Virgin River Season 5 Part 2 revealed who Mel’s biological father is. He’ll be integral to Season 6’s plot, so here’s everything we know about him.
Cast your mind back to last Christmas. We happily visited Virgin River during Christmas time, but that came at a price. Mel’s biological father came back on the scene – and he has something to tell her.
Mel is adopted, and that’s played an essential role in her character development. She’s also struggled to start a family of her own with Jack, and she’s desperate to learn more about her past.
Luckily for her, that’s about to change in Virgin River Season 6. But who is the man behind the mystery?
Who is Mel’s father in Virgin River?
As is revealed in Season 5 Part 2, Mel’s father is a man named Everett Reid – a Virgin River resident and winner of the 1976 Lumberjack Games.
The hunt for Mel’s father dominated much of her and Jack’s storyline in the two Christmas specials after Mel’s sister Joey found a series of love letters between their mother and a mystery man.
When Joey comes to visit for the holidays, they go through the letters and Mel decides that she wants to find out who her biological dad is. But all the details they have to go on are his nickname “Champ” and his PO box.
“So you wanna find him?” asks Joey, to which Mel replies, “I mean, yeah, I think I do. I want to know more about what happened. Maybe he still wants me to be in his life.”
After asking Hope who the local postmaster was when the letters were written, she directs them to Lydie, who tells Mel and Jack that a man named Chip Cooper (whom she still speaks to on the reg) was on duty back then.
They find Chip at his work as a Santa Claus at the Clear River community center, and he opens up about how he and his colleagues were peeking at the postcards between Mel’s father and mother, and they were enamored by the “romance he was having with this mystery woman.”
But eventually, the letters stopped coming and Champ stopped paying for his PO box. However, Chip is able to give them a crucial detail: Champ was the proud winner of Virgin River’s 1976 Lumberjack Games.
After a quick spot of internet sleuthing, Jack and Mel find a name: Everett Reid. But when they can’t find any more details about him online, they seek the help of Preacher, who asks the PI who helped him find Christopher.
It’s not long before they discover that Everett still lives in Virgin River. After obtaining his address, Mel and Jack head to his home and she knocks on the door. Initially, Everett tells her he’s not the man she’s looking for – but when he pops in the house quickly, she spots his trophy for the 1976 Lumberjack Games and realizes that he just doesn’t want to be in her life.
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In the Season 5 finale, Mel makes peace with the decision, especially as she has good ol’ Doc to stand in as her surrogate father. She even asks him to walk her down the aisle when she gets married to Jack, and of course, he was honored to say yes.
But in the final scene, Everett shows up to Mel and Jack’s home to explain himself. “You look so much like your mom,” he confesses. “Seeing you just broke my heart all over again. I don’t know what to say.”
Everett explains how heartbroken he was when Mel’s mom died, before saying: “I am your father, and I’m here now.”
But this is Virgin River, of course, so their interaction ends with a cliffhanger, as he says: “Also, I’ve got something important I need to tell you.” The episode finishes there, meaning we’re going to have to wait until Season 6 to find out what that “important something” is.
Everett in Season 6 could change everything
Obviously, we don’t yet know Everett’s secret, but his journey doesn’t stop there. Season 6 will follow a younger version of him and Mel’s mom Sarah in a flashback episode.
As reported by Entertainment Weekly, “The new season will shed more light on Sarah, who has been largely omitted from the storytelling thus far, and her desire to chase a life as an activist and separate from the more conventional options available to a woman of her time.
“When the free spirit meets Everett, a handsome musician, there’s an instant spark and she wonders if she might finally have found her soulmate.
“The two meet by chance, as Everett gives a hitchhiking Sarah a lift in the VW van he currently calls home. The first images of Rothe and Kerr in character showcase the duo in Everett’s van, as well as in what appears to be a crowded garage or workspace of some kind.”
Jessica Rothe and Callum Kerr have been cast as the younger versions of Sarah and Everett.
What we don’t yet know is if these flashbacks will directly inform the Season 5 cliffhanger. Mel and Everett are still in the early days of getting to know each other, meaning it could be a while before we get anything concrete from him.
Virgin River Season 6 arrives on Netflix on December 19. In the meantime, check out other Season 6 storylines, if there will be a time jump, and more similar shows to watch while you wait.
