Virgin River Season 6, Episode 2 ‘The Broken Places’ is about love stories, and how sometimes it feels like life is a series of small choices that leads you to a big one, or to the person you are meant to be with. For Mel, that’s what Jack feels like—fate. He, however, sees it another way. For Jack, Mel is a choice.
Both ways of seeing it are perfectly okay, and both are romantic in their own way. You can believe the person you are with was always the choice for you, or you can believe the person you are with is the choice because you decided they were the choice. The important part is the choice that you make and that you keep on making every day, together.
Of course, Virgin River Season 6, Episode 2 ‘The Broken Places’ is also an episode about Mel’s parents, how they met, how they fell in love, and why they work. And I gotta admit, it’s kinda charming. It truly is. There’s a very easy chemistry between Jessica Rothe and Callum Kerr and they are believable as two people who find an easy connection and yet can never seem to find their time.
However, it’s the last part that doesn’t quite work for me. I’m not watching Virgin River to get attached to a story that I know is going to hurt me, and no matter what, I know if I get attached, this one is. So, my solution is simple, I won’t get attached. They’re there, and I know Mel cares, so they’re just nice backstories to have because they create Mel, but that’s about it. I won’t let myself care more, sorry not sorry. And if there’s truly a prequel coming, I’m not sure if I can put myself through that pain.
In many ways, Mel and Everett have a lot in common, it’s just that Everett never moved on, and the show wants us to see that as some kind of romantic thing. Mel moved on because, what, she didn’t love Mark enough? I don’t really like that, though. I feel like if you love someone, really love them, then you would want them to move on. Especially if you happen to pass away young. Would you want them to spend the rest of their life mourning you and doing nothing but that? I know I wouldn’t. That’s not love.
For me, the message of “the end of one love story can be the beginning of another,” is a more hopeful and realistic one, and one that speaks of true love, too. Because love is selfless. Love wants the best for the other person. And I have to believe that if Mark loved Mel, he would want her to be happy now, he would want her to be with Jack, and he would want her to have the family they could never have. That, to me, is the real meaning of the word.
