Virgin River boss hints at more twists for 'tortured couple' Brie and Brady in season 8

When it comes to the bumps and forks in the road for Brie and Brady, Virgin River season 8 doesn't appear to be letting its foot off the gas anytime soon. That's especially bad news for fans, considering season 7 ended with a potentially devastating twist just as the couple seemed to be getting on stable ground. Well, their happiness will continue to be hard-fought.

In the Virgin River season 7 finale, Brie and Brady finally managed to find themselves on the same page and ended up together in a committed relationship, at very long last. However, on his way to reuniting with his girlfriend, Brady crashed his motorcycle and his fate was left hanging in the balance. While fans can deduce that Brady will live, his condition in season 8 remains to be seen.

According to Virgin River showrunner Patrick Sean Smith, it's not smooth sailing yet for Brady and Brie and they're aren't out of the woods yet when it comes to twists. Although Smith admitted that it's an inevitability that the pair will eventually find happiness, he also previewed what's still to come for the "tortured couple" in season 8. It's time to buckle up for some tough times ahead!

In an extensive interview with Swooon, in which Smith teased what's next for all of Virgin River's central couples, including Mel and Jack, he gave perhaps the juciest tease for Brady and Brie. That's likely because among all the couples on the show, they are the only ones facing a near-death experience between them in season 8. "Tortured" sure makes a lot of sense.

Smith explained why he opted to throw Brady and Brie another setback in their relationship rather than getting them together without incident: "They’re a tortured couple. I think we were looking at, once we got them together, how to make it feel interesting and not just like everybody’s kind of just living to walk down the aisle and get married and live happily ever after."

Compared to the other couples in the show, Brie and Brady have had a unique set of challenges to overcome that were ingrained in the foundation of their relationship. It's not like they were facing "normal" couples things like moving in together, marriage, or starting a family, things that Mel and Jack, Lizzie and Denny, and even Brie and Mike were going through in various ways.

Brie constantly struggled with trusting Brady and meeting him in the middle in order to have a successful adult relationship, which prevent any of the above "normal" couple things from every really happening. Now that they have move past their trust issue, it can be frustrating that here they are again facing a major injury for Brady that further prevents them from having any semblance of peace.

Smith revealed that Brie and Brady will get to that point, but in the meantime, their journey has to be full of fresh twists to keep it interesting. "I think eventually that’s going to start to feel like Joanie and Chachi, feel obligatory, as opposed to something that feels earned and an experience. So we’re looking at all of our couples with that sort of in mind, and trying to have them all stay in their own lane, dealing with their own respective things."

Hopefully, Brie and Brady will transcend their "tortured couple" identity in Virgin River season 8 and get closer to that "Joanie and Chachi" inevitability of happily ending up together. For many seasons, they have been the couple fans have been rooting for most, and it's about time that they get to experience all of the moments that Mel and Jack have very, very soon.