Netflix
Virgin River Review – Looking Towards the Past for Answers (2×05)
Mel and Jack are both struggling to let go of the past and heal from their experiences on Virgin River Season 2 Episode 5.
It’s one of the things that they can connect on — grief.
As we know, grief is circular and comes in waves. But it’s even worse when it’s left there unfettered.
For Mel, dealing with the loss of her husband is something she’ll have to deal with for the rest of her life. Thankfully, time heals all wounds and it’ll get easier day-by-day.
Having Stacie come into town and basically demand Mel’s engagement ring because it’s a family heirloom unfortunately brought all those feelings to the surface once again.
Stacie was just as bad as the rest of Mark’s family members who didn’t even invite Mel to the memorial.
She was only in it for herself and didn’t actually care about how Mel was holding up as evidence by the insensitive comment about Mel not having anyone to pass the ring onto because she can’t have kids. It’s as if Stacie blew into town hoping to challenge Charmaine for her “small town villain” title.
When Stacie realized she wasn’t going to get what she wanted, she basically threw a fit and accused Mel of moving on and sleeping with another man barely a year after Mark’s death. Honestly, the audacity.
This is clearly a woman who never had to deal with loss nor did she understand how grief works. She didn’t ask Mel how he was holding up, she didn’t call to check in with Mel at any point prior to this visit, but she had the nerve to judge her because she saw Mel with another man!
She even had the nerve to bring up that Mel and Mark were fighting prior to his death and that they might not have been together had he been alive.
Mel didn’t deserve any of that, but Stacie sure as hell deserved getting shown the door.
Regardless of the “what would have/what could have been,” the truth is that Mel was a part of Mark’s family, likely the most important part. And she deserved to keep the ring is she wanted to — heir or not — because it was given to her. It was one of the only tangible memories left of her husband and symbolized the love that they had for each other; it was selfish of Stacie to want to take it away from her.
Being forced to make such a big decision allowed Mel to face the past in a way she’s been avoiding, which will lead to some much-needed healing down the line.
As for Jack, he’s been suffering from PTSD as a result of the war as he blames himself for Lonergan’s death.
It’s not a healthy thing to bottle up inside; it’s slowly but surely eating at him. He numbs the pain with alcohol, but again, that’s just a device to help him function, it’s doesn’t actually face the trauma or allow any healing. It’s no way to live, but Jack’s also too proud to seek out the help of a therapist.
While he definitely has plenty of things under control, this is one issue that shouldn’t be allowed to fester.
As we see, everyone, even Jack, has a breaking point. After “boys night” where Lonergan was brought up, he called his parents to deliver a proper apology and to ease his own guilt by getting forgiveness.
It was heartbreaking to see him break down the way he did when he learned Lon’s parents were both dead, but the call was still cathartic and a good first step towards acceptance.
On top of everything, Jack also has to worry about Charmaine, who was having heart palpitations as a result of low blood sugar. He tried his best to be there for Charmaine, but he can’t be there for her romantically the way she wants him to.
Jack’s made that pretty clear, but for some reason she’s still convinced that she’ll be able to make Jack fall in love with her by being needy and begging. And when you look at the kind of woman Jack does like (ahem, Mel) it’s the complete opposite of that.
Jack’s solution to the Charmaine problem was to bring her a dog to help curb the loneliness, but clearly, he failed to realize how much responsibility it would be or that Charmaine would interpret the act as an addition to their budding family. When she asked “what should we name him,” it dawned on Jack that no matter what, his baby momma is going to have an unrealistic expectation of what she wants from him.
Hopefully, Charmaine gets the picture soon.
Hope is learning firsthand that pushing Doc towards Muriel may not have been her best decision. Go-figure.
Once Doc stood his ground, she quickly wanted to get back into his good graces, but it was too late as he already had a salsa date planned with Muriel.
Doc’s the type of guy that likes to keep the peace, so he invited Hope to the class hoping to finesse some time with her, but it was obvious from the get-go that this would be an awkward experience for everyone.
The class, however, was eye-opening for Hope as the analogy the dance teacher provided perfectly summed up her behavior. While Muriel and Doc were described as having a “connectivity and rhythm,” which you can’t argue — those two have a lot in common and seem to be enjoying each other’s company — Hope was called out for her “solo endeavor.”
She’s never been one to work in unity with Doc, and even now, she’s been trying to call the shots and manipulate the relationship. If she want to be with him, she needs to learn how to work together as a team.
Connie’s reaction to finding Lizzie’s birth control script was so illogical and old-school. It’s always fascinating to me when people approach birth control with the idea that it’s corrupting a young woman versus considering that it’s actually helping to prevent an unplanned pregnancy.
Lizzie may be reckless, but in this case, she was being responsible. Meanwhile, Connie’s outburst at Mel, who was only doing her job, was far from responsible.
Lizzie, an adult, will have sex regardless, but the question is, will she be safe doing it? I’d sure hope so.
For now, Lizzie’s motives are unclear since she went from pursuing Brady to connecting with and kissing Ricky. Was it a pity kiss? That would be a shame since he’s such a good guy who just wants to be liked by her. Hopefully, for her sake, she’ll stick with the “good guy” and let Brady go because he’s about to be in some hot water.
He confronted Calvin about the logging business and learned the truth — they’re dealing fentanyl. Brady immediately knew it was a bad idea, but he was pursued by the idea of money. And yeah, he’ll probably make that dough really easily, but once he gets busted and goes to prison (cause my guess is that Calvin is using him as a scapegoat), none of the money will matter anymore.
If Brady has even half a brain, he’ll get out now before it’s too late.
While Connie may have been all types of wrong about the birth control, it was hard not to feel for her when she confided in Preacher about her past with an abusive father.
After hearing that there was a missing person alert out for Wesley, she put the pieces together. She realized Christopher flinched when he saw his dad and that Paige ran away because she was in an abusive relationship like Connie’s mother.
The good news is that the only two people who know what happened are both on the same page now.
Connie felt guilty for not standing up to her father or going to the police and believes her silence contributed to her mother’s death. But by helping Preacher cover for Paige, she’s getting a second chance at sparing another family from the same pain and giving Christopher a childhood with a mother, which was stolen from her.
Other Thoughts
- I’m once again asking what the deal is with Jamie, the chef from San Francisco? Is she going to be Preacher’s new love interest or is she an undercover cop hoping to sniff out the truth about Wes?
- Jack spotted Ricky with the stolen tequila. I hate that he’s already getting in trouble for Lizzie. Hopefully, it was an isolated incident and Jack will let it go, but seeing as Lizzie is a terrible influence, I’m scared to see what other trouble Ricky will get into.
What did you think of the episode? Sound off in the comments!
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?
Netflix has become one of the most popular ways to consume new movies and TV shows.
The streaming giant has not only dominated the TV and movie landscape but it’s changed the way content is released.
While primetime TV still adheres to a weekly episodic release schedule, Netflix—and many of the streamers that followed—adopted the idea of dumping a full season on fans, creating a binge-watch model.
Most Netflix Originals are released in bulk, with the full episode order arriving at one time. A handful of shows, most recently Firefly Lane and YOU, has been split up into two parts—with the first half arriving a few months prior to the second half of the season, which definitely helps build up some anticipation and makes for more digestible viewing.
Of course, as you anticipate new seasons and episodes of your favorite shows, you naturally want to know what time they are going to premiere.
The good news is that Netflix’s release times are pretty standard for original TV shows and movies.
All titles are typically released globally at 12:00 a.m. Pacific Time, which is 2:00 a.m. Central Time and 3:00 a.m. Eastern Time.
Netflix noted that some titles are considered an original in one country but not in another, and in that case, if they are premiering in a country where it is a licensed title, it will premiere at 12:00 a.m. local time.
However, when it comes to those big-name shows like Outer Banks or Stranger Things, it’s safe to say that all episodes will be loaded in late in the evening, so you can either stay up and binge-watch or take the day off and squeeze them in bright and early!
Happy watching!
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