Showrunner Sue Tenney answers our questions after watching season 3, and teases future bombshells.
Warning: This article contains spoilers aboutVirgin Riverseason 3.
For a small town,Virgin Riveris certainly an eventful place.
NETFLIX
Until a car accident landed her in the hospital with a life-threatening brain injury.
Then, there’s the newest face inVirgin River,Brie (Zibby Allen), Jack’s sister.
Why did you want to bypass any life-or-death drama on that front?
Annette O’Toole as Hope on ‘Virgin River’.netflix
Lily’s death is such a tragic part of the season.
What made you want to go all in on that?
We tend to like to take on heavier subjects and make them manageable.
It allows for an emotional release.
No one shied away from the cancer aspects of it.
My father died of cancer.
We’re very cancer aware.
I have friends who have cancer.
We felt like we could ground it, and hit some big emotional beats with Mel.
I pitched it to the connection and they loved it.
Brie is new this season.
Book fans have been waiting for her to show up.
Why was now the time to introduce her?
I love her in the book, and so does [author] Robyn Carr.
So, bringing her in was always a [goal], but it waswhen?
We really wanted it to be organic and natural to the storyline.
In the book, she ends up with Mike.
They end every book happily.
He’s really been a fantastic foil.
The entire series for Brady will be becoming that person that Jack always believed in.
It seems like Brady is definitely being set up, but Mike is now entangled in their lives.
So, might we be headed to love triangle territory?
Will we eventually learn who shot Jack?
Yes, I can say that.
You resolve Jack’s fate quickly but not the identity of his attacker.
Did you contemplate having him remember this season or did you always want it to be a slow burn?
I always wanted it to be a slow burn.
Everything is a stressor for him because of his background with PTSD.
So, we always envisioned it in that way.
Mel has been through so much in terms of how she thinks about pregnancy and motherhood.
It’s in the book, but it’s different in the book.
We actually complicated it a little bit more.
Her having children, her being able to have a child that is her arc going forward.
It felt like the right season for that to come up.
That also adds fuel to the fire.
How does Charmaine (Lauren Hammersley) fit into all of this?
Charmaine is such a wonderfully complex and relatable character.
Everyone has loved somebody that didn’t love them back.
And then, she got a husband.
It’s going to do both.
It’s going to complicate and it’s going to bring insight into Doc and into Doc’s beginnings.
Also, everything is going to be complicated.
I’ve always really loved both of those characters.
She’s older; she was a bit different than she is in the books.
Ricky has to see his future through.
She has to figure out what her future is and what she wants.
In the book, he goes and serves and gets injured and comes back to Virgin River.
Because that was such a big part of the book and the lore.
How worried for them both should we be?
You should be because that’s what we want you to be at the end of the season.
Is it safe to assume this woman who attacked Preacher is now no longer Paige’s best asset?
But I don’t think we’ve necessarily seen the last of her.
She’s a very interesting character and her motivations and why she does what she does.
If you get a season 4, how would you tease it overall?
Virgin Riverseason 3 is on Netflix now.
