All Mel (Alexandra Breckenridge) wanted for the holidays was a family

reunion with the biological father she didn’t know was from Virgin River.

Unfortunately — though exactly what we’d expect from the Netflix

romantic drama — that wasn’t so easy.Rather, what followed was a Virgin River scavenger hunt until she finally ended up at Everett’s door … only for him to claim he wasn’t the man she was looking for. Later, he shows up at her door and explains, “You look so much like your mom. Seeing you just broke my heart all over again. I didn’t know what to say.” He didn’t see what he said as a “lie” because “I’m not the man who wrote those letters, not anymore anyway, not since your mom died. I suppose you feel that, too, in some way. Look, I don’t know what you wanted to say to me or what you wanted me to say back. I don’t know if you wanted me in your life or just wanted to ask me for a kidney or something. But either way, I am your father, and I’m here now.” He gave her her mother’s letters, then said he had “something important” he needed to tell her.

But what did he say?  Insider tried to get that answer (and others) out of showrunner Patrick Sean Smith.

Everything with Mel and her dad was really moving to watch over these two episodes, from her search to find him to the way that he reacts to him coming around at the end. What did you want to do with that journey leading up to that final scene?

Patrick Sean Smith: Knowing that we only had the two episodes, we had to be judicious in just how far we could go into that storyline. I think we wanted to see Mel’s optimism, but we also wanted to see Everett’s reticence to connecting with her. As we get to know his character more in Season 6, we’ll get a sense that he is chosen to live off the grid. He’s really removed himself from society, and we’ll find out it’s for very emotional reasons. So I think that’s part of the conflict in Season 6, is Mel enjoying this relationship and him having to grow in order to meet her where she is.And you get that sense of living off the grid just from the one photo that she can find of him — it’s with the trophy in front of his face.

What can you say about what he needs to tell her at the end there? I feel like that’s very ominous, but maybe no?

That was the effect that we wanted. You’ll have to watch Season 6 to figure out what happens there.

Can you say if it has to do with his health or with something else?