Virgin River Season 6, Episode 7 ‘I Climbed A Mountain and I Turned Around’ is the kind of episode that starts out being about misunderstandings and about second chances and ends up with a literal emotional gut-punch, the kind Virgin River is so very good at delivering. If there’s one episode this season that leaves you wanting the next one to play right away, it’s this one. But if you’ll allow me, I think it’s important to discuss this moment without letting what comes next color what this moment means.
Because this moment is about big emotions. For Brady and Lark. For Brie and Jack. And yes, for Doc and Mel. And what they’re feeling is important, even if they don’t always find the right words to express themselves. This is Virgin River, so we gotta trust that they will. But we can’t solve a problem unless we get to the root of it, so that’s what I want to try to do.
Jack and Brie have a pivotal conversation in Virgin River Season 6, Episode 7 ‘I Climbed A Mountain and I Turned Around’ and that conversation is about the past, but it’s also about the future. For Jack, that future looks bright, for Brie, not so much. And yet they’re both holding on to so much pain—and that kind of pain demands to be let out.
The thing is, Jack has an outlet. He has Mel and he doesn’t feel like he cannot express his feelings. Sure, he plays the tough guy a little but, but he’s learned he can be vulnerable up to a point. Brie, on the other hand, faced her abuser in trial and seems to feel like she has to be okay after that. Like everyone expects her to be fine, to put it behind her. Except those are expectations she placed on herself, absolutely no one else expected that of her. This version of Brie that she created she doesn’t have to keep up. Instead, all she has to do is figure out which version of Brie she really is underneath her walls… and what that Brie wants.
Then there’s Brady, who feels like he cannot give Lark a second chance, because giving someone a second chance is somehow a sign of weakness. He feels like he didn’t deserve one, and just like he didn’t deserve one, Lark doesn’t either. But Brady is wrong. Everyone deserves a second chance, and Lark is actually being honest in wanting one. The problem is, of course, that Brady might not perhaps be honest in wanting to give her one. And that might end up being the bigger problem.
I have probably never been as upset with Mel as I felt at the end of Virgin River Season 6, Episode 7 ‘I Climbed A Mountain and I Turned Around’ and six seasons in, that’s probably saying something. Because the thing is, I’m sure she doesn’t realize what she did. She probably thinks this is a fight that’s on both of them. And Doc gave as good as he got by the time Mel pulled out the “you’re not my father” line on him. But I’m not sure Mel realizes that’s just icing on top of the sundae of taking away the honor of walking her down the aisle from the man who has pretty much been her father for the last few years, all because a man who shares her blood but has never even done anything to act like her father showed up.
And the worst part is that Mel acted like Doc should just understand. And he did, he stepped aside because he wanted what was best for Mel, and she just… never thought about him. Never thought about his pain. She has over and over again this season, only thought about Everett, and the Sheridan’s, and Jack, and everyone but Doc. For a moment there, she even forgot about Joey, her sister, that’s how enamored she was of this new life she was building that seemed to be about throwing away everything that meant anything to her before.
It’s just… disappointing, to say the least. And I’m sure it’ll be fixed next episode. But for now, I’m going to hold onto my anger at Mel. And yeah, a little bit at Doc, who’s a stubborn old man who could have explained himself better, but mostly at Mel.
