Stream It Or Skip It: ‘Virgin River’ Season 5 Part 2: A Very Virgin River Christmas

Netflix’s Virgin River is a soap opera about a quaint little town that’s filled with drama, chaos, drugs, and other criminal mischief, and yet it still manages to be a feel-good hour of drama thanks to the warmth of the characters and budding romances you can root for. In the two-part season five finale, all the coziest and most charming parts of the show come together for a mostly carefree Christmas special where there’s still plenty of drama, but much of it gets tied up neatly with a metaphorical, big, red bow by the end.

VIRGIN RIVER (SEASON 5, PART 2): STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

Opening Shot: Mel and Jack (Alexandra Breckenridge and Martin Henderson) walk through the crisp, chilly woods somewhere around Virgin River looking for a Christmas tree to cut down. Finally, Jack sees it: “There it is, the Sheridan family Christmas tree!” he declares. It’s their first Christmas together and he just wants it to be perfect. They’re a family! Aww.

The Gist: Fortunately for the two holiday episodes of Virgin River that wrap up Season 5, there is no Major Drama to contend with: no wildfires, attempted murders, or fentanyl kingpins for the FBI to catch. Which is a nice break from the near-constant Major Drama that runs rampant in this otherwise idyllic town. Instead, these episodes focus on minor family drama as Mel, Jack, Lizzie, (Sarah Dugdale) and many others welcome their relatives to town for Christmas. At Mel and Jack’s cabin, Mel and her sister Joey (Jenny Cooper) read through a batch of letters Joey discovered which reveal details of an affair that their mother had with a man from Virgin River.

Mel decides she wants to find this mystery man because it turns out, he’s actually her birth father. (I suppose you could argue that that’s Major Drama in a person’s life, actually, but at least there’s no danger or crime involved.)

While Mel has Jack’s full support and help in finding her bio-dad, Jack also has his own hands full with his divorced parents visiting him and his sister Brie (Zibby Allen). Their dad is upset that their mom has brought her new boyfriend, Javier, for Christmas and Brie and Jack unfortunately find themselves as the intermediaries between their petty parents who just can’t get over their issues.

As for everyone else in town, Lizzie is also having her own issues with her mom: while she has found a wonderful support system in Hope (Annette O’Toole), she’s terrified to tell her own mother that she is pregnant. Muriel (Teryl Rothery) and Cameron (Mark Ghamine) are exploring their May-December romance, Charmaine (Lauren Hammersley) is ready to burst with her twin babies, and Doc (Tim Matheson) is concerned about the clinical trial that will determine if he’ll ever see again.

Our Take: Sure, it seems like there’s a lot happening in Virgin River, but all of it lies beneath the twinkle lights and pine garlands that have covered the town for Christmas, and nothing too ugly rears its head… for now. It seems like the whole point of these two episodes is to allow some of the characters to reconcile, talk about their feelings, and get along while they’re all gathered together during the most wonderful time of the year. Major conversations and special moments occur at the town holiday pageant and then at the big Christmas tree decorating contest, Jack and Mel go for a Christmas Eve skate at the local ice rink, and everything is perfect, if only for a moment.

All of these storylines will advance dramatically in season 6 (which has been confirmed, though no premiere date has been set). In the last few moments of episode 12, several characters receive Big News that will pave the way for Major Drama to come, including Mel, who meets her biological father, and Preacher, who learns that the body he and Paige hid has been identified. But until those fraught final moments of the season, the characters are just here to have themselves a merry little Christmas.

Sex and Skin: None.

Parting Shot: After Jack and Mel asked Preacher for help (well, actually asking Preacher to ask his private investigator friend for help) finding Mel’s father, he comes up to them after the big town Christmas pageant to tell them he has good news: he’s located her dad. “Apparently, he’s still right here in Virgin River,” he tells Mel, who looks equal parts excited and hesitant at this development.

Memorable Dialogue: “We know losing a baby can bring people together or drive them apart.” While this comment, delivered by Mel’s sister Joey, could refer to Mel, who tragically lost her own baby earlier in season five, it’s actually a comment on her own mother, who lost a baby herself. That situation may have driven a wedge between her and her husband and led her to have a mysterious affair with a man in Virgin River who is Mel’s birth father.

Our Call: Sometimes Virgin River can all feel like TOO MUCH, as if the twee-est parts of Stars Hollow on Gilmore Girls had a baby with the most ridiculous elements of Desperate Housewives. Season 5 Part 2 is a bit of a respite from all of that though: the show focuses on the good in everyone and counts on them all to be their best selves, if only for the sake of Christmas, before packing a big punch at the end with some big, cliffhangery conversations. If you’re looking for a cozy Christmas watch, STREAM IT!

Liz Kocan is a pop culture writer living in Massachusetts. Her biggest claim to fame is the time she won on the game show Chain Reaction.