If you’ve just finished bingeing your way through Season 7 of Netflix’s “Virgin River,” you could probably use a hug right about now. And while we can’t reach through the screen for a friendly embrace, we can give you some intel on those life-altering (or possibly life-ending, in one case) finale cliffhangers as we begin the long, frustrating wait for Season 8.
Let’s start with a quick recap of how things ended for the town’s core residents: Marley gave birth to Mel and Jack’s baby, who was immediately rushed to a separate hospital for heart surgery, which will be performed by Mel’s ex-boyfriend Eli; Hope kicked Doc out of the house, then shared a tender moment with Roland after learning a shocking secret about her late father; Brady suffered a gnarly motorcycle accident, leaving his fate in question; Brie volunteered to help Clay find his missing sister; and Preacher began the process of separating from Jack’s to start his own restaurant.
Needless to say, “Virgin River” fans have been left with a mountain of questions, all of which will be answered when the show returns for its (already renewed) eighth season. But waiting it for suckers, so TVLine got showrunner Patrick Sean Smith on the line to address these shocking developments.
Read on for our interview with Smith, which includes several intriguing teases about “Virgin River” Season 8. What does Eli’s return mean for Mel? Which character will have beef with Jack? And will Roland really come between Hope and Doc after all this time? Those questions and more are answered below:
How will Mel’s ex-boyfriend Eli ‘shake things up’?
As anyone who watched “One Tree Hill” can tell you, a show doesn’t add Austin Nichols to its cast unless it plans to shake things up a bit, and “Virgin River” showrunner Patrick Sean Smith confirms that his character will “definitely shake things up in Season 8.”
Introduced via a flashback in the season premiere, Nichols is playing Eli, an ex-boyfriend of Mel’s from her Nurses Beyond Borders days. As fate would have it, he reentered her world in the season finale as — wait for it — the doctor in charge of her and Jack’s baby’s treatment. This ensures that he and Mel will spend a lot of time together in Season 8, but should fans be worried about old flames reigniting?
“It’s a new energy on the series because we’ve never really had a man from Mel’s past with whom she’s had a romantic relationship invade Virgin River,” Smith tells TVLine. “There’s only been been Mark, with Mel dealing with the loss of her husband. This gave us a way to grow her character out more and get a better sense of her backstory. We get into some of her nursing stories, how she compartmentalizes, and how [Eli] became close with her and supported her.”
What’s next for Lizzie’s mental health journey?
Lizzie and Denny welcomed a healthy baby girl in Season 7, and as if new parenthood isn’t enough of a stressful time, Lizzie was also diagnosed with postpartum anxiety, leading to a difficult journey for the couple. Though she was initially opposed to taking medication, Lizzie eventually found one that worked for her after exploring her options, and things appear to be on the up for them.
“I don’t know if the anxiety, as far as where we’ve seen it get to in Season 7, will extend too much in Season 8,” showrunner Patrick Sean Smith tells TVLine. “I was excited to pivot away from the focus of their relationship being on Denny’s physical health to the focus being on her mental health. Everybody has a mental health journey, and we’ll probably see more as it comes along, but I thought Sarah [Dugdale] did a phenomenal job with that storyline.”
Smith says the postpartum anxiety storyline came about because it was something he wasn’t familiar with. “I’ve seen postpartum depression and the baby blues and all of that,” he says. “It just really felt like a way to mess with your head when you’re a young new mom, having to navigate all these thoughts that you’re having; most of them are natural and survival [instincts], but they’re counterintuitive and they’re scary. It’s like, ‘Why am I thinking this way?’ And the hormones and everything. I was really proud of how that that storyline turned out.”
Will Hope’s ‘self-exploration’ journey end her relationship with Doc?
If you asked us at the beginning of Season 7, we’d have said there was no way that Roland could ever come between Hope and Doc. Now? We’re not so sure. Not only is Hope furious with Doc for deciding to work with Grace Valley, potentially opening the town up to more corporations, but she also learned a crucial truth about her family business: the reason her father left his company to Roland was because he knew it was failing and that Hope would waste her time and money trying to save it.
“We have Hope going on this self-exploration journey, returning to the past and looking at everything through a different lens, given what she learned about her father,” showrunner Patrick Sean Smith tells TVLine. “She’s questioning the choices that she made because of the situation her father put her in, and that puts her back in Roland’s orbit.”
The final shot of Hope in Season 7 was of her weeping in Roland’s arms after finally scattering her father’s ashes. Could this be a glimpse of what’s to come?
“The thing that I was most excited about was a couple this late in life really reevaluating, ‘Is this how I want to keep going?'” Smith says. “The presumption is, ‘Well, you’re of a certain age, so just ride it out until you die,’ but I like that Hope is pumping the brakes and saying, ‘I’m feeling disconnected from what made us us and from what makes me me.’ That’s a lot of what we get into in Season 8.”
Will Brady survive his motorcycle accident?
It wouldn’t be a “Virgin River” finale if someone wasn’t left on death’s door, and this time around, that not-so-lucky character was Brady. After finally getting back together with Brie, he wiped out on his motorcycle in the final moments of Season 7. We don’t think the show would kill him off like this, but “Virgin River” has surprised us before.
“Prayer circles are always helpful with any issue in life, so I would say if it creates community, then we’re doing our job,” showrunner Patrick Sean Smith tells TVLine of Brady’s unknown fate. “Brie and Brady are a star-crossed, tortured couple. When I joined the show in Season 5, they broke up pretty early in that season. So just getting to give them an episode of happiness before things took a turn was really fun to me. They’re so wonderful together.”
(Here’s hoping they can continue to be wonderful together in Season 8.)
Will Brie get close to Clay while searching for his sister?
Regardless of whether Brady survives his motorcycle accident, we’re definitely worried about Brie and Clay growing closer in Season 8, now that she’s agreed to help him track down his sister. After all, we saw how complicated things got between Brie and Mike when they worked together to find Charmaine. Could history repeat itself with another in-the-moment kiss?
“I do think Clay is going to get closer to Brie in the search for his sister, who he eventually will find,” showrunner Patrick Sean Smith tells TVLine. “It’ll be a new character next season, and we’ll explore the sibling dynamics with Clay and Laila.”
Speaking of sibling dynamics, Smith says that Jack and Brie’s relationship “hits a rough patch in Season 8, which we haven’t really seen between those two before.”
Who’s not returning in Season 8?
While there is a lot to look forward to in the next season of “Virgin River,” there are a few familiar faces you shouldn’t expect to see when the show returns to Netflix.
We’ll start with Charmaine, who was finally found at the end of Season 7; it was revealed that her boss Grant shot Calvin and had been hiding Charmaine and the twins in his apartment. After all of the nightmares she’s endured, it sounds like she’s finally putting some distance between herself and Virgin River — though it’s not necessarily goodbye forever.
“I love the actress [Lauren Hammersley] and I love the character, so for the right reasons, I’d love to bring her back,” showrunner Patrick Sean Smith says of revisiting Charmaine down the road.
And despite finding new romance with Sara Canning’s Victoria, Mike is “not coming back for Season 8,” Smith says in a separate interview with Deadline. Like Charmaine, however, it’s possible Mike could return at some point in the show’s future.
How are you feeling after watching “Virgin River” Season 7? Haven’t Mel and Jack been through enough? Do you think Brady will survive his crash? Will Roland really come between Hope and Doc? and will you miss any of the departing characters? Grade Season 7 in the poll below, then drop a comment with your hopes for Season 8.