Virgin River cast breaks down Mel and Jack’s wedding, gripping, more

viking river Mel and Jack finally walk down the aisle in the Season 6 finale — and the stars Alexandra Breckinridge and Martin Henderson Looking back on the wonderful memories of this important day.

“Every time I walk on the red carpet, I watch Martin cry,” Breckinridge, 42, tells the latest issue of ” us weekly. “I wasn’t crying. I was like, ‘Oh no, where are my tears?’ ” You know, happy tears. I thought, “Where are those?” “But every time I walk on the red carpet, he gets everything [misty eyed]. He’s really emotional and very sweet.

After six seasons of an on-again, off-again relationship, fake paternity tests and heartbreaking miscarriages, Mel (Breckenridge) and Jake (Henderson) find themselves surrounded by friends and family in the Season 6 finale. Surrounded by others, he said “I do”. It was an emotional moment for everyone involved in the series, and while Breckenridge was able to keep his eyes dry, Henderson explained why the moment resonated with him so deeply.

“Obviously, I put a lot of energy and emotion into the character of Jack and his love for Mel, which is kind of the crux of the show,” he said. “So, finally getting to that moment where Mel was walking down the aisle so radiant and beautiful, I felt the love these characters had for each other. It was really touching.

Henderson added that the way the wedding was shot felt very “beautiful” and “tender” for two characters who have been through so much together. “I was very overwhelmed by it and very emotional. It was so touching,” Henderson continued. “It’s been six seasons before this. … I poured my heart and soul into it. [Mel and Jack] I’m so happy that Jack got to take this woman as his wife and what it meant to him.

Henderson noted that the moment was also monumental for fans, who knew Mel and Jack were destined soulmates in the pilot. “They belong together,” he said. “The audience knows that when she walks into the bar [in the pilot]. So it felt like the culmination of all the energy and romance and love and emotion that had existed between them for six seasons.

Henderson certainly wasn’t the only one on set feeling the emotional turmoil. Breckinridge said most people who attended the ceremony had tears in their eyes.

“I think a lot of people cried,” she told us. “Like, with [Mel’s father-like figure] doctor [played by Tim Matheson] Walk me down the aisle…I could hear someone sobbing behind me as I said my vows.

While Henderson will likely remember Jack’s wedding day for the rest of his life, he chose to forget one special moment from season six: performing an intimate striptease for Breckenridge on Big & Rich’s “Save a Horse, Ride a Cowboy.”

“I really just put it out of my mind,” Henderson quipped of the moment, when Jack took off his clothes and wore a cowboy hat. “It was one of the most painful moments of my life, let alone my career.”

All jokes aside, Henderson wanted to make sure the scene felt authentic to the character of Jack—which is why he turned down the opportunity to have a professional block the dance, instead leaning toward his own creative freedom.

“They asked, ‘Do you want to choreograph?’ and I thought, ‘Oh, yeah, I do. I definitely need help. But then I was about to go into my first meeting, and I thought about this. I was like, ‘ Wait, this seems really weird. Jack Sheridan, the Marine bar owner from Virgin River, just somehow broke out. Magic Mikea perfectly choreographed spin? This looks comical. It will look silly. So I said, ‘You know what? No, forget it. Just play the song.

The decision instantly became a fan-favorite moment and a highlight of the entire six seasons, with Henderson describing it as Jack trying to “please his drunk fiancée” because she didn’t have a stripper at her bachelor party. Fortunately for Henderson, Breckinridge was the perfect scene partner, helping him feel comfortable in such a vulnerable situation—especially when production had to cut the music mid-shoot.

“Unfortunately, there was a little bit of dialogue that was intertwined in the comic strip. So in order to get the sound of her lines and my lines, we couldn’t play music,” he told us. “It’s so embarrassing. I’m dying. There’s no music, no beat. I’m just doing this ridiculous dance. But what I’m saying is, Alexandra Breckenridge is so kind and presence, she played opposite me with so much joy and fun,” he said. “That’s why I think ultimately I decided, ‘This should just be these two people really enjoying each other.'”

The wedding (and the Bachelor/Bachelorette chaos) was undoubtedly the high point of Season 6, but Mel and Jake also went on their own journeys. Breckinridge focuses specifically on the storyline of Mel and her biological father, Everett (John Allen Nelson), with whom she reconnected at the end of season five. viking river Over the course of season six, they get to know each other while also bonding over their shared love for Mel’s mother, Sarah, who died when she was 11 years old.

“I found it really touching, especially because I know what it’s like to lose a mother,” Breckenridge, whose mother died, told us. us. “So I connected on that level very quickly. I’d been there all the time [Mel]but the emotions she goes through as she searches for her father and is able to get a glimpse of what her mother looks like [was special]”.

Although Mel and Everett experienced some bumps in the road as they found their new normal, their dynamic blossomed throughout the season, and Breckinridge is looking forward to continuing it in season seven.

“I’m curious to see where it’s going,” she told us. “I love that Mel is trying to open up a relationship with her father, but he keeps trying to push her away because I think he doesn’t want to go through this loss again. You know, a lot of times people who have lost a loved one, they’re afraid to love anyone again because They’re afraid, they’re going to experience that pain, but you can’t live without it, you know? It’s not life if you don’t love anymore.

As Mel continues to deal with her new relationship with her father, Jack also embarks on his own personal journey, which Henderson sees as “making peace and coming to terms with what his military background meant to him at the time, and what it means to him.” “What’s going on?” It’s him now. “

“When he had to reconnect with his ex-wife, we saw him struggle with that. He was almost dismissive of the medal that was awarded to him and shied away from the idea that it was a good thing, ” he explained. “In a way, he’s throwing the baby out with the bathwater because there’s a lot of pain and regret about some of the things that happened.”

Henderson noted that Jack was also forced to balance his negative feelings about his time in the Army while also supporting Ricky (Grayson Maxwell Guernsey), returning to Virgin River before deploying. “Jack was trying to stay the course and stay supportive and not harm the poor kid. [Ricky’s] He already had his own insecurities and fears, and Jack tried to say, ‘Hey, it’s okay. I’m scared too. There’s a gray area around it, and Jack, emotionally, he doesn’t know how to feel.

Mel and Jack’s individual storylines will likely continue into Season 7, but the two will also face many other obstacles together. In the final moments of season six, both of them were caught in suspense, with the pregnant girl Marley (Rachel Drance) announced that she wanted Mel and Jack to adopt her unborn child. At the same time, Jack walked over to check on the missing Charmaine Sheh (Lauren Hammersley), finds her home ransacked, then opens the bedroom of her twin babies to reveal something shocking – a reveal that viewers haven’t seen yet.

Of course, Mel and Jack had wanted a baby for some time, but after Mel suffered a miscarriage with her second pregnancy viking river Their future as parents hangs in the balance throughout season five. However, season seven could mean big changes for the newlyweds.

“Jack is still holding on to the family he wants and is very anxious and eager to know where this will lead,” Henderson shared, while Breckinridge joked that a million things were running through Mel’s mind. An idea—but that didn’t mean she refused to entertain it.

“She was like in complete shock,” she explained. “I mean, she just got married. It was literally the morning after she woke up and she was shocked. And then, that hope started creeping in. I don’t know.

viking river Now streaming on Netflix.