Virgin River Season 6, Episode 10 ‘The Big Day’ is the culmination of six seasons and a love story that has taken two broken people and given them not a fresh start, but a new beginning, which isn’t the same thing. Because, as Jack says so well in this episode, we carry all we are into every relationship—and that’s not a bad thing. In fact, it’s a good thing. He fell in love with the entirety of Mel, the good and the bad. So did we. And she fell in love with the good and parts of him.
In turn, fans fell in love with their story, and with the way they not just gave each other hope and purpose, but with the way they made this town their home. And so, this is a celebration for everyone, even if the episode sets up a lot of interesting storyline threads that we’ll have to think about when it’s time for Season 7. For now, this is about celebrating the love story at the center of this tale.
Virgin River Season 6, Episode 10 ‘The Big Day’ has an actual wedding, a party afterwards, multiple great moments between the main couple and a love scene to boot, and yet perhaps its best moment is a quiet conversation between Mel and Jack at the beginning of the episode, one that proves why this has perhaps been the best season of this show so far, despite the lack of drama between our main couple.
The conversation is mostly about the past and the future, and about Mel’s fear of carrying her baggage into the marriage. But Jack is quick to reassure her that he doesn’t just love Mel because of her good parts. If she’s got baggage, then baggage comes with her and that’s fine. He loves all of her, he always has. And that’s what a true partnership is. It’s not just when things are good, or when you are at your best. It’s all the time, even when things are hard. Especially when things are hard.
Deep down Mel already knew that, but sometimes we need the thing we feel to be put into words, and boy, did Jack have the perfect words. At times this second-chance romance hasn’t exactly been the stereotypical romance—even for contemporary readers, but in this Jack Sheridan is certainly romance hero material. And once Mel hears the reassurance that her darkness and the grief she sometimes carry, will always carry, won’t make Jack run away, well… the leap of faith is easy. She was already prepared to take it, after all.
First, let’s start with the big one: Brady. It’s both heartbreaking and, in a way, predictable. I wish Lark could have been the bigger person, but she did give him a chance and Brady lied to her so in a way I also understand her anger. Not that he deserves what happened to him, but heartbreak is a bad advisor and he was being anything but fair to Lark by using her as just a way to get over Brie, even while fully believing he never can.
Then there’s Mike, who apparently knows Brie cheated but still wants to propose. Was that his very own test, it’s just that Brie passed. And what will she say? Because what she should say is that she needs time, from both of them, but perhaps the fact that he knows and is still proposing means she will say yes.
Oh, and let’s not forget Doc, the clinic, and Grace Valley. It had to be something like this, and big corporations and greed sounds like the perfect “enemy” of sorts for Doc, Mel and the entirety of Virgin River to contend with in Season 7. In fact, we will all probably really enjoy it, all things considered.
Let’s, of course, not forget the big cliffhanger. What happened to Charmaine? What happened to the twins? The answer obviously leads back to Calvin, but is she alive? Virgin River isn’t the type of show to usually kill characters, but stranger things have happened.
