Why Virgin River Fans Will Be Waiting A While For Those Big Mel And Jack Cliffhangers To Be Resolved

virgin river mel jack season 3 bed netflix

Audiences can always count on Virgin River to leave them with some serious questions at the end of any given season, and, luckily, the most recent set of episodes was no different. The Virgin River Season 3 ending left the fates of several characters up in the air, and provided big revelations for some others, including everyone's favorite Charmaine targets: Mel and Jack. We still aren't sure who shot Jack at the end of Season 2, and Mel dropped a bombshell of her own on him in the final seconds of the Season 3 finale. And, now we know why fans will be waiting a while for those cliffhangers to be resolved.

As of right now, Virgin River Season 4 hasn't been given the official go-ahead from Netflix just yet, but, according to showrunner Sue Tenney, there are already tentative plans for that potential season to give fans the answers that they're looking for. But, that doesn't mean, especially where the question of who shot Jack comes in, that we'll get a full resolution immediately should Netflix deliver Season 4.

When Sue Tenney spoke to Us Weekly about the recent season of Virgin River, she talked about what fans can expect when it comes to the reveal of Jack's shooter, and said:

If we get the actual reveal [in season 4], it would detail more of how this all was intertwined. The webbing of that story goes all the way back to the first season, so it’s a connective tissue that goes through four seasons.

OK, OK. I know this sounds like a super long wait to finally find out who shot Jack, especially since we were all so sure that there was no way the third season of Virgin River wouldn't focus on finding Jack's shooter. Star Martin Henderson, who plays Jack, revealed just a couple of weeks ago that the series "toyed" with making this reveal during Season 3, but that Sue Tenney and her team decided to drag that story out a little bit.

I'm concerned with two things that Tenney said about Jack's shooter, with the first being that the "connective tissue" for this mystery will be woven through four full seasons. This almost certainly means that the current plan wouldn't have us find out until Season 4 finale. While it's good that fans who've been watching all along will be rewarded for their patience and maybe notice hints dropped along the way because there's more "webbing" for the series to create, there are two big question marks involved in that, as well.

Even Tenney noted herself that "if we get the actual reveal" during the fourth season, it'll end up being a more far-reaching story. And, that "if" seems to imply that they are, once again, toying with the idea of leaving us literally hanging off of this cliff beyond Season 4. On top of that, as has been stated, we're not 100% sure on Virgin River getting another season yet.

With Jack's would-be murderer still on the loose, fans are also dying to know how Mel's big news will play out. Not only is she pregnant, but because Jack was being noble (a.k.a. dumb) and broke up with Mel after she said she wanted to try to have a kid, she used the embryos she and Mark had created before his death, and got inseminated with them. So, she's not sure who her baby daddy is. About that reveal, Tenney said:

That’s something that we won’t answer until we get to the end of — if we get — a Season 4.

Looks like we're going to be twisting in the wind when it comes to who the proud papa is on Virgin River until the very end of Season 4. Luckily, if the show does get renewed (which is very likely), there are plenty of other cliffhangers for the show to dig into until these two are resolved, and we figure out where all the Virgin River relationships stand.

While we wait on confirmation of Virgin River Season 4, be sure to take a look at our 2021 fall TV schedule and other upcoming romantic TV shows for what you can see in the coming weeks!

Adrienne Jones
Senior Content Creator

Covering The Witcher, Outlander, Virgin River, Sweet Magnolias and a slew of other streaming shows, Adrienne Jones is a Senior Content Producer at CinemaBlend, and started in the fall of 2015. In addition to writing and editing stories on a variety of different topics, she also spends her work days trying to find new ways to write about the many romantic entanglements that fictional characters find themselves in on TV shows. She graduated from Mizzou with a degree in Photojournalism.