Virgin River Season 5 Part 1 ending explained

Now the first ten episodes of Virgin River Season 5 have landed on Netflix, let’s revisit those shocking twists in the action-packed final episode of Part 1 and explain into the ending.

Netflix’s quaint romance drama Virgin River has returned, this time with a raging wildlife that threatens to upheave everything our favorite small-town residents cherish. Relationships are strained, lives are lost, and love is challenged, but in the end, they triumph… well, over the fire at least. 

Season 5 is the best installment to date (read our four-star review here), as the series continues to tackle sensitive and hard-hitting topics such as sexual assault, grief, miscarriages, aging, and illness. 

It culminates in a pacy, jam-packed final episode, which almost reveals too many shock twists in close succession for an audience to process. Never fear, if you missed a beat in Virgin River Season 5’s Part 1 finale, then let’s revisit the biggest bombshells. Spoilers ahead!

Virgin River Season 5 Part 1 ending: What happens to Lizzie and Denny? 

As the young couple bravely set out to round up the remaining residents from their homes as the fire spreads, Lizzie and Denny find themselves surrounded by the blaze. The near-death experience rocked their relationship, as Denny reflected on how short (and fragile) life is and how he wants to spend the rest of his.  

Initially, a heart-to-heart drew them closer together, yet, after a fishing trip with his grandad, Vernon, Denny seems to have a change of heart. 

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In Episode 10, they reach a pivotal crossroads. Lizzie is thriving in her new role as Hope’s assistant, as she organizes most of the town fair on her behalf. Before Denny drops the bombshell that he wants to see the world – and he wants Lizzie to join him. Moments later though, Lizzie reveals that she’s pregnant. Will this tear them apart or bring them back together? Only time will tell… 

Who is Charmaine’s baby daddy?  Netflix

Another big reveal in Season 5 is the true identity of Charmaine’s twin’s father. In a shock twist, criminal ringleader Calvin, who was presumed dead reappears at the fair and tells Charmaine, “I want to be a father to my boys.” 

Once again, Charmaine has made a bad situation worse, as this revelation is only going to make the existing feud between Calvin and Jack much worse. It seems Charmaine chose to tell Jack the twins were his, as she wanted a stable and good father figure for her boys.

When Jack finds out the truth, it could lead to another big conflict and just after he’d finally managed to make his peace with Charmaine’s lies. 

Whose body has been found after the fire?  Netflix

Season 5 delivers an ominous cliffhanger, as firefighters discover a body after extinguishing the flames. Fortunately, the natural disaster didn’t claim any fan-favorite characters’ lives. Instead, this body seems to have been buried and the earth was burned away to reveal it beneath. 

There’s only one body (that we know of) buried in that area, which is Paige’s abusive ex-husband Wes whom she accidentally killed, and Preacher helped cover up. 

Of course, just as Preacher’s love life stables out, his new girlfriend’s colleagues would find the body of the man he buried for his ex-girlfriend. Will this guy ever get a break? It was bad enough that Paige briefly returned, before leaving and breaking his (and our) hearts again. In short, Preacher’s integrity and respect are about to be questioned and Paige is nowhere to be seen… 

Who is Mel’s father?  Netflix

After the fair, the storyline jumps forward four months and Mel and Jack start to decorate their cosy cabin for Christmas. As Mel chats on the phone with her sister, one final bombshell is dropped about her past. 

Joey reveals that she’s found letters that their mother wrote to a man before she died, who just so happens to be from California’s own Virgin River. 

However, that’s not all of it. Joey also suspects that this mystery man (who may have signed the letters, but his identity is hidden from us) could potentially be Mel’s father.

Now, there aren’t many men who are old enough to be Mel’s father in the town of Virgin River – that we’ve already met anyway – which begs the question, who could it be? 

As Vernon already had a secret son, which was revealed when his grandson, Denny arrived in Season 4, it seems unlikely he could have fathered another child that we don’t know about. Equally, the coincidence of Mel accidentally working for her father in a remote town is too much for even our romantic hearts to fathom. It seems all will be revealed in the next two episodes, which land on Netflix in November.

Virgin River Season 5 Part 1 is streaming on Netflix now. Check out our review here and our other coverage here.