What happened to Mel's husband Mark in Virgin River? Everything you need to remember ahead of the season 5 Christmas episodes

What happened to Mel's husband Mark in Virgin River and what happened to Mel and Jack's baby? Here's a catch-up on the major plot twists of season 5 that you need to know before watching the Christmas episodes.

Virgin River is the slow-burn drama on Netflix that we have been obsessed with for years! But the problem with binge-watching this show so quickly is that we can never remember what's been happening by the time new episodes air! On November 30th, the show released two festive episodes for Christmas for Virgin River season 5, but here are the main recaps you may need to remember ahead of watching these two episodes... 

What happened to Mel's husband Mark?

So we knew from pretty early on that Mark, Mel's first husband died which is what encouraged her to uproot her life and move to Virgin River. But the show kept things a bit vague about how Mark died - until the fourth season when the whole story was revealed.

Mel revealed that after failed attempts of IVF she and Mark were arguing about whether to try again, even though their marriage was struggling. It was revealed that Mel blames herself for Mark's death because they were arguing about this topic when he was driving and they ended up in a car accident that caused Mark's death. 

What happened to Mel and Jack's baby?

Throughout season 4, Mel was uncertain whether her pregnancy was caused by Jack or the implantation of her late husband's embryo. It was revealed at the end of season 4 that Jack was in fact the father of Mel's baby, but sadly the excitement was short lived. 

In the fifth episode Mel is helping wildfire victims when finds that she has suffered a miscarriage. She begins bleeding and confirms that there is no heartbeat when she performs an ultrasound on herself. She breaks down at the end of episode six and tells Jack, 'I'm so sorry,' as she weeps on his shoulder, without explaining anything more, he understands what has happened.

Is Lizzy pregnant with Denny's baby?

At the end of episode 10 of season 5, Lizzy told Denny (Doc's grandson) that she thought she was pregnant! This was quite a shocking revelation as the couple hadn't been dating for too long and they are both so young. In their conversation at the carnival, Denny told Lizzy that he was thinking about travelling and going to med school and leaving Virgin River. He asked Lizzy if she'd consider coming with him, which is when she dropped the baby bombshell - which will surely be revisited in the two Christmas episodes!

Who is the father of Charmaine's twins?

Poor Charmaine has been pregnant since - well it seems like the dawn of time, and for a lot of that time it was thought that Jack was the father of her twins. However, in the explosive tenth episode of season 5, the father of Charmaine's babies was revealed. Calvin, the pot-dealing drug Kingpin who Brady worked for at Emerald Lumber is in fact the father of the twins!

This was revealed when Calvin hobbled over to Charmaine at the car park of the carnival and told her, "I wanna be a father to my boys."