Virgin River – Season 5 Episode 7 “From The Ashes” Recap & Review

From The Ashes

Episode 7 of Virgin River season 5 starts with a montage of the devastation around town from the wildfires as Brie heads back home. Mel’s cabin has ash all over it and Brady’s place has been destroyed. Preacher declines a call from Kaia, given what he found out about her husband, while Brady arrives at the bar to stay in the apartment above, showing that he and Preacher have finally forgiven one another. Brie though, goes straight to Mel and Jack’s place, allowing Jack to finally fall apart while Mel sleeps.

When Mel does awaken, she and Jack discuss aftercare and undergoing a D&C (dilatation and curettage) procedure, but she refuses to do this. Right now, Mel can’t bear to be around anyone else.

Hope’s first day as mayor sees her given a massive list of issues, given the unending concerns that the community have. As for Cameron, he visits Doc and they have an honest conversation about his eyesight. Doc admits that he should have told Cameron and apologizes for keeping it from him. As well as an apology, Doc decides that Cameron should take over the clinic if his eyesight gets worse.   Cameron doesn’t take well to the news and isn’t sure if this is what he wants to do, which understandably doesn’t go over well with Doc. However, there’s additional drama with Muriel here, who Cameron offers to come and stay at his guest room in the wake of issues staying with Connie.

Brady and Brie meet for coffee, and though they seem to be back on the same page, talk of the trial sees Brie back to questioning her lack of trust with Brady. She doesn’t feel safe with him, especially after the rock incident earlier in the series. To make things worse, Brady tells her he can’t reveal what he’s doing to make things right, and she walks away in disappointment. Just then, Melissa messages after a 3 episode absence, with a meeting time later that night.

Lizzie tells Denny that she’s not thinking about going to college in the fall after all. She hasn’t told her mum yet, but she knows in her heart that she loves being in Virgin River. Denny also tells her that after the fire, he’s realized how important she is to him and he doesn’t want to go back to Stanford.

Kaia visits Preacher, and he gives her the cold shoulder. When she questions him, he reveals that he knows about her marriage and is pretty pissed that she didn’t tell him. Kaia explains that their marriage is over, given the pair are separated, but given how busy they’ve been with the fires, it’s stopped them from getting divorced soon. Preacher comes around a little but he’s still not 100% happy about the way this has gone down.

Back at the clinic, Ava reveals to Hope that her sister, Tara, has received a great job offer in San Francisco and will be taking the job and Chloe with her. Because she lives in Portland, Ava intends to sell her farmland before returning to her own home. Developers called with interest in the land, but Hope suggests she hold off from accepting so she can find someone else to buy Lilly’s land.

Jack opens up to Preacher about losing the baby. He reinforces that he doesn’t want the situation to be about him, but Preacher gently reminds him that he’s going through this loss too. I mean, he’s basically lost 3 kids in the space of a season. Damn.

Brady has his meeting with Melissa in the back of her car and she reveals to him that their operation will be running money through Jack’s business. Brady is going to be managing the daily operations to keep Jack in the dark and make everything look legit. Brady asks about he drugs, but she doesn’t reveal anything and tells him to follow orders. As we know, Brady has been serving as a whistle-blower and he happens to have recorded this entire conversation.

Brady plays the recording for Mike, and he connects the dots with that dinner last season between Melissa and Nick. Brady wants to tell Jack about Melissa’s plans, showing that he really has turned a corner now, but Mike downplays that and suggests she stay quiet, especially as they need to strike at the right time and take Melissa down once and for all. Mike wants Brady to wear a wire, and he agrees.

Mike drops by Brie’s place, and she informs him of the good news – Don’s guilty verdict has come in earlier that day. Despite this, she’s still not feeling 100% happy with this outcome. Mike apologizes to her for nearly kissing her in Sacramento, but she doesn’t seem too sorry about it.

The next morning, Jack takes Mel to her D&C procedure, but they’re early so they stay in the car. Whilst there, the pair discuss the last time she had a D&C and how she felt in the waiting room among the other mothers.

After her procedure, Mel rests with Jack on the sofa and they talk about opening up to the community about what they’ve been going through. During the community clothing and food drive, Denny shares with Lizzie that he’s got some job opportunities, and in turn Lizzie admits that she’s told her mother about not going to college. Luckily, Hope offers her a promotion from personal aide to chief of staff to the mayor, which Lizzie gladly accepts.

Elsewhere, Cameron explains to Doc that he initially only intended on staying in Virgin River for a short period of time. However, he’s found the whole endeavour incredibly rewarding and fulfilling so he’s going to stick around and give this partnership a crack. While this is going on, Preacher and Kaia decide to start fresh. Unfortunately, Jay ruffles Preacher’s feathers to try and dissuade him.

Ava decides to stick around in town until she finds the right buyer for the farm, which pleases Mel knowing she’ll have another friend staying for longer. However, this comes crashing down when Jack speaks to her privately and suggests they try for another baby.

As the episode closes out, Brady interrupts Brie and Mike while they’re talking and almost gets into a fight with Mike. As a result, Brie officially breaks up with him.

The Episode Review

There’s been a few odd decisions this year in Virgin River. Charmaine being let off the hook for lying about the twins is one of them, and another comes from Jack and Mel’s miscarriage. There was a part of me that thought this might have been a fake-out and good news was coming but nope, it’s genuine.

Why did we get a full season tackling Mel’s baby’s paternity if it’s just going to be taken away just like that? It’s not just cruel, it’s narratively frustrating because last year’s storyline feels like a complete waste of time now. And that’s before mentioning that Hope is back as Mayor now negating all that work done with her.

We also get this whole Brady/Brie drama too and the pair have been on and off all season long. No doubt, Brady will come through in the end and the pair will end up together, but it’s another love triangle for us to contend with.

We’ll have to wait and see where the rest of this series is going but that miscarriage story in particular has put a proper downer on this series, and damaged season 4 too (if that was even possible, given how poor that was!)