Virgin River Season 2 Episode 4 Recap – Rumor Has It

While on her routine morning jog, Mel spots Jack fishing. She talks to him about having twins being a big deal. Jack tells her he doesn’t know what to do because Charmaine would want them to live together. Also, he does not want to, but he doesn’t think that will work because taking care of two kids would be a lot of work to do alone, separately.

Jack goes to see Charmaine and brings her food. Charmaine asks if he went fishing alone, so he tells her that he went alone, but Mel stopped by. Charmaine asks if they are dating. When Jack says no, she asks if he’s sleeping with her. Jack refuses to answer, but Charmaine manages to get him to admit that he and Mel slept together once after they broke up. Charmaine thanks him for his honesty and asks him again to spend the night with her because she cannot join the picnic that is happening the next day. Jack refuses because he thinks he shouldn’t stay the night so they won’t be confused about where they stand in the relationship.

Doc and Muriel go to the concert, as agreed. They seem to be getting pretty close as Muriel tries hard to seduce Doc. Jo Ellen sees this and feels bad for Hope.

The next day, the day of the Virgin River Community Picnic, Lizzie goes to Doc’s clinic just as Mel is closing to go to the picnic. Lizzie tells her that she’s 19 and Mel better not tell Connie about her visit. Mel assures her that she respects her patients’ privacy.

At the picnic,  Hope welcomes everyone and explains that the picnic is intended to raise money for a Virgin River family in need. That year, the Hamiltons were the beneficiaries because they had been hit by a storm badly. She also reminds them that they should get a partner for the egg relay because the winning pair will get all the marbles.

Doc tells Hope they have to practice the egg relay to win again, just like they’ve always done in the past seven years. He tells her to meet him by the river after her rounds. Jo Ellen tells Hope that she saw Muriel and Doc all over each other at the concert. Hope refuses to believe.

Connie goes to the grill to ask Preacher for an extra key to the bakery truck because Lizzie lost their key. Preacher tells her that he thinks Paige has a spare key in her house and that he’ll get it when things slow down.

Mel arrives at the picnic and notices that almost everyone is staring at her. Jack tells her that she’s paranoid and that it’s because she looks good. Jack sees how Ricky froze when he saw Lizzie arrive. He pushes him to go and talk to her.

Mel checks in with Hope and offers to help with collecting the donations. Jamie, a restaurant owner from San Francisco, makes a donation. She tells Mel that it has been her thing every year to spend a  month in a remote location to clear her head, which is why she’s in Virgin River. Mel tells her she should check out Jack’s bar because their chef, Preacher, is a genius. Jo Ellen skips the line to talk to Mel and tell her that she’s on her side.

While waiting for her burger, Lilly tells Jack she got an offer on her farm. It’s from Emerald Lumber and was really generous. Jack finds this suspicious because there are not many trees on Lilly’s farm, but Lilly tells him that Brady is representing the buyer, and he assures her that they’ll restore the farm to its former glory.

Ricky hands Mel a donation to the Hamiltons, and Mel takes the opportunity to ask him why people are staring at her. Ricky’s reluctant to tell her but gives in and says that the rumor is that Mel slept with Jack so she could take him away from Charmaine.

Mel confronted Jack about the rumor and was disappointed when Jack told her that he had told Charmaine that they slept together. Mel tells him that he should muzzle his girlfriend.

Preacher arrives at Paige’s and successfully finds a spare key. However, just as he was leaving, he heard a phone ringing. He looks for it and finds Wes’ phone. It was left charging in the room.

Doc’s already frustrated because Hope is nowhere to be found, and they haven’t practiced for the egg relay. Muriel finds him by the river and asks for some tips. Hope comes, and Doc urges her to practice. Hope tells him he should do the relay with Muriel so the entire town can see. Doc doesn’t want another partner and doesn’t want to lose, so he walks out disappointed.

Ricky heads over to the bakery truck and helps Lizzie, who’s having a hard time serving the customers after Connie leaves her in charge. She leaves Ricky to it and goes to flirt with Brady, but not before agreeing to be Ricky’s partner in the egg relay.

Preacher makes it back to the picnic and hands the spare key to Connie. Ricky leaves because the egg relay is about to start. Connie takes over the bakery truck again and accidentally knocks over Lizzie’s bag, where she sees a birth control prescription.

Jack finds Mel near the stage and tells her that he’ll talk to Charmaine, but Mel tells him she’ll do the talking. As the relay is about to start, Mel asks Jack to be her partner, and Doc signals Hope to go down the stage and be his partner. Hope does not do it, and Muriel steps in. Ricky looks for Lizzie, but he does not find her because she’s with Brady.

Mel and Jack win the relay, and Doc walks away after giving Hope a disappointing look.

After the event, Hope looks for Doc and finds Jack instead. He tells her that Doc left and that he’ll surely come back for Hope because he was her ride home. Hope tells him he’s upset because she didn’t partner with him, and he lost the race. She admits she didn’t think it was that important to him. Jack tells her he’ll bring her home.

Jack sees Brady pass by and confronts him about his offer on Lilly’s farm. Brady says it’s a legitimate offer, but Jack tells him that Lilly thinks they’re turning the farm around. Brady tells him that’s not the case, and Jack warns him about lying to the people he cares about.

Mel confronts Charmaine about spreading the rumor. Charmaine insists that it’s not a rumor if it’s true. Mel tells her to stop talking about her. Charmaine tells her that she won’t win because Jack likes to take care of those who need him the most, and that is her and their babies. Mel tells her that it’s not a competition and that she wants what’s best for Jack, and she thinks Charmaine cannot say the same. This upsets Charmaine. She fires Mel.

Later that night, Jack brings Mel the marbles they won at the race. She tells him that she talked to Charmaine and that it didn’t go well, but she’s happy she could say her piece. They were interrupted by a knock on the door. Mel opened it, and there was Stacey, Mark’s sister. Jack leaves them after Mel introduces them to each other.

Meanwhile, Doc drinks alone in his kitchen and ignores Hope’s calls.

Jack goes to Hope’s and tells Charmaine that he’ll stay on the couch for the night on the condition that Charmaine leaves Mel alone. Charmaine defends herself, but Jack insists that she stop the rumors. Charmaine reluctantly agrees, and Jack leaves the room.

Back at her cabin, Mel and Stacey catch up with each other. Stacey tells her that she got engaged to her boss and shows her the ring he gave her. Mel asks why she isn’t wearing the ring, and she tells her that she wants the ring Mark gave to Mel because it was their grandmother’s. She says that Mark is gone and that she wants the ring back.

Our Thoughts

Okay, let’s start by saying that what Stacey was asking is too much. Even though Mark is dead, she doesn’t have the right to ask for the engagement ring back. That’s just wrong on so many levels. This episode showed us that the thing about Wes isn’t done yet, because Preacher seeing his phone back at Paige’s house tells us that somebody back in Florida knows that he went to Virgin River. We’re nervous for Preacher, who seems like he can no longer keep the secret. After all, keeping secrets is exhausting, not to mention that the secret is about burying a body. That poor guy must not have been sleeping at night. Lastly, Charmaine was annoying and borderline pathetic for going after Mel. Mel didn’t do anything, and it was her who kept trying to get Jack back when he made it clear that he was not in love with her. Ugh, if she has any self-respect left, she should stop.