Virgin River Season 7 Explains Charmaine’s Fate – And Exposes the Charmaine Problem

No one can forget Virgin River Season 6’s final moments as Jack witnesses a disturbing scene when he enters Charmaine’s home.

We’ve waited with bated breath for Virgin River to return so we could find out what had Jack so rattled, and the season certainly delivered the answer to that during the first few moments.

But it also highlighted something the series often struggles with regarding Charmaine’s arcs.

Virgin River Season 7 is currently streaming on Netflix. Please note that there are spoilers for the full season below. Don’t proceed if you want to avoid extensive spoilers!

What Did Jack See in the Twins’ Nursery?

The season premiere confirms that Charmaine and the twins are alive, and that’s enough to put us at ease.

Unfortunately, there is a dead body in the mix here.

Apparently, the body Jack finds in the twins’ nursery is Calvin. He has a gunshot wound, and there are now a million questions about who shot him and what happened.

And they’re also able to quickly dispel any concern that Charmaine or her babies will meet a similar fate.

Mike is on the scene and notes CCTV footage confirming that Charmaine and the twins have fled.

And now there’s a whole other question that needs answering. Where are Charmaine and the twins? And did she kill Calvin?

Where is Charmaine?

It’s a pretty significant question, and by now the news has gotten around that Charmaine is missing.

But, ironically, it’s a concern that dies down pretty quickly.

The premiere and second episode have Jack and Mel, especially expressing genuine concern about where she is and if the twins are safe and okay, and it’s something that is wracking Jack’s mind.

We also see in the second episode that Mike and Preacher are at the bar, briefly theorizing about what may have happened and why Charmaine may have fled.

It’s the working theory the cops have, and it prompts Preacher to remind Mike of the entire situation with Paige. Preacher is willing to consider that something bad happened, and if Charmaine fled, just like with Paige, it’s because it was dangerous and she’s afraid.

With this perspective, Mike starts to consider that, because Calvin was a dangerous man, many people wanted him dead.

He thinks that maybe Charmaine saw something, or she “got spooked” and took off.

Brie gets a mysterious call from Charmaine, which leads her to try to meet Charmaine at a motel outside of town, but Mike shows up there at the same time because the people have traced Charmaine’s phone line.

Unfortunately, when they get there, Charmaine is gone.

Did Charmaine Kill Calvin?

At the motel, Mike and Brie remain tense because of their relationship, and Brie’s involvement in the case frustrates him.

But Brie says that Charmaine called her seeking legal advice, and she spends the rest of this mystery operating as Charmaine’s attorney as well as friend.

They find Charmaine’s phone all smashed up at the hotel, but nothing else.

But Charmaine officially becomes a person of interest because Mike shares that they found blood fingerprints at the crime scene, and the blood belonged to Calvin, and the prints were Charmaine’s.

Mike starts to consider that Charmaine may have killed Calvin and fled.

Is Charmaine Running from the Law?

This sets up a situation where Charmaine’s mystery serves as a story arc focused on Mike and Brie navigating the tension in their non-relationship and working together more than anything else.

Brie feels she’s on the cusp of having to defend Charmaine in a murder trial, potentially, and she expresses guilt for pushing Charmaine to get that restraining order against Calvin.

It’s something she confides in Jack about, and it proves useful when Brie gets a tip about Charmaine, and Jack confirms that Charmaine used to work at a bar called Juvy.

At the bar, Brie gets the owner to open up about Charmaine.

The latter apparently came in scared, looking for a fake ID, and knew the barkeep had a hookup for them. Brie also learns from the owner that Charmaine suspected that someone was following her. It’s more information than Mike was able to secure.

Who Took Charmaine?

The duo’s next lead is heading to the salon where Charmaine worked, and they talk to the owner, Grant Pope, who is forthcoming and says Calvin has been harassing Charmaine.

He even suggests that someone from Calvin’s criminal dealings likely killed him.

However, he gets squirrelly when an employee shares that she saw a guy with a cowboy hat following Charmaine.

This leads them to Brady, hoping for background information about Calvin’s employees, and Brady tells them about an unhinged man named Wild Bill who works at a pawnshop.

Mike doesn’t get a warrant for the pawnshop and Wild Bill, but he takes him into custody anyway.

Charmaine’s Kidnapper is Also Calvin’s Killer

By Virgin River Season 7 Episode 8, Brie happens to be walking through town when she bumps into Grant Pope, the owner of the salon.

He grills her about Charmaine and if the police know anything, and Brie notes that Grant really seems to care about Charmaine.

But then she notices baby diapers in the backseat of his car.

It’s directly after he shares that he doesn’t have family and that the people who work at his salon ARE his family. She immediately calls and leaves Mike a message about it.

And then she opts to follow Grant as he drives away. She follows him to his home and sees him going in with the diapers.

Meanwhile, Wild Bill finally admits to watching and following Charmaine on Calvin’s behalf. Because Calvin was protective of his sons, he didn’t want any other man around them.

Apparently, Grant Pope was the “creepy salon guy” who was obsessed with Charmaine and getting too close.

At Grant’s house, he warns Brie about following him being a mistake, and she interrogates him about Charmaine and the babies.

When she hears babies crying, she wanders around the house until she finds a locked door with Charmaine shouting from the other side. Grant pulls a gun out on Brie, and she has to talk him down as he claims he was trying to protect Charmaine because he loves her.

Charmaine’s Mystery Wraps Up Neatly

When Brie succeeds in getting Grant to show her that Charmaine and the babies are safe, we get our first glimpse at Charmaine — in Virgin River Season 7 Episode 8, practically the entire season has gone by.

We also learn that Grant warned Charmaine that she couldn’t go home, and we hear the full story of what happened.

Calvin busted into Charmaine’s house when Wild Bill told him that Grant was there. He was convinced that Grant and Charmaine were a couple, and he attacked Charmaine because he didn’t want another man around his children.

Grant shot Calvin to protect Charmaine, at least, that’s his perspective on the matter, whereas Charmaine seems to express some haziness on whether or not Grant had to shoot Calvin.

Charmaine fled because she was scared, but Grant tracked her down at the motel and abducted her because he didn’t want to go down for murder.

Brie succeeds in talking Grant down, and by then, Mike arrives to arrest him for murder and kidnapping, while Child Protective Services clears things with Charmaine, and all is well. They wrapped up the arc.

Virgin River Still Doesn’t Know What to Do with Charmaine

It’s no secret that Charmaine is a polarizing character. After many of the stunts she pulled in the first few seasons of the series, she’s proven to be a problem.

However, it seemed like the series finally squashed a lot of that, and that maybe Charmaine could turn a corner in the series.

For many years, she expressed hurt and frustration because she felt like an outsider in Virgin River, and the community never embraced her the same way as others.

The more seasons pass by, the easier it is to understand her position. This season is a prime example of how Virgin River routinely shafts Charmaine.

She and her babies went missing after a murder happened in her home, and yet it remained such an insular storyline because, after the first episode, it was like the only people who cared about Charmaine at all were Mike and Brie.

Charmaine Deserves Better

Jack and Brady would offer the occasional comment, but otherwise, life went on as if it was business as usual in Virgin River, and Charmaine’s disappearance felt like a footnote in a town where they rally for every minor thing someone may be going through.

Charmaine isn’t even the center of her own story with this plot point. It’s mostly used as an arc to put Mike and Brie together; they can have tension and work through their messy romance and the love triangle.

Ultimately, Charmaine is once again serving as a plot point for someone else’s love story.

They didn’t even breadcrumb this story in a way that felt meaningful. Did we ever even meet Grant before all of this?

No matter how dire the circumstances, she’s always this afterthought to all of Virgin River.

It was the perfect plot point that would have brought the entire community together to rally behind finding or saving her, but instead, it was reduced to a C-plot that Charmaine herself wasn’t even part of.

We didn’t even see her until near the end of the season, and once Brie and Mike rescued her, it shifted to Brie’s love life, and we never actually revisited the aftermath of the traumatic experience Charmaine endured.

She disappears offscreen altogether without so much as a meaningful scene with Brie or Mike or a sweet reunion with anyone else in the community.

Charmaine deserves better, and this latest plot proves as much.

Alright, Virgin River Fanatics. Let’s keep the conversation going — how do you feel about Charmaine’s fate and how the series handles the character?

Say something in the comments, share if you dig it, and keep reading. Independent voices need readers like you.

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