‘Virgin River’: The Reason Charmaine Kept Lying to Jack
Virgin River is based on the best-selling romance novels by Robyn Carr. The series follows Mel Monroe (Alexandra Breckenridge) and Jack Sheridan (Martin Henderson), a nurse and bar owner respectively.
At the beginning of season 1, Jack was in a relationship with a hairstylist named Charmaine (Lauren Hammersley). Following their breakup, Charmaine announced she is pregnant with twins. However, it turns out that the twins are not Jack’s biological children. Fans can only guess why Charmaine kept lying.
Charmaine revealed that Jack is not the father of her twins on ‘Virgin River’
At the end of Season 1, following their breakup, Jack was shocked to learn that Charmaine was pregnant with their twins. Since then, the pair have had a rough time, especially after Jack moved on with Mel.
However, by the end of season 4, they seemed to be in a good place. Unfortunately, that was upended when Charmaine revealed that the twins that she’s carrying aren’t Jack’s children. “I was just really glad the scene ended right there, and you didn’t actually hear Jack’s response because it would have just been, ‘Beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep,’” Henderson told Pay or Wait. “You couldn’t have aired anything that would have come out of that man’s mouth at that point.”
The reason why Charmaine kept lying to Jack
Much of Charmaine’s backstory remains a mystery. However, what we do know is that she hasn’t had the easiest life. Her mother died of cancer which absolutely devasted her, and Jack strung her along for years in a relationship that was going nowhere. Therefore when Mel appeared in Virgin River, and Jack immediately fell for her, Charmaine spiraled.
We’re not excusing her reasons for lying to Jack. Still, it appears that she was desperate to have a family of her own, and she felt that a pregnancy was the only way to get it, especially when her marriage to Todd (Patrick Sabongui) began to crumble.
Thankfully, we will learn Charmaine’s exact reasoning in season 5. “When I got to that ending, I was gasping,” new showrunner Patrick Sean Smith told TV Line. “Where do we go? What do we do? What does this mean? We’ll look at Jack’s investment in what the twins meant to him, as well as how Charmaine challenged him for so long in that relationship.”
The father of Charmaine’s twins is a character on ‘Virgin River’
Initially, the writers did want Jack to be the father of Charmaine’s twins. However, that didn’t align with Carr’s books, nor were the actors thrilled about that narrative direction. However, we do know that the father is a semi-regular character in the series.
“Initially, it was, Oh, it’s just some guy she had a one-night stand with,’” Breckenridge revealed to Glamour. “But then we changed directions again—so yeah, I know who it is.”
In fact, many fans are sure that Jack’s friend, Detective Mike Valenzuela (Marco Grazzini), is the twin’s father. Devoted Virgin River fans will recall the season 2 episode titled “Can’t Let Go.” In the episode, Jack told Mike that Charmaine was pregnant with his twins. Mike’s reaction raised some eyebrows.
He looked absolutely shocked and laughed nervously before saying, “I didn’t know you were still seeing her.”
