Will Mandy Be Back In Virgin River Season 4?
Contains spoilers for "Virgin River"
With its picturesque mountain setting and quaint, small-town charm, Virgin River seems like an idyllic place to live. But the town at the center of the popular Netflix series of the same name is bursting at the seams with drama, what with all the criminals causing trouble in the woods and the complicated interpersonal relationships making things difficult between residents.
Based on a series of romance novels by author Robyn Carr, "Virgin River" stars "American Horror Story" alum Alexandra Breckenridge as Mel Monroe, a nurse practitioner who relocates from Los Angeles to the small Northern California town of the series' title for a fresh start. She takes a position with Doc Mullins (Tim Matheson) and quickly strikes up a friendship with Jack Sheridan (Martin Henderson), a former Marine living with PTSD who owns Virgin River's only bar and restaurant. That friendship eventually turns romantic, with Mel and Jack overcoming various obstacles and bumps in the road—she's mourning her late husband (Daniel Gillies) and child, he's having twins with his ex-girlfriend, Charmaine (Lauren Hammersley)—to find love and happiness with one another.
However, that happiness might not be long for this world.
Virgin River Season 3 revealed Jack has been married before
In Season 3, "Virgin River" threw up not one but two potential roadblocks on the road to Mel and Jack's happily ever after. First, Mel revealed that she wanted to try to have a child even though in the show's timeline she's only known Jack for a handful of months. That might seem very quick—and it definitely is—but this is TV. We've also known since Season 1 that Mel desperately wants to be a mother, so it makes sense that, having fallen in love with Jack, she'd want to try for children now.
However, Jack was hesitant to add another child to the mix since he's already having twins, so Mel made the difficult decision to go through another round of IVF on her own. The season eventually culminates with Mel interrupting Jack's proposal to reveal that she's pregnant. It isn't clear yet whether the child is Jack's or Mel's late husband's as a result of IVF. But Mel's pregnancy might not be the only thing complicating things for the couple in a potential Season 4.
Earlier in Season 3, Jack's sister, Brie (Zibby Allen), arrived in town and accidentally revealed to Mel that Jack had been married before, to his high school sweetheart, a woman named Mandy. Jack later told Mel that the marriage, which happened right out of high school, was a mistake and that Mandy had filed for divorce when he went to Iraq. But fans of the show are now wondering if this new information was actually setting up Mandy's eventual arrival.
Why Virgin River fans think Mandy is appearing in Season 4
While it's possible that Brie's reference to Jack's past relationship with Mandy was just an avenue for the series to explore the true depth of his feelings for Mel, one Reddit user believes it's more than that, citing an interview showrunner and executive producer Sue Tenney gave to TV Insider about the future of the show, which they believe hints at Mandy making an appearance in the near future.
"If we get to go into a Season 4, the audience will be genuinely surprised at who's behind all of it," Tenney said of who shot Jack at the end of Season 2. She also promised that the show will wrap up everything related to Calvin (David Cubitt) and Jimmy (Ian Tracey), but not before teasing a new dramatic storyline to take its place. "We bring it all home and then we open up a new avenue of 'Oh my God' at the end of Season 4," she teased.
How Mandy could play a role in Season 4 of Virgin River
While "Virgin River" fans are still trying to figure out who shot Jack—at least one person on Reddit predicted it could actually be Mike (Marco Grazzini), Jack's friend from the Marines who is also a detective—everyone agrees that the show mentioning Jack's first wife now can't be a coincidence. "Why even bother throwing that in there if they are never going to touch base on it?" wrote u/Kreddit762668. "Seems like a foreshadow of her popping her head in to stir more drama."
One fellow Redditor agreed. "I also think they'll bring her up," they write. "Brie mentioning her wasn't just a coincidence. I've read fan theories and apparently it matches with a storyline from one of the books."
Even if it turns out Mandy has nothing to do with Jack being shot at the end of Season 2, there are plenty of other ways for her to make a mess of things for Jack, with the most obvious being that he and Mandy are still married. "I bet this is exactly what they will do when Jack and [Mel] finally get engaged," wrote u/Kreddit762668, noting that there is a similar story in one of the later books in the series upon which the show is based.
While Mandy's arrival in "Virgin River" remains all conjecture at this point, it's hard to deny that the show referencing an ex-wife isn't at least a little suspicious, especially for a show like "Virgin River," which loves to throw curveballs. Hopefully, we'll get all the answers to this particular mystery soon enough.
"Virgin River" Seasons 1-3 are streaming on Netflix.