Netflix
Virgin River Review – Mel Returns Home (2×01)
The stunning and breathtaking landscape brings you right back home to Virgin River.
It’s not surprising that Mel decided to come back to this Northern California town, even despite all the “drama.” The scenery alone is picture-perfect. But that’s not all that brought her back home!
At the end of Virgin River Season 1, Mel found out from Hope, the town gossip, that Jack was expecting a baby with Charmaine. A baby changed everything between them, especially as she was still dealing with the grief of losing her child and learning she couldn’t have one again. So, she figured the best thing to do was to skip top.
Personally, I felt like the episode glossed over the importance of Mel disconnecting from Virgin River and heading back to LA.
The scene where she visits her husband’s grave and informs him that home doesn’t exist anymore because he was her home is heartbreaking. Mel never went to Virgin River to fall in love and move on — she went to find herself and get away from everything that reminded her of a past that was torn away from her.
In doing so, she stumbled upon Jack, a great man that she could see herself with, but she simply wasn’t 100% ready to commit or start anything new. First, she had to mourn her old life and all that loss that she had been carrying with her before she even thinking of moving on, let alone something as serious as a man who was going to be a father with another woman.
It was a powerful opening that allowed audiences to get a deeper view into Mel’s mindset, but I wish she would have communicated all of that to Jack when she arrived back in town as he interpreted her silence during those months in a negative way instead of understanding that it was necessary for her to step back and focus on healing.
Regardless, it didn’t take Jack long to forgive Mel and put it all out on the line: he wants to be with her and not Charmaine. It’s a bold statement that’s easier said than done.
While it’s clear that these two will eventually pursue the attraction between them, it’s going to be a bumpy road for Mel as she doesn’t want to be the one who steals Jack’s opportunity of having a real family.
Mel’s concerns are valid; she doesn’t want to get in the middle of it, especially since Charmaine blames her for losing Jack in the first place.
No woman who is going through trauma of her own willingly wants to get messed up in a love triangle that’s eventually going to involve a child.
However, it’s a small town. Not only is Jack a close friend, but Doc requested Mel to be very involved in Charmaine’s pregnancy journey (which could be therapeutic for her as she focuses on bringing life into this world) since she’s the only one in town with experience dealing with hypermesis gravidarum. Mel is a doctor first and foremost, so when a patient needs her, she puts aside any and all personal drama. Even when that person takes digs like “you don’t know what it’s like you’ve never had a child” without knowing that the woman helping her went through the traumatic loss of a child.
Doc also gave Mel some sound advice about her concerns, which could help Mel reframe her situation: Jack is an adult who was never fully invested in his relationship with Charmaine. If he wanted the familial unit, he would embrace her and this moment, but instead, even as he’s expecting a child with another woman, he willingly chooses Mel.
She’s not the home-wrecker she thinks she is; she didn’t break apart any relationship, marriage, or family.
As Doc put it, for the first time ever, Jack knows what he wants without doubt and that’s a relationship in which he feels fulfilled and content.
Virgin River may be a scenic small town, but don’t let that scenery fool you — it has its fair share of drama.
The biggest jaw-dropping moment came at the final moment of the episode when Mel was ambushed by a bloodied and strung-out man at the clinic.
It’s unclear if this is the same man that was running behind her in a rather odd scene in the episode. Mel seemingly got spooked as she assumed the jogger was stalking her, but when she took a turn toward the woods, the man kept on going. I shrugged it off as her paranoia, but maybe it was real?
You wouldn’t peg Virgin River as a town where women get attacked, but it’s entirely possible, especially with Calvin’s gang in the shadows. They’ve already had one run-in with Mel and use Doc’s services off-the-books, so maybe this is somehow related?
What do you think it was about?
The second eerie moment was one we expected would eventually happen, but that didn’t make it any easier to watch. Paige’s abusive husband, Wes, returned. While she did her best to get off the grid and disappear with her son, her ex has been closing in on them as we saw on Virgin River Season 1. When she left Christopher with Connie to spend a nice afternoon with Preacher and come clean about the reason behind her fake identity, Wes had the nerve to “stop in” and play with his son.
I think I’m more interested to see how this storyline pans out than I am about Mel and Jack at the moment. From what Paige said, her ex is a cop that wields not only power but connections. Not to mention he was awarded custody of Christopher before they ran away, which technically means that Paige kidnapped her kid. The fact that he found her is not good since he’s likely going to try to make her life a living hell.
Will Preacher intervene? Will he be her knight in shining armor?
As for Hope and Doc, they’re sneaking around like a pair of teenagers who are keeping their relationship a secret from their parents.
It’s nice to see Hope finally open up and let Doc in, but I’m not entirely sure I’m interested in seeing her keep their relationship under the radar. It’s one thing not to want to be part of the town’s gossip (funny since Hope is the town’s gossip), but it’s another to encourage another woman to date your man to keep it a secret.
Hope has punished Doc for his indiscretions for so long, I want her to finally embrace him publicly and be like “this is my man!” They both deserve it!
Ginny and Georgia centers on the heartwarming yet extremely complicated bond between a mother and her daughter after they put down roots in a New England town.
With so many compelling storylines and incredible characters of all ages, it’s no wonder that the coming-of-age drama has become a fan favorite among Netflix audiences.
The second season of Ginny and Georgia premiered on Jan. 5, 2023, which means that a third season is likely far off, especially considering Brianne Howey, who plays Georgia, just announced her first pregnancy, which will possibly delay filming.
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Of course, Netflix has to renew the series for a third season. As of March 28, 2023, it has not given the show a green light for additional episodes.
Fans shouldn’t be too worried, however, as a renewal is very likely considering the show’s performance, the rabid fan base, and the fact that season 3 ended on such a cliffhanger—Netflix knows that fans will be clamoring for another season to see how the situation resolves itself.
As for a premiere date, well, there isn’t one just yet. Until the series is renewed and production begins, it’s a bit too difficult to come up with a date for new episodes. The season could likely arrive in February 2024 if we’re looking at the previous premieres for both seasons 1 and 2, which both debuted at the start of 2021 and 2023, respectively.
But with Howey’s pregnancy thrown into the mix, that could delay things a bit, and it wouldn’t be the worst thing if the series returned during the summer when there’s a lull in content and fans are seeking out something to binge-watch and get invested in.
Either way, when Netflix makes an official decision, you’ll be the first to know as we’ll update this article accordingly!
Until then, you can gear up for the final season of The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, Riverdale, and Firefly Lane!
YOU Season 4 introduced a plethora of new characters as it revamped the series with a murder mystery format.
*Warning – stop reading if you haven’t finished YOU Season 4 – Spoilers Ahead *
The shakeup made sense considering Joe Goldberg (Penn Badgley) uprooted his life following the fiery events in Madre Linda that killed Love Quinn and started over in London, assuming the identity of Professor Jonathan Moore.
Rather quickly, he got pulled into an elite group thanks to his co-worker and neighbor, Malcolm Harding (Stephen Hagan), who was the season’s first victim. Joe/Jonathan naturally despised Malcolm’s group, though he did find Rhys Montrose (Ed Speleers), an author running for Mayor of London, to be a bit of a kindred spirit. They came from the same broken background and shared many of the same views.
As the first half of the season unraveled, Joe sought out advice from Rhys on a handful of occasions, engaging in plenty of long heart-to-hearts with him, so it was kind of shocking when it was revealed that Rhys, as audiences have come to know him, was never real.
Rhys Montrose existed, yes, but he was never friends with Joe, nor was he the Eat the Rich Killer. The version of Rhys that Joe bonded with was a hallucination conjured up by his subconscious to protect himself and eliminate his darker, more deranged thoughts.
You. (L-R) Ed Speleers as Rhys, Penn Badgley as Joe Goldberg in episode 410 of You. Cr. Courtesy of Netflix © 2023
For much of the season, we saw Joe desperately trying to set himself free from Rhys’ grasp. At first, he saw him as public enemy #1, who somehow figured out Joe’s real identity and roped him into a murder spree by threatening to frame him for the deaths if Joe refused to participate.
However, once Joe realized that Rhys was a figment of his imagination, he began to look for ways to silence the evil little voice forever, while also trying to figure out a plan to cover up the death of the real Rhys Montrose.
Joe was tasked with killing the mayoral candidate, who he assumed at the time was the Eat the Rich Killer, by Kate’s (Charlotte Ritchie) father, Tom Lockwood. When he arrived at Rhys’ secret countryside hideout and tied him up, he was infuriated that Rhys claimed not to know who he was, nor would he admit to kidnapping Marienne (Tati Gabrielle). Eventually, Joe’s rage and anger took over, and he “accidentally” killed Rhys, which is when fake Rhys showed up and revealed that Joe was having a semi-psychotic break.
In the end, Joe’s suicide attempt ensured that his hallucinations were forever gone, though he did embrace the darkness he was trying so hard to snuff out, making him more dangerous than ever.
As for the real Rhys Montrose’s killer, he pinned it all on poor Nadia (Amy-Leigh Hickman), a fan of Rhys’s from the beginning, who flew too close to the sun in her attempts to bring down Joe Goldberg. If only she just listened to Marienne’s advice.
A huge congrats to the YOU team for pulling off yet another jaw-dropping twist, and to both Badgley and Speleers for completely immersing themselves in their dual characters.
Just when you thought you figured out where the season was headed, YOU pulls out the rug from under you yet again.
I’m definitely starting to feel the whiplash that Joe/Jonathan must be feeling right about now.
Things have gone from crazy to crazier rather quickly, as Rhys unveiled his true plan—along with how Joe is involved—while Joe came out victorious in front of the elite group once again, and all while a new suspect started piecing things together and realizing that Joe knows way more than he’s led on.
While Joe spent numerous hours trying to figure out a plan to get close to Rhys, Rhys just appeared at Joe’s place one night without so much as lifting a finger. Joe may think he’s the invisible one in the city, but for a man who’s so well-known and loved, Rhys seems to get around without anyone noticing.
And he made the rules of the game very clear—either Joe finds someone to frame for all the deaths or he goes down as the Eat-the-Rich killer, which isn’t exactly ideal. A little incentive goes a long way, so while Joe tried to distance himself initially, he couldn’t shake the desire for self-preservation and took the bait. He took the task rather seriously as it was either kill or be killed; he knew someone had to go down for it, but it had to be the right person.
With time running out, he genuinely began to consider Connie, but despite being an irrelevant character, he couldn’t justify pinning it on someone who was struggling with addiction and trying to turn their life around. Connie wasn’t a threat to anyone, except for maybe himself, so Joe couldn’t justify destroying his life.
But Dawn, well, she fell right into his lap. The few times we saw her snapping photos of the elite, and focusing on Joe–including when she spotted him at Rhys’ mayoral rally—I was convinced that she recognized him from his previous life. And that seems to be what the series wanted me to think so that they could pull a fast one on us because when Dawn pulled Phoebe aside to a “safe room” to keep her protected from the killer, it was revealed that Dawn was just an obsessive stalker who was connived that she was friends with the elite, Phoebe in particular. Dawn was a threat to a lot of people, so Joe took advantage of it. He framed her by planting Simon’s ear in her belongings, and since no one would ever believe a word she said over Phoebe’s accounts of what happened, Dawn couldn’t prove her innocence. Plus, she made an ideal suspect since she was at nearly every single event where a murder occurred as she was stalking the group. I mean, it couldn’t have been any more perfect if Joe had tried to plan it himself.
You. Ed Speleers as Rhys in episode 406 of You. Cr. Courtesy of Netflix © 2023
However, his heroics did raise some questions from Nadia, his student and the lover of all murder mysteries. She noticed that Jonathan seemed to be at the center of every single scenario, oftentimes being championed as a hero, though he’s not actually connected to any of these people in any meaningful way. It’s a dangerous thing to play detective, especially when you’re setting your sights on Joe Goldberg. Jonathan seems to like Nadia, but if she threatened him, I don’t think Joe would hesitate to take her down. Self-preservation is his M.O., remember?
Once Joe thought he finally got Rhys off of his back by framing Dawn, he decided to give into his desires and pursue a relationship with Kate. Honestly, Kate makes some really poor decisions, starting with just accepting Jonathan for who he is now and promising never to ask questions about his past. She wants someone to see her for who she is in the moment so badly that she’s letting logic take a backseat. Why would someone want to deny their past so badly unless they did something truly unforgivable? Kate wants to shed her past because of her connection to her father and she thinks that makes her and Jonathan equal, but they are not the same.
By the time she realizes the truth about who Joe is, it might be too late.
As for Rhys, did Joe think he was really going to get rid of him that easily? Rhys has always wanted a friend to help him get to the finish line so to speak. He believes that they are the same, so he wasn’t going to just let Joe slip away.
And while his motive wasn’t evident at first, he seems hellbent on taking out those who don’t deserve their success and wealth. The three victims, Malcolm, Simon, and Gemma, all threatened his mayoral run in some way, so they were taken care of, and now, he’s setting his sights on the ultimate villain–Kate’s father. She may have a complicated relationship with her tycoon dad, but I don’t think Kate would ever want to see anything bad happen to him, let alone at the hands of the man she’s in love with.
However, Rhys doesn’t seem to give Joe much of a choice as he still holds all of the cards. One might think that Joe could just handle this in the same way he always does, but well, you can’t just try to kill a killer. He’d see that coming from miles away. Joe needs to be strategic and deliberate in his plan, so for now, he has to play along. I, for one, am curious to see what all the hubbub is about Kate’s father–is he really as terrible as she makes him out to be?
As for Rhys, what is the catch? Fans were disappointed with the first half of the season since his reveal as the killer was obvious—and his motives, including his desire to kill Kate’s father–are exactly shocking or game-changing. What are we missing?
What did you think of the episode?
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