Alexandra Breckenridge and Martin Henderson. Courtesy of Netflix
Virgin River finally let Mel and Jack walk down the aisle during the season 6 finale — and stars Alexandra Breckenridge and Martin Henderson are looking back on their best memories from the big day.
“Watching Martin cry every time I walked down the aisle,” Breckenridge, 42, exclusively shared in the latest issue of Us Weekly. “I wasn’t crying. I was like, ‘Oh no, where are my tears?’ You know, happy tears. I’m like, ‘Where are those?’ But every time I would walk down the aisle, he’d get all [misty eyed]. He was being really sentimental, and it was very sweet.”
After six seasons of breakups and make ups, a faux paternity test and a heartbreaking pregnancy loss, Mel (Breckenridge) and Jack (Henderson) said “I do” surrounded by their friends and family in the season 6 finale. It was an emotional moment for all involved in the series, and while Breckenridge was able to keep her eyes dry, Henderson explained why the moment resonated with him so deeply.
“Obviously, I’ve invested 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 in a way,” he said. “So to finally get to that moment, and for Mel to be walking up the aisle radiant and so beautiful, I felt that love that I think these characters have for one another. It was just really moving.”
How the wedding was shot, Henderson added, felt so “beautiful” and “tender” for the two characters, who have been through so much together. “I was quite overwhelmed and very emotional about it. It was so moving,” Henderson continued. “It has been six seasons leading up to that. … I poured my heart and soul into [Mel and Jack] and I was so happy for Jack to have this woman be his wife and what that means to him.”
Henderson noted how monumental the moment was for fans as well, who have known that Mel and Jack were destined soulmates from 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 that energy and romance and love and emotion that has existed between them for six seasons.”
Henderson certainly wasn’t the only person on set feeling the waves of emotion. Breckenridge said most people attending the ceremony had tears in their eyes.
“I think there were a lot of people that were weepy,” she told Us. “Like, with [Mel’s father-like figure] Doc [played by Tim Matheson] walking me down the aisle … when I was doing my vows, I could hear sniffling behind me.”
While Henderson will likely remember Jack’s wedding day for the rest of his life, there was one particular season 6 moment he’s choosing to forget: performing an intimate striptease for Breckenridge to Big & Rich’s “Save a Horse, Ride a Cowboy.”
“I literally, completely blocked that out of my mind,” Henderson quipped of the moment, which saw Jack undress while donning a cowboy hat. “That was one of the most excruciating moments of my life, let alone my career.”
All jokes aside, Henderson wanted to ensure the scene felt authentic to who Jack was as a character — which is why he turned down the opportunity to have a professional block the dance and instead leaned into his own creative freedom.
‘They offered, ‘Do you want to choreograph it?’ And I thought, ‘Oh, yes, I do. I definitely need help.’ But then I was getting close to sort of going to the first meeting and I thought about it. I was like, ‘Hang on, that’s gonna look really weird. Jack Sheridan, the Marine, bar owner from Virgin River just busts out in some kind of Magic Mike, perfectly-choreographed gyrating? That’s just gonna look comedic. It’ll look silly.’ So I said, ‘You know what? No, forget about it. Just play the song.’”
What came of that decision was an instant fan-favorite moment and highlight of the entire six seasons, which Henderson described as an attempt by Jack to “entertain his drunken fiancée” after she was devoid of strippers at her Bachelorette party. Luckily for Henderson, Breckenridge was the perfect scene partner to help him feel comfortable being so vulnerable — especially when production had to cut off the music midway through filming.
“There was a little bit of dialogue, unfortunately, kind of interlaced amongst the strip. So in order to get the sound for her lines and my lines, we couldn’t have music playing,” he told Us. “It was so embarrassing. I was dying. There’s no music, there’s no beat. I’m just, like, doing this ridiculous dance. But I’ll say, Alexandra Breckenridge was so kind and present and she played it opposite me with just, like, such joy and fun,” he said. “And that was why I think ultimately I decided, ‘This should just be those two really enjoying each other.’”
The wedding (and bachelor/bachelorette chaos) was undoubtedly the pinnacle of season 6, but Mel and Jack were on their own respective journeys, too. Breckenridge was particularly invested in Mel’s story line with her biological father, Everett (John Allen Nelson), whom she reconnected with at the end of season 5. The twosome spend Virgin River season 6 getting to know each other while also connecting over their mutual love for Mel’s mother, Sarah, who died when she was 11 years old.
“I found it to be really touching, especially because I know what it is to lose your mother,” Breckenridge, who’s own mother passed away, told Us. “So I was very quickly connected on that level. l always have been to [Mel], but what she’s going through emotionally with finding her father and being able to have this glimpse into what her mother was like [was special].”
Although Mel and Everett experienced a few bumps in the road while trying to find their new normal, their dynamic quickly evolved throughout the season, and is something Breckenridge is looking forward to continuing with season 7.
“’I’m very curious to see where that goes,” she told Us. “I love how Mel tries to open up her relationship with her father, and he keeps trying to push her away because I think he doesn’t want to experience the loss again. You know, a lot of times people who lose people, they’re scared to love anyone again, because they’re scared, they’re gonna go through that pain. But you can’t live without it, you know? It’s not a life if you don’t love again.”
As Mel continued to navigate her new relationship with her father, Jack was also on heis own personal journey, one that Henderson believes was about making “peace and coming to terms with what his military background meant to him then, but also what it means to him now.”
“We watched him struggling with that when he had to reconnect with his ex-wife. And the medal that is given to him, he’s sort of almost disdainful about that and shuns this idea that it was a good thing,” he explained. “And he’s kind of throwing the baby out with the bath water in a way because there’s so much pain and regret around some of the things that happened.”
Henderson noted that Jack was also forced to balance his own negative emotions about his time in the army while also supporting Ricky (Grayson Maxwell Gurnsey), who returned to Virgin River before getting deployed. “Jack’s trying to stay the course and stay supportive and not undermine this poor kid. [Ricky’s] already got his own insecurity and his fear, and Jack’s trying to say, ‘Hey, it’s OK. I was scared too.’ And there’s this gray area around that, and Jack, emotionally, and he doesn’t know how to feel.”
Both Mel and Jack’s individual story lines will likely continue into season 7, but the duo will also be facing plenty of other obstacles together. The final moments of season 6 saw the duo both entrenched in cliffhangers, with pregnant teen Marley (Rachel Drance) announcing she wants Mel and Jack to adopt her unborn baby. Jack, meanwhile, went over to check on a missing Charmaine (Lauren Hammersley) and found her home ransacked before opening her infant twins’ bedroom and discovering something shocking — a reveal the audience has yet to see.
Mel and Jack, of course, have been wanting a baby together for awhile, but after Mel experienced her second pregnancy loss in Virgin River season 5, their future as parents has been up in the air. Season 7, however, could mean big changes for the newly married duo.
“Jack’s still kind of holding out for this family that he wants and is quite anxious and eager to know where that is gonna lead,” Henderson shared, while Breckenridge teased there are a million thoughts racing through Mel’s head — but that doesn’t mean she’s closed off to the idea.
“She’s just like, in full shock,” she explained. “I mean, she just got married. This is literally the morning after she wakes up, and she’s in shock. And then there’s, like, that hope that sort of starts to creep in. We’ll see. I don’t know.”
Virgin River is now streaming on Netflix.