We have been rooting for Mel ever since, and can’t wait to curl up on the couch to watch Season 4 unfold on Wednesday, July 20, on Netflix. We left off in Season 3 with Mel discovering she was pregnant and unsure if the biological father is Jack (Martin Henderson) or Mel’s late husband, Mark (Daniel Gillies) as a result of a cycle of IVF when she and Jack had broken up. Now filming Season 5 of the cozy, woodsy drama, Breckenridge is enjoying the beauty of Vancouver and the activity on the picturesque waterways, being reunited with her pal Henderson and other co-stars and adding to Mel’s storylines. Otherwise best known for her role as Kevin’s girlfriend and wife, Sophie, on This is Us, Breckenridge is the mother of two young children. She is also known for guest-starring roles in Charmed, Dawson’s Creek, and Medium, as well as recurring roles on True Blood, American Horror Story and AMC’s The Walking Dead—plus voice work on Family Guy. Virgin River is based on the 21 best-selling romance novels by Robyn Carr, and while the series follows the characters and storylines, there have been many twists, turns and bumps along the way. Breckenridge says that as we start Season 4, Mel has grown and evolved a great deal throughout the first three seasons. “I think that coming from such a broken place to finally let love back in and now coming to a place where it’s kind of euphoric for Mel right now,” Breckenridge exclusively tells Parade.com. “She’s in love with this man she never thought would happen again and she’s pregnant with a child she never thought she could have. Really, it’s like 180 degrees since the first season.” Read on for Breckenridge’s take on Season 4, including Jack’s PTSD, Hope’s recovery, Mel’s pregnancy, and why she loved filming the final episodes of This is Us.
What did you enjoy about making Virgin River Season 4?
Alexandra Breckenridge: I’m excited to explore more of Mel’s backstory this year. From what I’ve seen so far, we get to dive a little bit more into understanding where she’s coming from as a person and a character and more of what makes her tick from her childhood, which I always find fascinating. What had originally drawn me into doing This Is Us because that’s really what that show is sort of all about.
Have you thought at all about what kind of mother Mel will be? Is it similar to your own mothering?
I think that Mel is an extremely patient person. I think that her patience as far as mothering goes will be phenomenal. I’ve worked on my patience. I’ve gotten much more patient as I have been a mother. I think that that’s innate in Mel, it just comes to her, she is that way. That’s the difference between us. She’s obviously very nurturing and she’s a caregiver by nature, but I think the patience is what eclipses Mel. You see it with her and Jack throughout the season. Even though she gets very frustrated with him she’s always able to come back to being patient.
How do you personally feel about Mel and Jack’s love story? Even though they’ve had a lot of obstacles, they’ve had a lot of problems, and they’ve gone through a lot, it seems like everybody wants Mel to end up with a Jack, right?
Of course they do. Jack is kind of the male romantic archetype. He’s this handsome, rugged, heartfelt, romantic man. But he’s not without his own faults. He has a hard time connecting with his personal past and his PTSD. That becomes a really big issue for both of them in Season 4. Mel’s really trying to help him figure out how to handle that PTSD, but he’s really reluctant to get into it with anybody but himself and a bottle of whiskey. My point is that we have these romantic ideals and a couple might personify those ideals but in reality, we all have some sort of baggage. We all have to navigate a relationship with each other with our baggage. I have to navigate myself with my baggage in relation to you, and you have to do the same with me. That’s the reality of romance, right?
How do you feel that Mel evolved for you and changed with the seasons? Who is she now in Season 4, that’s different from previous seasons?
That’s a very good question. That is something that I have been trying to track because of how slowly in time the show moves. We found Mel in a very broken place. She was trying to outrun her past and I’m not sure how much of that she really dealt with, to be honest with you. Given it’s only been a short time since she got to Virgin River. She’s opened her heart back up again, which is something I think she wasn’t prepared for and she fought against literally. She was firm with Jack that ‘I will not let you in .’ And then he got Charmaine (Lauren Hammersley) pregnant and Mel won’t break up a family.
What was it like to be back for those final episodes of This Is Us? Did you cry as much as the rest of the world did while watching them?
My gosh, it was so fulfilling; that is the best word for it. It was so fulfilling to go back on so many levels. For the characters and for myself because I really didn’t want to leave the show initially. I tried to go back to the show so many times, but I was unable to do so because I was doing Virgin River. So Sophie and Kevin would have ended up together a lot sooner. Personally, it was wonderful to be there. For those last final episodes, there were so many cast members sitting there in cast chairs, there were like 17 of us, for days upon days upon days. It was not an experience that I’d had. Usually, you have that if you’re doing—if there’s a wedding scene or there’s any kind of gathering, then you have that kind of capacity of everybody sitting together. There were multiple episodes of so many members of the cast. It was wonderful to be there with everyone and to experience how much the show meant to every single actor there on different levels for different reasons was lovely to witness and to be a part of.
Do you have a place like Virgin River, somewhere where you just feel happy or calm and just love being there?
I live in a town that has 600 people, so it’s very similar. I prefer being in a small, quiet town or being in the woods sort of nestled in the forest. And then visiting cities. I think that’s how Mel is now. I think Mel grew up in a city and then I think she’s a convert to rural living. Netflix
Have you and Martin Henderson become closer friends as the seasons have continued?
Yes, we know each other really well. We don’t talk a whole lot off-season, but I always miss him because I spend so much time with him. We spend so much time together for four months out of the year, between the seasons I’m like, ‘Where did my friend go?’ But he tends to be in New Zealand a lot so it’s hard to reach out because of the time difference.
What themes do you see continuing in Virgin River Season 4 and what do you know of Season 5? We have been talking about second chances and starting over. It seems like they’re always overcoming lots of obstacles but Mel comes back even more determined. She’s kind of inspirational.
Yeah, that’s that fight or flight, isn’t it? I feel like there are certain people that just won’t lay down, they just are not—we’re just not giving up, we’re just going to stand no matter what. Mel is one of those people. As far as themes, honestly, it’s hard for me to know because I don’t really know what’s going to happen in Season 5 yet.
In general, do you think Virgin River Season 4 is funnier or more sad or more painful, or all of the above?
I think that we carry a balance of light and dark. We always kind of have. I think we carry a balance of humor with the pain that our characters go through. I know Mel is trying to manage her own emotionality—she’s terrified she’s going to lose her baby, but you wouldn’t necessarily know that. She’s hiding it really, really well. There’s one moment where it comes to the surface and it’s after Jack starts to become worried and she says, “No, no, everything’s going to be fine,” and he keeps pushing. Finally, she’s just like, “Look, I can’t think like that because I can’t go day to day if I think like that anymore.”
What else do we have to look forward to in Virgin River Season 4?
Mel is dealing with that and then she has to deal with Jack’s not just sobriety, it’s not really about sobriety. He’s dealing with his trauma. His PTSD is so huge for him, he’s not talked to anybody about it and he mostly refuses to. She has to push and push and push to the point where it becomes sort of dangerous for Mel and her baby to be in a relationship with somebody that could potentially become a drunk, and turn volatile. She doesn’t know. She knows that she loves him and is always going to be there for him no matter what. But it’s really difficult for her to balance all of these things. Netflix She’s balancing a lot. By the end of the season, she’s leaving work, and her partner who she’s having a baby is going through PTSD but he won’t get help. She’s got the new doctor at the office who has feelings for her and she’s juggling that. Her friend Hope’s (Annette O’Toole) illness is continuing throughout the season. I feel like throughout Season 4, Mel is one of those people who is spinning plates. Mel is trying to keep all the plates going. She’s like “Can I keep all the people up? And can I just try to maintain some balance here?” Seasons 1-3 of the series Virgin River stream on Netflix. Season 4 of Virgin River debuts on Netflix on July 20. Next, for more on Netflix romance, take this quiz to find out which Netflix rom-com you should watch!
