Virgin River season 5 recap guide: All 12 episodes explained

Season 5 episode 12 recap: Father Christmas

Mel and Jack drive up to Everett Reid’s property on Christmas Eve as Mel works up the nerve to knock on his door and tell him she’s his daughter. Despite initial hesitation, Everett makes the decision for her. He stands in his doorway wondering who the random people are sitting in his driveway. Mel works her way to his door and rips off the bandage. She drops the daughter bomb and explains the love letters, but he quickly shuts her down. Apparently he’s not the man she’s looking for. When a timer goes off and he leaves the doorway, Mel notices the Lumberjack Games trophy on a shelf in his home and the realization that he’s lying sets in.

Even though Mel’s upset, she’s thankful to have gotten clarity on the matter. Just as they’re about to settle in with Christmas festivities, Mel receives a call from Charmaine about her Braxton Hicks contractions. They meet at the clinic and Charmaine brings along Calvin, the twins’ father. Mel forces him to leave the clinic. Right after, Charmaine’s water breaks. Before going into labor, Charmaine explains that the FBI dropped the charges against Calvin and he went into witness protection. Doc and Mel worry that Charmaine might have preeclampsia, and it’s a slightly dramatic birth, but it happens. Charmaine finally has the babies!

Preacher and Kaia take a dip in the lake in spite of the cold temperatures, just like her family used to do, and he lets an “I love you” slip. He attempts to sweep it under the rug, but she won’t let him. She doesn’t reciprocate just yet, though it doesn’t ruffle either of their feathers. Later on, Kaia tells Preacher that wants to stay in town for him and that she’s the new Virgin River fire chief.

Lizzie finally has a conversation with her mother, who isn’t receptive or ecstatic about her daughter’s pregnancy. She doesn’t want Lizzie to sacrifice her life for Denny or a baby, but Lizzie insists it’s not a sacrifice. She will keep working and building a life while raising her child. At long last, her mom wears down and promises to support Lizzie and the baby. Doc gives Denny an envelope containing the sex of the baby. They’re having a girl!

Cameron tells Muriel that he met with his ex-fiancée Michelle to talk about getting back together and starting a family. He turned her down because he’s with Muriel, but she tells him that she doesn’t want to start a family anymore. Cameron insists that he doesn’t want that either, so long as he has Muriel. Later on, Muriel attempts to give Cameron an out on the basis that she fears future resentment from him on not becoming a father. She’d rather break up now than suffer heartbreak down the road.

Mel opens up to Doc about finding her biological father and how he rejected her, which is in direct opposition to how Doc tells her he feels like a proud father when they work together. From this conversation, it’s clear that no matter what happens with Everett, Mel will always have a surrogate father in Doc. She asks him if he’ll walk her down the aisle, and he happily accepts.

Again, Brady and Brie have a run-in during the Christmas tree decorating contest festivities, and they seem to get closure on both of them moving on. Ironically, they’re standing under mistletoe and Brady moves in for a kiss until they’re interrupted by Jack. Earlier in the episode, Brie and Jack ran interference between their parents, who were still fighting. Fed up, Jack resorted to locking their parents in a room with each other until they sorted out their differences on their own. They arrive at the celebration with the news that they talked about their issues and their dad and Javier actually hit it off.

During the Christmas tree contest, Doc asks Hope to marry him again with a vow renewal ceremony. Obviously, she accepts his proposal! Adding to the joy of the moment, Doc and Hope walk away as the winners of the Christmas tree decorating contest for their nutcracker display. Mel and Jack finally get to ice skate and it starts to snow, and the next day, they have the big family Christmas dinner they had been planning for. Jack gifts Mel some diamond earrings and a “pony” in the form of a Labrador puppy.

While celebrating Christmas with Brady and Hazel, Lark receives an ominous phone call from Jimmy in jail, who asks about Hazel (apparently his daughter!) and Brady, and Lark says, “He doesn’t suspect a thing.” Preacher also receives a phone call from Mike and he learns that the medical examiner identified the body as Wes Logan and the situation is “about to blow up.” Kaia walks in with questions, but now it’s a question of whether he’ll tell her the truth. The Christmas surprises don’t stop as Everett arrives on Mel’s property and finally admits the truth: He’s her father. He brought her a stack of letter that her mother wrote him. Before the episode ends, he says he has something to tell her. What is it?!

Written by Reed Gaudens

Watch Virgin River only on Netflix.