Blindspots
Episode 8 of Virgin River Season 2 begins with Jack continuing to vent, smashing up the bar (see: getting it ready for the babies) but receiving a pretty nasty gash for his troubles. With his leg cut deep, he’s forced into the clinic where Mel tells him he needs stitches. After patching him up, Doc catches up with an all-stitched-up Jack who decides to hang up the wrecking bar and put it to bed for good. Meanwhile, Doc heads over to Hope’s and asks about dinner that evening. She claims lasagna takes 6 hours (it doesn’t) and eventually agrees to do this for him, with Doc agreeing to make it worth her while. At the clinic though, a deadly virus is spreading around town (no guys, not that one) and Mel believes it could be food poisoning. Given there’s only one restaurant in town and everyone shares the same symptoms, Mel comes to the conclusion that the common denominator is Jack’s Bar. Only, when a couple of people report shortness of breath, it seems to point at something else entirely. But what? Connie shows up at the bar and reveals that she’s going to cover for Preacher and Paige. After all, she and Preacher aren’t technically friends so it’s the perfect plan… apparently. Eventually she sits with the gossip ladies and discusses Hope and how she only got interested in Doc again when Muriel turned up on the scene. It’s not true of course but it’s enough to fuel their discussions. When they leave the bar, Preacher is devastated to find out they’re being forced to close on account of the food poisoning. He begins throwing everything away while Mel reassures him that everything will be okay. Meanwhile, Jack goes on a trip with Hope and looks at a new house to move in to with Charmaine. He’s convinced that Mel only wants friendship so for now he’s settling for his silver trophy. Afterwards, he heads up to visit Spencer at Calvin’s camp. He’s angsty but admits to Jack that Leo was involved with Calvin before he died. Before Spencer agrees to spill anything else however, he wants reassurance that he’s protected. Jack agrees to do just this and leaves. In the car, Jack phones Mike and tells him he has a witness. In order to catch Calvin in the act though they’ll have to work smartly and discretely. Charmaine seems to be on the mend, and she’s now working as a hairdresser, perky and gossipy as ever. Anyway, she’s been offered a place over in Portland with her Aunt and right now she’s considering staying there, which she reveals to Hope. The Mayor is obviously none too happy with this though, especially given how difficult it is for her to keep secrets. Back home, Doc and Hope argue over their lasagna and it’s made worse when Hope spills the gossip she found out about Charmaine to him. Doc believes she found this out willingly though and eventually leaves the house in disgust. Preacher shows up at the sheriff’s county jail and sees a map in the background with a post-it note confirming a new body has been found. Deputy Howard confirms as much, revealing that an abandoned vehicle was found in the woods – and registered to a missing person. For now it’s certainly not looking good for Preacher. Out in the woods, Calvin brings Brady out into the middle of the woods and looks set to seriously hurt him. When the rest of his crew show too, slamming a bloodied and battered Spencer on the ground, they leave Brady with a tough choice to make – either be part of the team and kill Spencer or wind up hurt himself. Mel pins George as the one responsible for this food poisoning; the new waiter at the bar. When they head outside the clinic, Jack and Mel watch as George scrambles into Calvin’s car and takes off. Now Jack knows who’s responsible, he looks set to get his revenge.
The Episode Review
The situation with Calvin and Brady finally reaches fever pitch as it looks like this story is finally going to pick up after laying dormant for such a long time. For the most part, this episode essentially revolves around the poisoning which works to bridge the gap between the various different storylines going on, including the contrived love triangles. I have to admit, the entire narrative with Preacher and Connie is ridiculous and with Paige out the picture, I still stand by the fact they could have easily resolved all of this by explaining to the police that Wes’s death was an accident. And also, given Wes is a cop, why hasn’t there been more buzz about his disappearance? What happened to his phone with multiple messages? And what of Paige too? On another note, I guess Charmaine’s now okay too. I know she had the IV drip inserted and last episode she was feeling better but now that she’s up and hairdressing it’s like she never had a sickness. What was the point in this entire storyline other than to push the Mel/Jack love angle? Ah well, we’ve got 2 episodes left and right now it looks like this is gearing up for a classic Netflix cliffhanger.
