent of the trauma that both Mel and Jack carried with them, and as the seasons went by, the two (like the rest of the residents of Virgin River) went through a real ordeal. The misfortunes were so numerous that even actor Martin Henderson, who plays Jack, was openly upset: “I was really angry.”
We’re referring, of course, to Jack’s and especially Mel’s odyssey to become parents. First, Mel lost her daughter during childbirth, and then her first husband died in a car accident. Then, after finding a soulmate in Jack whom she no longer expected, the difficulties in becoming a mother have continued. In fact, after they suffered a miscarriage in season five, Henderson was clear with writer and showrunner Patrick Sean Smith: “I wanted a pregnancy in season six.”
“I was really angry and let him know that I didn’t support that idea creatively,” the actor told TVLine. He simply didn’t want to continue with the struggles of parenthood after the hardships they’d had to endure since the series began, though he acknowledges that Smith knows how to make the show a success: “Part of the success is getting the audience hooked again, so there has to be something significant that leaves people with a ‘holy shit’ moment. And he’s very clever at coming up with those.”
After their odyssey of trying to become parents and unsuccessful fertility treatments, Jack and Mel were finally able to become parents through adoption… but then the bad news struck again: the baby has a heart defect that required emergency surgery. But Henderson is already trying to see the silver lining in everything she has to portray on screen—and in what the showrunner has conceived with the help of Robyn Carr’s books: “What he does very well is create a beloved couple where the audience can witness a love that isn’t a ‘happily ever after.’”
All that drama, at its core, holds a valuable lesson: “It’s a little more realistic. We all know that the true test of a good relationship is how you face adversity. It’s very easy to love someone when everything is going well.” And, from Smith’s perspective, it makes sense that Jack and Mel’s son has health issues: “With Mel being the nurse that she is and Jack having the strength that he does, I always thought that a baby who needs help is the perfect baby for them.”
Mel and Jack aren’t an escape. Ironically, despite what the title says, they don’t live in “Virgin River.” What they are is an example of “resilience and perseverance” in the face of adversity that can help viewers when they’re hit with life’s setbacks.
