At the end of Virgin River Season 6, nurse practitioner Mel (Alexandra Breckenridge) and bar owner Jack (Martin Henderson) finally tied the knot after six seasons of a complicated love story. But one integral figure was notably absent at the ceremony: Jack’s ex, Charmaine (Lauren Hammersley).

In the opening scenes of Season 7, we learn a little bit more about what distressed Jack so much when he went to check on Charmaine and wandered into her ransacked house in the final moments of the previous finale: Drug kingpin and Charmaine’s baby daddy Calvin (David Cubitt/Josh Blacker) is dead, and Charmaine and her twin babies are missing. Showrunner Patrick Sean Smith tells Tudum, “When we committed to the cliff-hanger of Season 6 with Charmaine not showing up at the wedding, and spent all season planting seeds of danger for her, we went back and forth on, what did Jack see? Who did he see? Did he see anything?”

If Jack didn’t witness anything out of the ordinary at the house, that “would've been disappointing,” Smith says. Instead, the mystery unfolding in the first episode of Season 7 will see Brie (Zibby Allen) and Mike (Marco Grazzini) team up to track down Charmaine — and find out how Clear River’s finest hairstylist is connected to Calvin’s death. 

The rest of the episode will catch up with your favorite Virgin River residents in the days following Mel and Jack’s wedding. Meanwhile, our hero couple begin to take “earnest steps forward in parenthood and start to experience the adoption process.” It’s a storyline personal to Smith, who adopted his now-almost-teenage son with his ex.

Season 7 of Virgin River picks up in the weeks following Mel and Jack’s wedding as they adjust to life as newlyweds. Elsewhere in town, Preacher (Colin Lawrence) hopes to pursue his chef dreams, Kaia (Kandyse McClure) tries to decide whether small-town life is right for her, Doc (Tim Matheson) faces a legal issue at his clinic, Hope (Annette O’Toole) explores her past, and Denny (Kai Bradbury) and Lizzie (Sarah Dugdale) await the arrival of their first child.

Virgin River Season 7 debuts March 12 on Netflix.

Let’s Unveil the Making of a Virgin River Wedding