Virgin River cast Break Down Mel and Jack’s Wedding, Cliffhangers, more

Virgin River finally have Mel and Jack walk down the aisle during the Season 6 finale — and star Alexandra Breckenridge and Martin Henderson looks back on her best memories from the big day.

“I watched Martin cry every time I walked down the aisle,” Breckenridge, 42, told the latest issue exclusively My Weekly. “I didn’t cry. I was like, ‘Oh no, where are my tears?’ You know, happy tears. I’m like, ‘Where are they?’ But every time I walked down the aisle he got all (misty eyes). He was really sentimental and it was very sweet.”

After six seasons of breakups and make-ups, a fake paternity test and a heartbreaking pregnancy loss, Mel (Breckenridge) and Jack (Henderson) said “I do” in the Season 6 finale surrounded by their friends and family. It was an emotional moment for everyone involved in the series, and while Breckenridge managed to keep her eyes dry, Henderson explained why the moment resonated so deeply with him.

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

As the wedding was being filmed, Henderson added, he felt so “beautiful” and “tender” for the two characters who had been through so much together. “I was quite overwhelmed and very emotional about it. It was so moving,” Henderson continued. “Six seasons passed before that. … I poured my heart and soul into (Mel and Jack) and I was so happy that Jack had this woman as his wife and what that meant to him.”

Henderson noted how monumental the moment was even for fans who knew Mel and Jack were fated soulmates from the pilot. “They belong together,” he said. “The audience knows that when he walks into the bar (in the pilot). So it felt like a 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 person on set feeling waves of emotion. Breckenridge said most people who attended the ceremony had tears in their eyes.

“I think there were a lot of people who cried,” she said Our. “Like with (character similar to Mel’s father) Doc (he plays Tim Matheson) walked me down the aisle… as I said my vows, I heard a sniffle 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 chose to forget: performing an intimate strip for Breckenridge to Big & Rich’s “Save a Horse, Ride a Cowboy.”

“I literally, completely blocked it out of my mind,” Henderson joked about the moment he saw Jack strip down and put on 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 who Jack was as a character – so he turned down the opportunity to have a professional block the dance and instead leaned on his own creative freedom.

“They offered, ‘Do you want to choreograph it?’ And I thought, ‘Oh, yes, I do.’ ‘Wait, this is going to look really weird. Jack Sheridan, the Marine, the owner of the bar in Virgin River just fell out of sorts Magic Mikeperfectly choreographed circling? It will look comical. It’s going to look stupid.” So I said, ‘You know what? No, forget it. Just play the song.'”

What resulted from that decision was an instant fan-favorite moment and the highlight of the entire six seasons, which Henderson described as Jack’s attempt to “entertain his drunken fiancee” after she didn’t have strippers at her bachelorette party. Luckily for Henderson, Breckenridge was the perfect scene partner to help him feel comfortable being so vulnerable — especially when the production had to cut the music mid-set.

“Unfortunately, there was a bit of dialogue that sort of interspersed between the strip. So to get sound for her lines and mine, we couldn’t have music playing,” he said Our. “It was so embarrassing. i was dying There is no music, there is no rhythm. I’m just, like, doing this ridiculous dance. But I will say, Alexandra Breckenridge was so kind and present and played it opposite me with such joy and fun,” he said. “And that’s why I think I finally decided, ‘You two should really enjoy this.’

The wedding (and the Bachelorette/Bachelorette chaos) was undoubtedly the highlight of Season 6, but Mel and Jack were also on their own journeys. Breckenridge was particularly invested in Melina’s story with her biological father, Everett (John Allen Nelson), with whom she reunited at the end of season 5. The pair spend Virgin River Season 6 getting to know each other while also bonding over their mutual love for Mel’s mother, Sarah, who died when she was 11 years old.

“I found it really moving, especially because I know what it’s like to lose your mother,” said Breckenridge, whose own mother died. Our. “So I was hooked on that level very quickly. I’ve always been with (Mel), but what she goes through emotionally when she finds her father and gets a glimpse of what her mother was like (was special).

Although Mel and Everett experienced a few bumps in the road as they tried to find their new normal, their dynamic developed quickly throughout the season, and Breckenridge is looking forward to continuing it in Season 7.

“I’m very curious to see where this will go,” she told Us. “I love how Mel tries to open up about her relationship with her father and he keeps trying to push her away because I think he doesn’t want to go through that loss again. You know, a lot of times people who lose people are afraid to love someone again because they’re afraid they’ll go through the pain. But you can’t live without it, you know? It’s not life if you don’t love again.”

As Mel continued her new relationship with her father, Jack was also on his own personal journey, which Henderson believes was about making “peace and coming to terms with what his military background meant to him then, but also what now him.”

“We watched him struggle with that when he had to reconnect with his ex-wife. And the medal that was given to him, he almost despises it and avoids the idea that it was a good thing,” he explained. “And it kind of throws the baby out with the bathwater 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 military while supporting Ricky (Grayson Maxwell Gurnsey), which returned to Virgin River prior to deployment. “Jack is trying to stay the course and support him and not undermine the poor kid. (Ricky’s) already got his own insecurities and fears, and Jack’s trying to say, “Hey, it’s okay.” I was scared, too.” And there’s a gray area around that and Jack, emotionally, and he doesn’t know how to feel.”

Mel and Jack’s individual story lines will likely continue into Season 7, but the duo will face plenty of other obstacles together. The final moments of season 6 saw the duo both anchored in cliffhangers, with pregnant teen Marley (Rachel Drance) announced that she wanted Mel and Jack to adopt her unborn child. Meanwhile, Jack went to check on the missing Charmaine (Lauren Hammersley) and found her home ransacked before opening her twins’ bedroom to discover something shocking – a revelation the audience had never seen before.

Of course, Mel and Jack have wanted a child together for some time, but after Mel suffered her second pregnancy loss Virgin River season 5, their future as parents was up in the air. However, season 7 could mean big changes for the newlyweds.

“Jack’s still kind of trying to have the family he wants and he’s kind of nervous and eager to see where it’s going to go,” Henderson said, while Breckenridge teased that there’s a million thoughts going through Mel’s head — but that doesn’t mean they’re closed to the idea.

“He’s in complete shock,” she explained. “I mean, she just got married. This is literally the morning after he wakes up and he is in shock. And then there’s this hope that starts to creep in. We’ll see. I don’t know.”

Virgin River now streaming on Netflix.