Virgin River 3×06 “Jack and Jill” proves, once again, that cliffhangers should be taken with a big grain of salt in this show, because Brie …she’s fine. She’s more than fine, she’s claiming absolutely nothing is wrong with her – which everyone can see is a lie, even Jack, who isn’t exactly known for noticing the things that are going on with his sister.
The Brie of it all is leading to a personal issue, which I’m pretty sure we have already guessed, and that I absolutely hate, mostly because I’ve been in Brie’s shoes, and I can imagine it. I also went to law school, practiced law at a big corporate level, and had to deal with what it meant to be younger than your male colleagues and the expectations everything from a smile, to a skirt – no matter how long it was, carried.
Brie is doing her best. She’s picked herself up, and she’s trying to move forward. She doesn’t want to see herself as the victim, and so she’s avoiding. But there are things we can’t start to heal from till we confront them, and avoidance and medication isn’t usually the answer to anything. Brady either, though hey, I see the appeal, don’t think I don’t. Particularly as this season has taken care to show us another side of Brady.
He makes for an easy suspect for Jack’s shooting, and honestly, he was probably first on everyone’s mind. Which is why I’m just not buying it. It’s too easy, and this show is many things, but the kind to not give you the most dramatic possibility isn’t one of those. Unless the play is to have Brie believe in him to the end, and then have it end up being guilty. Which would be a really, really harsh play, and not altogether the vibe of this show.
I’m still not particularly sold on Brie and Brady as couple, though – they’re cute, but I’d need more to abandon the Mike and Brie ship after reading the book. But I do hope that, even if the intention is to move away from Brie and Brady in future season(s), we get to keep the best version of Brady, the one Jack really believed in when this show started.
On the Mel and Jack front, which is basically, you know, the front, we spend the entire episode trying to pretend the baby issue is something that doesn’t need to be talked about. And, in a way, I’m with Jack on this one. Like, yes, Mel needs an answer. She deserves one. But I’m not sure it’s one he can easily provide, not without some time to think about it. And, like, the Lumberjack Games are really, really not the place for any sort of important discussion.
This episode does more than just skirt around the issue, though, it issues the awkwardness to highlight how good Mel and Jack are, even when they’re not completely on the same page. Because they can always pause and laugh at their problems together. That moment where the tension breaks is super important for any relationship that lasts. Because things are not going to be happy all the time, and you’re not going to see eye to eye on everything – not the big things, and especially not the little things.
You still gotta talk about it. You still gotta find a way forward. And sometimes, that means a little distraction, and a little laughter. And of course, being there for each other, as Mel is while Jack worries about Brie. Thankfully, one thing a successful relationship doesn’t hinge on is your partner being as good as you are as at things like the “Jack and Jill.”
The keeping secrets, though? That we gotta work on. Because Jack has an ex-wife is the one thing I did not see coming on this show. It really makes you reevaluate who the character is, because it wasn’t just that he didn’t want commitment with Charmaine, or that he’d decided commitment wasn’t for him, it was that he’d decided it wasn’t for him anymore. And part of it might be what Mel is saying, maybe the idea of a relationship changing his life does freak Jack out.
Maybe the idea of anything he doesn’t have control over doing that is way too much to handle for a man who has barely handled his PTSD, and yet still managed to be so many people’s rock.
Virgin River 3×06 “Jack and Jill” pushes this idea even further, by having Brie call out Jack for being not just physically, but emotionally distant since he got back from Iraq. This is big, not just because the show never really forgets Jack’s issues – even if they haven’t really gone as deep into them, but because it contrasts with the man Jack is trying to be for Mel, and how hard that is for him.
It’s easy to side with Mel in her desire to have kids. She should be able to do whatever she wants with her body. She tells Jack in this episode that there’s no plan B, but that’s not necessarily true. But Jack isn’t the kind of man that needs to be cut from Mel’s life. Jack’s just a guy with as many issues as Mel has, albeit different ones, who has done a much worse job than Mel has at even accepting his issues, much less dealing with them.
Going forward, the show would do well to focus on Jack attempting to unpack his desire for control in every aspect of his life, and his way to sometimes be as open and caring and supportive as Mel needs, but utterly uncapable of opening himself up to receiving the same kind of support.
Did I say would do well to? I actually mean they need to, if this OTP is going to work. And as I said before, where this OTP goes, the show goes. So, it’s not like they have a choice.
Agree? Disagree? What did you think of Virgin River 3×06 “Jack and Jill”? Share with us in the comments below.
Virgin River season 3 is available to stream on Netflix.
Mel needs to give it some time. Shame on her for throwing “baby” at him! He almost died, house burnt down and loose any custody. Also Hope is annoying, pouty character. No desire to see she again.