Mel Is Pregnant In 'Virgin River' — So What Happens Now?

Season three of beloved Netflix romance drama Virgin River ended on a major cliffhanger for Mel and Jack. No, not the news that Mel (Alexandra Breckenridge) is pregnant—every Virgin River fan had been all, "Wait, is Mel pregnant?" for half the season—but that Mel underwent IVF during her breakup with Jack (Martin Henderson), and the baby she's expecting may be the biological child of her late ex-husband, Mark. Season three ends with that bomb being dropped: "Jack, I don't know if you're the father," Mel says, and then the credits roll.

What does this mean? We knew, as viewers, that Mel and her late husband Mark had frozen embryos available, and we knew that Mel thought Jack didn't want another child (given that he's already expecting twins and revving up for a giant custody battle with Charmaine and Todd). We also knew that Mel and Jack broke up for a couple of episodes when Jack wasn't sure he could give Mel what she wanted, which is presumably when she underwent IVF. Now, Mel is pregnant, just as she wanted—but in another twist, it turns out Jack does want to have a baby with her (he was just confused!), and yet the baby she's carrying may well be biologically Mark's child.

So, who is the father of Mel's baby?

The big question! And one that will no doubt hover over season four, especially since Jack is already going through a lot. He's still suffering from PTSD from his service, which no doubt was exacerbated by being shot in his own bar—we still don't know who did that, even though Jack and the police think it's Brady—and he has twins on the way with ex-girlfriend Charmaine, who wants Jack out of the picture so she can raise the twins with her new husband Todd. That's three children on the way, if we're counting.

As for Henderson, who plays Jack, he was as taken aback as the rest of us. He told TV Line his initial reaction was: "Dude!", adding: "It’s obviously such a giant bombshell...It’s nice and juicy, but it’s a big pill to swallow."

Breckenridge, for her part, told TV Line she had to spend some time trying to understand Mel's motivations. "It makes more sense to me at the end...While I was going through it, I was like, ‘What is Mel doing? This is a crazy thing to do!’" She added: "It’s a huge thing for a person to do, and it shows just how much she wants to become a mother. When you’re under emotional duress, you act in ways you wouldn’t normally."

But fans had another big question...

Is Alexandra Breckenridge pregnant?

Breckenridge is happily married and a mom to two kids, Jack and Billie, so fans wondered if the storyline had been written into the series because she has a third child on the way. Of all the questions hanging over this series, this one's the easiest to answer: Breckenridge is not pregnant. She even shared a video to Instagram of her trying on fake pregnancy bumps for season four, which reportedly starts filming later this month:

What will happen to Mel and Jack in season four?

Showrunner Sue Tenney shed some light in an interview with Entertainment Weekly. "Jack is very much a man of his word, and very much, very much in love with her...Jack and Mel, their love and their commitment to each other, that doesn't change. How he feels about her does not change. There's circumstances that happen around them—and the reactions and how they deal with those things." She added: "The idea that he is going to be having three children with two different women so close together is going to be very interesting."

But don't worry: Even if things get rocky, they'll work out in the end. Tenney told TV Insider: "In the series, eventually, they are going to get married."