The Sun Also Rises
Episode 9 of Virgin River Season 3 begins with a bloodied Brie shaking and desperate for Jack to help. Racing into her room, Jack rings the clinic and carries her there. It turns out Brie has had a miscarriage. That’s a particularly nasty hammer blow given she didn’t even know she was pregnant. Meanwhile, the town prepare for Lilly’s funeral. Hope is heading back too while Doc sticks around with Tara to give her reassurance. Tara isn’t sure she wants to speak at the funeral though, but Doc does his best to try and talk her around. Elsewhere, Ricky receives word back from the marines. He finished with a 97 on his test, making him within the top tier of recruits. Now all he needs to do is sign his contact and pick a recruit depot. This means he’ll be moving away when he accepts. And he’s definitely accepting. He breaks the news to Lizzie at Hope’s wake, admitting he’s signing the contract within a week to enlist. Lizzie is understandably angry given he’s lied to her, and she eventually storms off to pick up her silver trophy – Parker. before we get to that though, the funeral begins but Hope is late and unable to attend. Instead, it falls to Doc, Connie, Jack and a whole load of other residents to speak up and share beautiful words about Lilly. One person who’s not there though is Brie. While she recovers at home, Brady shows with flowers. He reveals that he’s not Jack’s shooter or a dealer. Growing up he had nothing and jumped at the opportunity of working with Calvin to try and score some money. He’s well aware this is wrong and repents for his actions. Brady eventually professes his love to her, doing his best to make things right between them. Meanwhile, Jack speaks to Charmaine who learns that Todd is the one forcing the move away. Jack restrains the “I told you so” line (honestly though, 3 weeks to be engaged?!) and tries to offer some advice. Back at the bar, Mel and Jack catch up over the day’s events. They’ve decided for definite to stay together – as if that was ever in doubt. Anyway, as the episode comes to a close Doc receives a visit from the sheriff. Apparently there’s been an accident.
The Episode Review
It seems there’s been an accident but if this season is anything to go by, everything should be absolutely fine by the end of the episode – or start of next season. The sheer number of dramatic spikes and incidents this year that have been resolved in record time makes it seem like the writers don’t know how to pull the trigger and consistently keep drama flowing through the 10 episodes. There’s been no consistent thread tying everything together beyond the will they/won’t they romance of Mel and Jack – and even that’s felt somewhat underwhelming. Instead, the show has relied on a number of uneven subplots to keep things ticking over, with mixed results. Some of the drama has been good, admittedly, but the majority of this season has felt very contrived. The finale does look like it’s gearing up for some serious drama though so we’ll have to wait and see what that holds for us.
