Welcome back to Virgin River, where you’ll find the answers

you’ve been waiting for (Who shot Jack? Who’s the daddy?)

along with some new mysteries to unpack.

Welcome to a new season of ! The community that supports its own through compassion, gossip, tough love, and meals at Jack’s Bar is back with all the small-town drama that comes with it.

Sometimes it feels like a cast of thousands lives in this Northern California town, so here’s a quick rundown of where we left them:

• Mel’s pregnant with a baby that might be Jack’s and might be her late husband’s.
• Hope was in a car accident, prognosis unknown.
• Preacher was drugged and left for dead in the woods while evil Uncle Vince made off with Christopher.
• Brady was arrested when police found a gun in his car.
• Ricky and Lizzie broke up after he lied about enlisting.
• Charmaine got married and was the worst.

Is your memory officially jogged? Hope so! It’s time to recap season 4.

Episode 1: Be My Baby

Can you keep a secret? If the answer is no, consider relocating to beautiful Virgin River. You’ll fit right in!

Mel’s OB explains their paternity test options, which Mel knows all about — she’s a certified midwife, after all — then scares the bejesus out of Jack by talking up Mel’s high-risk status.

Although Mel assures him that her body knows this pregnancy is different than the one she lost (um, is that a scientific thing?), Jack doesn’t want her telling anyone quite yet.

Naturally, Mel immediately spills the news to her sister Joey (Jenny Cooper), and she patiently tolerates Jack’s shopping spree for vitamins and baby books and the equipment she needs for a healthy pregnancy — all of which she already knows or has access to at the clinic.

Elsewhere in Virgin River, some of the residents are having trouble with their own secrets.

First, the good news: Hope (Annette O’Toole) is alive and out of the hospital! (And no, Calvin had nothing to do with her car crash, despite the mid-season rumors.) The crash left her with a brain injury that’s affected her smell, taste, memory, spatial awareness, and even her personality. She’s also forgotten that Doc (Tim Matheson) told her Lilly was dead, and he’d prefer to keep it that way until she’s recovered a bit more.

Unfortunately, nobody passed that memo along to Lizzie (Sarah Dugdale), who stops by with some food for Hope and offers to take care of her roses, which are charmingly named Amy, Jo, Meg, and Beth. (That girl’s had a personality transplant since her introduction in season 2, hasn’t she?)

Lizzie lets it slip to Hope that Lilly now resides in the cemetery, then calls Doc in a panic. Hope realizes that there isn’t a get-well card from Lilly in her stash, and Doc tells her the story of her friend’s death as anguish washes over her face.

Changes are afoot at the clinic, where Doc’s hired a new doctor. Cameron Hayek is young and handsome (I know, control your shock), and I don’t trust the way he smiles at Mel.

The women of the town are ready with a warm welcome and stampede to make appointments with Dr. Hayek. To his credit, he gamely keeps them all. He also notices when Mel refers to him as hot in passing and doesn’t let it go unremarked. Watch ya back, Jack.

Speaking of people who don’t wish Jack well, the last time we saw Charmaine (Lauren Hammersley), she was mad that Jack talked to a family law attorney… which she discovered when she was trying to hire a family law attorney of her own. *Jim Halpert stare into the camera*

She bumps into Jo Ellen (Gwynyth Walsh) and lets it slip that she’s pregnant with boys, but asks her not to share the sex with Jack. Starting off the season strong there, Char.

The newly single Ricky (Grayson Maxwell Gurnsey) seems to have gotten into Mel’s leftover blonde hair dye, and he and his frosted tips are being menaced by a raccoon outside Jack’s Bar. Preacher (Colin Lawrence) identifies the raccoon as Bandit, and sadly that’s the last we see of the trash panda this season.

Bolstered by his near-death wildlife encounter, Ricky plucks up the courage to tell Jack that he’s enlisting in the Marines. Jack’s surprised but pleased to hear it, which tells you everything you need to know about the sense of duty and patriotism in this man who’s still deeply haunted by his war experiences.

Jack’s also surprised that Brie (Zibby Allen) is sticking around town after the Brady thing — the “Brady thing” being Brady (Benjamin Hollingsworth) begging her to believe that he’s innocent as the cops haul him off to charge him with shooting Jack.

Brie, who’s considering a job offer to do lawyering around Virgin River for the next year, bumps into Mike (Marco Grazzini), who reminds her that he was just doing his job when he arrested Brady after finding a gun in his truck.

Brady and his disheveled hair (seriously, my guy needs access to pomade or, at the very least, a light-hold gel) are in lockup on $500,000 bail. Unfortunately, he’s in there with drug camp Jimmy (Ian Tracey), who’s always hated him. Also, lockup very quickly left Brady prison yard swagger and poor grammar, but at least he’s befriended a weaselly inmate who watches his back.

Alas, Jack’s starting to realize that he may have pointed the finger at an innocent man. When Preacher shows Jack video of Paige’s (Lexa Doig) dead husband’s evil twin (Steve Bacic), Jack has a flashback and realizes it was Vince, not Brady, who shot him. Call somebody, Jack! Your buddy Mike, maybe? The district attorney? Brie? Get somebody on the horn before it’s too late!

Ope, it’s too late. Brady’s reading a big ol’ hardback during yard time when Jimmy approaches with a shiv. Brady successfully fights him off, but his weaselly buddy blindsides us all by stabbing him right in the gut.

Episode 2: Father Knows Best…?

Brady’s going to be okay, y’all! He’s got a lacerated kidney and Brie by his side after she lawyer-talks her way past the guard at the door like a total boss.

When he wakes up, an emotional Brie apologizes for not believing him. She tells him that she loves him and promises to get him home. Well, I’d hope so, since the victim now has a clear memory of who actually shot him.

Jack, who does go to Mike with his new memory of the Vince shooting, wonders out loud if his day could get any worse after he learns that his dad’s in town. I mean, you could be stabbed in the kidney.

Jack and his dad do the emotionally stunted father-son handshake, and we learn that his dad’s a very busy academic who’s never seen Jack’s bar before. He’s there to harangue Brie into moving back to Sacramento, because favoritism is alive and well in the Sheridan household and he wants his daughter back.

Mel lets is slip that Jack got Charmaine pregnant, and these people have got to get better about making it clear who knows what and who doesn’t. Jack’s dad lays into him for not marrying Charmaine, and it’s awkward because, hello, Mel is right there.

The woman who usually brings the awkward has gotten even worse following her brain injury. At cards with the ladies, Hope brings up Lilly with Tara (Stacey Farber) at the table, which brings the mood right down. This new version of Hope offers a flustered, angry apology and afterward tells Mel that sometimes words come out without her permission. She begs for help getting her life back.

Remember Doc’s newly discovered grandson, Denny (Kai Bradbury)? Doc hasn’t mentioned him to Hope, but he does invite Denny to stay in Virgin River a little longer. We learn that Doc dated Rose in college, but when she got pregnant, she sent him a Dear John for fear that a child would get in the way of him becoming a doctor. Denny then breaks the news that his father died last month, which has to be unbelievably devastating for Doc.

Denny has more than just his grandpa to stick around for; he and Lizzie hop into a paddleboat, then head to Jack’s bar for some food. Of course, Ricky catches sight of them flirting. No-nonsense waitress Hannah (Clare Filipow) tells him to win her back with a grand gesture, but instead he considers signing a regular contract with the military and shipping out for boot camp in two weeks rather than holding out for the officer candidate course.

Preacher seeks out a different kind of training in this episode, heading to an Aikido class to blow off stress as he continues to search for Christopher (Chase Petriw). But he’s the oldest student by decades, and his child sparring partner drops him to the mat immediately, which amuses instructor Julia (Lucia Walters) and raises questions for me about Preacher’s military training.

Okay, let’s circle back to Mel and Jack. When a woman from the drug camp arrives at the clinic to give birth, Mel delivers a stillborn child and then a healthy twin. Once she’s out of sight of the parents, she collapses with her own remembered grief.

She doesn’t share any of this with Jack, but she does encourage him to be honest with his father. So the men have a heart-to-heart. His father chides Jack for throwing away his academic scholarship to Berkeley in favor of enlisting and “wasting” his life serving drinks. But he grudgingly accepts that Jack is happy where he is, which is a start.

At the cabin, Mel puts on a happy face when Jack brings his father home for dinner and shocks them both with the news that Jack’s mother has asked for a divorce.

The episode closes with Brie getting stopped in a dark parking lot by Calvin (David Cubitt), who tells her that if Brady doesn’t get Emerald Lumber’s side business (psst: it’s fentanyl!) up and running, bad things are going to happen to her.

Episode 3: Grilled

This episode dares to ask the question: Are the vibes weird, or am I misinterpreting smalltown nice? Because Cameron and Mel have an energy, and Jack and I are deeply suspicious.

It doesn’t help that during her morning run with Brie, who’s clearly not wanting to do anything alone after Calvin’s parking-lot threat, Mel bumps into Cameron, and they make plans for him to have dinner with her and Jack.

Connie (Nicola Cavendish) is doing her busybody most, fretting about Christopher and giving Denny the stink eye when he and Lizzie agree to see a late showing of Pulp Fiction. Oh my Lord, how ancient must that movie seem to these fresh-faced teenagers?

Ricky’s not quite ready to give up on Lizzie, but when he pushes for a second chance, she makes it clear that she still feels betrayed by his dishonesty about his military plans.

Preacher’s having more luck in the lady department. He bumps into Aikido instructor Julia at the farmer’s market, and they tell stroll through a commercial for the benefits of fresh local organic produce. Their day continues over charcuterie and wine in a gorgeous garden/greenhouse/vineyard, and if any of you know where this was filmed, you’re obligated to tell me in the comments so I can visit.

He opens up about his service and says he chose gratitude rather than anger, and it’s genuinely nice to hear him sounding so healthy about it all. Julia obviously agrees with me and offers him private Aikido lessons. *eyebrows eyebrows*

Hope’s still struggling with her brain injury and tells Doc she’s like a cat who just needs food, water, a litter box, and solitude. (Add WiFi and we’re the same, sister.) Then Tara comes knocking on the door for a round of apologies and assurances that Hope is now the closest thing she has to her mother. The camera pans out to a vase of lilies, which is a nice touch.

Secret alert: Doc hasn’t told Hope about Denny yet. Didn’t Doc learn from the last time when he, you know, didn’t tell Hope about Lilly and it led to all of this?

He and Mel have a lovely scene where she talks about her daily grief over her stillborn daughter and Doc mourns gaining a son and then losing him in the blink of an eye. “It’s silly because I’m missing something I never had,” he laments.

Over dinner, Doc finally brings up Denny. Hope is thrilled and even voices regret that she and Doc never had children, and oh, what a relief that the two of them are on the same page. Annette O’Toole is just marvelous this season, isn’t she? Hope’s still prickly and demanding, but her voice is softer, more frustrated and unsure.

Now to the Sheridan siblings. Brie signed that one-year lawyer contract, and Jack’s thrilled she’s sticking around, although he warns her away from Brady and his troublemaking ways. She, in turn, asks him to get Mike involved to help with Brady’s case. (How is there still a case? If Jack’s going to testify that it wasn’t Brady who shot him, there is no case!)

The siblings agree to divide and conquer their divorcing parents, so Brie’ll take Dad and Jack’ll take Mom, who’s apparently in love with her art teacher. But first, Brie meets with a former classmate and asks for access to the Emerald Lumber file hoping to figure out who tipped Calvin off about the police raid. Her friend isn’t impressed by her relationship with Brady, but she gives Brie 24 hours with the files.

Time for the weird-energy coworker dinner! Mel gets delayed dealing with a man’s medical emergency at the grocery store, which leaves Jack alone with Cameron.

The Berkeley grad turns down beer in favor of water and puts his foot in his mouth when he’s dismissive of the military. Cameron’s basically everything Jack’s not, yet he and Mel enjoy easy rat-a-tat banter once she arrives. Is it any wonder Jack gives in to the sweet siren call of the liquor tucked in the kitchen cabinet?

We learn that Cameron recently broke off his engagement, and he celebrates not being yoked to someone forever by having a child with her. This does not help Jack’s silent, panicky spiral. Once they’re alone at the end of the night, Jack blows Mel’s mind by saying Cameron’s super into her.

Brady update! He gets the news from his hospital bed that he made bail. It’s unclear who paid it, and I worry the answer’s not going to be good for him.

He arrives home to find his place trashed, presumably from the police executing their search warrant. A knock on the door has him picking up a baseball bat, but it’s Brie.

She asks to come in, and at first he resists, not even kissing her back when she embraces him. She says she wants to fix him, but girl, you can’t fix another person. And at the same time, maybe should’ve believed him when he said he didn’t shoot your brother.

Then “You?” by Two Feet starts playing (not to turn this into a commercial or anything, but this song has not left my playlist since I watched this episode), and just like that, it’s on.

They strip in front of Brady’s huge living room window, and respectfully, he stayed well waxed in lockup. His bandaged stab wound makes Brie pause to ask if it hurts.

His reply? “Not enough to stop.”

*incoherent screaming at that top-notch romance novel dialogue* I cannot stress enough how much I’m rooting for these two.

Episode 4: Serious As A…

Wow, does Mel’s planned romantic giveaway not go as planned in this episode.

After she broke down over the stillborn baby and the death of the man she helped at the grocery store (we didn’t see it happen, just heard about it after the fact), Jack sweetly surprises her the following morning with a pendant engraved with their names. But as she plots to whisk him away on an overnight fishing trip, he’s the one who starts spinning out.

It’s bad enough that a comment from his dad has him working like a demon to paint the bar’s exterior, but Charmaine comes along and lets it slip that she’s having boys. Todd didn’t want her to tell Jack, which leads to a (completely understandable!) eruption, because he’s having twins with a literal demon.

At the clinic, Cameron and Mel are still figuring out their professional and personal boundaries, but they come together when Tara has a dizzy spell and admits to not sleeping well as she copes with her mother’s death and cares for baby sibling Chloe.

They send her off to nap and make plans to get her help with meals and childcare. Then Cameron talks about being ready to settle down and asks if Mel’s planning to stay in Virgin River. She’s… all but engaged? To the owner of the only restaurant in town? I think that’s a pretty good sign that she’s there for good.

Doc then tells her about his frustrations with Hope, who’s stuck in a cycle of poor impulse control, mood swings, and memory loss. Although Mel says it’s no surprise that their relationship is strained at the moment, he’s worried it’s their new normal.

He does convince Hope to come with him to the botanical garden where they had their first kiss, despite her nervousness about being in a car.

As they stroll, Doc tells her he sees the woman he fell in love with 20 years ago — and he really does see her because his eye treatment is working well. He floats the idea of Denny staying with them, but Hope’s frustrated waiting for her body to heal and wants Doc to protect her solitude while she does.

But that night when Muriel (Teryl Rothery) pops by with a cheesecake and she and Doc play backgammon on the deck, a sad, jealous Hope cries as she watches them through a window.

There’s more jealousy afoot as Ricky, clearly dying inside, offers to cover Lizzie’s shift at the bar so she and Denny can trek to a waterfall.

Lizzie, who’s not a natural-born hiker, tells Denny that things with Ricky ended because he lied about joining the Marines. She plucks up the courage and asks him to be her Romeo and Juliet scene partner at the upcoming Renaissance Faire, but he declines. Oh, Denny. That was a missed layup.

Things are going better for Preacher, who makes Julia a special order of artichoke dip when she comes to the bar, bartering a private Aikido lesson for it. He tells Jack he’s not romantically interested, as he’s just hired a second PI to look for Christopher and his evil uncle Vince, but he’s clearly got game to spare.

In Brie and Brady land, she’s freaked out to discover he has a go-bag in case he the police come looking for him again. But at least she doesn’t keep Calvin’s threats to herself, and although Brady’s ready to go commit an actual murder to protect her, Brie suggests setting a trap to bring the whole Emerald Lumber enterprise down.

They head to the great outdoors to brainstorm but mostly seize the opportunity to make out. Thank you to this couple for keeping Virgin River at a boil all season long.

Afterward, Brie meets Mike to talk about flipping Calvin and finding his boss in the fentanyl pipeline. (Poor Mike thought they were on a date.) She says Brady’s too convenient a suspect, but Mike says local and federal law enforcement put too much time into the case to let Brady go.

Oh, and despite Brie’s openness about Calvin’s threats, she’s not willing to tell Brady or Jack that her ex-boyfriend raped her. She tells Mel that she hasn’t seen a therapist about it because “that stuff” is in the past. It’s not just a river in Egypt, Brie!

As the episode wraps up, Mel gets her getaway plans back on track when Preacher calls in the man brigade to help Jack finish painting, gently shooing him off to get on a floatplane with Mel to take them to Whispering Rock Island.

All signs point to romance until halfway through the trip, when Brad the pilot has a heart attack mid-air.

Episode 5: Mayday

Truly, Jack is the Charlie Brown of Virgin River. If it’s bad, it’s gonna happen to him.

While Mel grabs aspirin and nitroglycerine from the first aid kit, Jack grabs the wheel and makes a triumphant water landing. (He’s been taking lessons from Brad himself, thankfully.) Gotta say, Jack’s ego’s taken a beating recently, but landing a plane in an emergency should pump it up a bit.

After the hospital gives Mel and the baby an all-clear, they return to the question of paternity: she wants to know, but Jack doesn’t. Mel reminds him that the truth usually comes out (which we’ve seen at least 50 times so far this season), but Jack prefers to keep his head in the sand. *grimace emoji*

At the clinic, Mel and Cameron examine Bert’s (Trevor Lerner) wife Shirley (Ellie Harvey) for possible lupus, which her aunt has. When Mel fills Doc in, he points out that problems don’t go away if you don’t face them and says Denny’s in Virgin River because “understanding your family tree helps some people understand themselves.” So all of that definitely isn’t going to make Mel and Jack’s paternity test conflict any worse. *grimace emoji forever*

Speaking of conflict, Jack finds Brady on his big logging truck and asks if he remembers anything about Vince on the night of the shooting. Brady’s hostile, and says Jack almost got him killed in lockup. For somebody who’s in love with Jack’s sister, he sure isn’t trying to smooth things over, but what do I know? I’ve never been shivved after being framed for attempted murder.