Virgin River – Season 3 Episode 7 “Split” Recap & Review

Split

Episode 7 of Virgin River Season 3 begins with Mel and the gang heading up to check on Lilly. She’s just had a seizure but she’s stable for the time being. Doc worries that the stress of her cancer diagnosis could trigger this again in the future. For now, they leave the family after this situation is dealt with in record time.

Jack runs into trouble with his rebuilding plans when he learns there’s a spring under his house. Unable to get a permit, and with this seeming to be delayed for up to a year, Jack realizes Charmaine could use that to get back at him.

Elsewhere, Lizzie questions Ricky over the soldier he was speaking to at the Lumberjack Games. As we know, he’s contemplating joining the military but he chooses to lies to Lizzie instead.

Mel heads back into the surgery and apologizes to Doc for breaking the news about his retirement. Given how integral the clinic is to his life, he’s worried that what he’s worked for all this time may be slipping through his fingers.

Dan is called in for questioning at the station. Mike concocts a pretty solid story that adds up to what Dan could have been doing. However, Dan refuses to talk and decides to bring a lawyer in instead. For now though, he’s free to go.

Back at the bar, Mel and Jack continue to dance around the idea of having a baby. However, Connie and Lizzie start to patch things up, with Lizzie allowed to come back home.

At the surgery, Muriel shows up with food for Doc. She also arrives with some sound advice about broadening horizons. This gets Doc thinking, with plans to open up more to Mel in the future.

Dan heads back home from the police station, refusing to tell Brie the truth about where he’s been. Instead, he promises to make it up to her, winning the girl over with sweet talking. However, Jack suddenly appears out the back of the bar and notices the pair kissing. He immediately flashes back to the night of the shooting where Dan happened to be wearing a hoody by the end of the bar. Jack is angry, telling Dan to back off.

After the unpleasant run-in with Dan, Jack meets with an attorney as he’s worried that Char will try and fight for full custody. If Jack intends to fight back, it’s not going to be cheap and going to cost him a lot of money.

On the back of what Muriel told him, Doc decides to open up to Mel, admitting the truth about his blindness. Having patched up their differences, things take a turn for the worst when Mel heads back and sees Jack in his depressive state.

He’s got a lot on his plate right now and rejects Mel’s idea for having a baby. In fact, he decides to break up with her over it too. Well, that came out of absolutely nowhere. Anyone want to put some money on these two getting back together in time for the finale?

The Episode Review

Virgin River rolls round with another episode that hones in on Mel and Jack’s relationship. Specifically, it shows the trials and tribulations they’re both enduring and ultimately leading to their break-up.

The whole reasoning behind this feels pretty superficial to be honest and given the show has done a good job allowing these two to talk through their problems, this is probably the first misstep it has taken. Then again, drama needs to happen and Virgin River certainly knows how to cook that up from nowhere.

Despite its very obvious writing flaws, the characters themselves are the one saving grace in this series. While the plot details and overarching story has been pretty poor, at least the characters themselves are likable to stick with.