Virgin River Finally let Mel and Jack walk down the aisle during the Season 6 finale — and the stars Alexandra Breckenridge and Martin Henderson They look back on their best memories from the big day.
“I watch Martin cry every time I walk down the aisle,” Breckenridge, 42, shared exclusively in the latest issue of the magazine. Us Weekly. “I wasn't crying. I was like, 'Oh no, where are my tears?' You know, happy tears. I'm like, 'Where are those?'” But every time I walked down the aisle, his eyes would get misty. He was really emotional, and it was Very nice.”
After six seasons of breakups, make-ups, a fake paternity test, and a heartbreaking pregnancy loss, Mel (Breckenridge) and Jack (Henderson) said “I do” surrounded by their friends and family in the season six finale. It was an emotional moment for everyone involved in the series, and while Breckinridge managed to keep her eyes dry, Henderson explained why the moment resonated with him so deeply.
“Obviously I invested a lot of energy and emotion into the character of Jack and his love for Mel, which is kind of the core of the show in a way,” he said. “So, to finally get to that moment, and for Mel to walk down the aisle so radiant and beautiful, I felt the love that I think these characters have for each other. It was really moving.”
Henderson added that the way the wedding was filmed was “beautiful” and “tender” for the two characters who have been through so much together. “I was very overwhelmed and very emotional about it. It was very emotional,” Henderson continued. “It had been six seasons before that. …I poured my heart and soul into (Mel and Jack) and I was so happy for Jack to have this woman as his wife and what that meant to him.
Henderson noted how important that moment was for fans as well, who knew Mel and Jack were soulmates from the pilot. “They belong together,” he said. “The audience knows it when you walk into the bar (in the pilot).” So it felt like the culmination of all that energy and romance and love and passion that had existed between them for six seasons.
Henderson certainly wasn't the only one feeling the waves of emotion. Breckenridge said most people who attended the ceremony had tears in their eyes.
“I think there were a lot of people who cried,” she said. we. “Like, with (a character resembling Mel's father) Doc (who he plays Tim Matheson) He walked me down the aisle… As I was saying my vows, I could hear a sniffling sound behind me.
While Henderson will likely remember Jack's wedding day for the rest of his life, there was one particular moment in Season 6 that he chose to forget: Breckenridge's intimate striptease performance of Big & Rich's “Save a Horse, Ride a Cowboy.”
“I completely blocked that out of my mind,” Henderson joked about the moment he saw Jack strip down while wearing a cowboy hat. “That was one of the most painful moments of my life, let alone my career.”
Jokes aside, Henderson wanted to make sure the scene felt true to Jack's character — which is why he turned down the chance to have a professional dance and instead leaned into his creative freedom.
They offered: Do you want to choreograph? And I thought: Oh, yeah, I do that. I definitely need help. But then I was about to go to the first meeting and I thought about it. I thought to myself, “Wait, this is going to look really weird.” Jack Sheridan, the Marine, bar owner from Virgin River, just came out of sorts Magic MikePerfectly designed rotation? This would just look comical. It will look ridiculous. So I said: You know what? No, forget it. Just play the song.”
What came from that decision was a fan-favorite moment and highlight of the entire six seasons, which Henderson described as an attempt by Jack to “entertain his drunk fiancée” after she was free of strippers at his bachelor party. Fortunately for Henderson, Breckenridge was the perfect scene partner to help him feel comfortable being so vulnerable — especially when production had to cut the music mid-shoot.
“There was a little bit of dialogue, unfortunately, kind of intertwined between the tape. So, in order to get the sound of her lines and my lines, we couldn't play the music we. “It was so embarrassing. I was dying. There's no music, there's no rhythm. I'm just doing this silly dance. “But I will say that Alexandra Breckenridge was so sweet and present and she played it in front of me with such joy and fun. “And that's why I think I decided on “The end is these two people really enjoying each other.”
The wedding (and the Bachelorette/Bachelorette chaos) was undoubtedly the high point of Season 6, but Mel and Jack were on their own journey, too. Breckinridge was particularly invested in Mel's story with her biological father, Everett (John Allen Nelson), who she reconnects with at the end of season five Virgin River Season 6 sees them getting to know each other while also communicating their mutual love for Mel's mother, Sarah, who died when she was 11 years old.
“I found it really poignant, especially because I know what it's like to lose your mother,” said Breckenridge, whose mother died. we. “So I connected very quickly on that level. I've always gone for (Mel), but what she's going through emotionally finding her father and being able to look back at what her mother was like (was special).
Although Mel and Everett hit some bumps in the road as they tried to find their new normal, their dynamic developed quickly throughout the season, something Breckenridge looks forward to continuing in Season 7.
“I'm very curious to see where this goes,” she told us. “I love how Mel tries to open up her relationship with her father, and he keeps trying to push her away because I think he doesn't want to experience loss again. You know, a lot of times, people who lose people, they're afraid to love anyone again, because they're afraid “And they will suffer this pain, but you can't live without her, you know, it's not life if you don't love again.”
While Mel continued to explore her new relationship with her father, Jack was also on his own personal journey, one that Henderson believes was about making “peace and coming to terms with what his military background meant to him at the time, but also what it meant.” “His now.”
We watched him struggle with this when he had to reconnect with his ex-wife. He explained that the medal that was given to him, he almost makes a mockery of it and avoids the idea that it was a good thing. “It's kind of throwing the baby out with the bathwater in a way because there's a lot of pain and regret about some of the things that happened.”
Henderson noted that Jack also had to balance his negative feelings about his time in the military while also supporting Ricky (Grayson Maxwell Guernsey), which returned to Virgin River before its publication. “Jack is trying to stay the course and stay supportive and not undermine this poor kid. (Ricky) is really struggling with insecurity and fear, and Jack is trying to say, 'Hey, it's okay.' I was afraid, too. And there's a gray area around that, and Jack, emotionally He doesn't know how to feel.
Mel and Jack's individual story will likely continue in Season 7, but the duo will also face plenty of other obstacles together. The final moments of season six saw the duo in trouble, with pregnant teenager Marley (Rachel Dance) announcing that she wants Mel and Jack to adopt her unborn child. Meanwhile, Jack went to check on the missing Charmaine (Lauren Hammersley) and finds her home ransacked before she opens her infant twins' bedroom and discovers something shocking — a revelation the audience has yet to see.
Mel and Jack, of course, had wanted to have a child together for a while, but after Mel suffered the loss of her second pregnancy in… Virgin River In Season 5, their future as parents was up in the air. However, Season 7 could mean big changes for the newlywed duo.
“Jack is still holding on to this family that he wants, and he's very anxious and anxious to see where this will lead,” Henderson said, while Breckinridge joked that there are a million thoughts racing through Mel's head — but that doesn't mean she's closed off to the idea.
“She's in complete shock,” she explained. “I mean, she's just gotten married. This is the morning after she wakes up, and she's in shock. And then there's, like, this hope that starts to creep in. We'll see. I don't know.”
Virgin River It's now streaming on Netflix.