Virgin River season 6 episode 2 recap: Preacher's murder trial takes a devastating turn

Virgin River season 6 episode 2 sees Preacher's future hanging in the balance while Mel gets to know her father better.

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picks up right before Mel and Jack’s romantic spring wedding, but it's not all love hearts for the couple because this season also promises fresh twists and turns, escalating love triangles, as well as uncovered secrets from Mel’s father’s past which will transport us to the magic and mystique of Virgin River in the 1970s. Here is everything that happened in season 6 episode 2..

. The second episode opens in a flashback to the 70s, and a young Everett is driving along listening to a news report about the Vietnam War on the radio before seeing a woman around his age on the side of the road trying to hitch a ride. He stops his VW campervan for her and they flirt as she tells him she is heading to San Francisco for a peace march, while he reveals he is more of a 'sex, drugs and rock and roll' kind of guy.



As she gets in the van she introduces herself as Sarah and their love story begins. In the present day, Mel and Everett are walking by the river as Everett recalls meeting Sarah, and Mel is surprised to learn that her parents met while Sarah was hitchhiking. Back in the 70s Sarah and Everett are getting on like a house of fire when the van hits a pothole in the road and they have to take it to a garage to get fixed.

It's going to take a while, so they have to camp overnight in Virgin River. Back in the present day, Jack is getting ready to go on the witness stand at Preacher's trial. Jack is nervous and Brie tries to prep him for what he might be asked in the stand.

At Jack and Mel's wedding barn, Hope and Lizzie have come to give Sugar his breakfast, however, they find he has collapsed and is seriously ill. With the vet unable to make it until that evening, Hope calls Doc and he races there to help. He finds that one of Sugar's wounds from the wire is infected so he puts manuka honey in it, which is antibacterial, and bandages up his leg.

Get the What to Watch Newsletter The latest updates, reviews and unmissable series to watch and more! Meanwhile, the sewing circle girls arrive at the clinic to persuade Muriel that she needs to get back into dating and reveal they have set her up with someone online called Walt Booth. Muriel is reluctant but eventually agrees, especially when she sees Walt's photo. At the courthouse, Jack is on the witness stand and he's asked about his time in the Marines with Preacher.

He gives his friend a glowing character reference and it seems all is going well until the DA plays a voicemail from Preacher to him lying about what happened the night of the murder. Brie is furious as she didn't know anything about the voicemail being used as evidence and tries to get the line of questioning shut down, but the damage has already been done. Meanwhile at Everett's house, Mel is checking his heart after his procedure the day before, while also using the opportunity to ask him more about her mom.

In another flashback we see them camping and Sarah takes the photo of Everett playing his guitar, which is the one that Mel saw on her father's sideboard. As Sarah and Everett sit around the fire and Everett plays the guitar, they end up kissing. Time then jumps forward to the next day when they reach San Francisco and Sarah finds the peace march that she is meant to be joining.

As she runs off into the crowd, Everett realizes he doesn't even know her surname and she says it doesn't matter, becasue fate will bring them back together one day. In the present day, Everett is telling Mel about his past and says that her mum was a hopeless romantic but even the best love stories have a tragic ending. Mel says she used to think the same thing because she was married before, and tells her father all about Mark, her husband she lost, and says that although it was an awful time, the end of one love story is the beginning of a new one.

Later at a prenatal yoga class, Mel meets a mum-to-be called Marley who is a surrogate for a couple who have come with her to the class. They are overbearing but kind, and Mel talks to Marley about being a surrogate, admitting that she and Jack have started the adoption process but it has taken a backseat for the moment because of the wedding. Back at the courthouse, everyone is reeling about the voicemail.

Jack and Brie both blame themselves, and Brie decides to try and get Jack's testimony struck from the records. Brie is shocked when Jenkins, the DA, offers her a plea bargain for manslaughter. She tells Preacher, who isn't sure what to do.

Brie says as his lawyer she would advise he takes it becasue he could be out of jail in a year, whereas with murder he is looking at 25 years to life. But as his friend, she thinks he should fight to clear his name. Elsewhere, Lark is on the phone crying and when Brady asks what is wrong she lies that her mom is sick with kidney disease and needs dialysis but doesn't have insurance.

We know this is her trying to get her hands on Brady's money but he has no idea she's playing him and he offers to pay for the treatment. At the clinic, Mel is trying to talk to Doc about her father but is getting nowhere as Doc still refuses to divulge what went on between them all those years ago. At the same time, Donny arrives and asks his grandpa for an internship at the clinic so he can get some hands-on medical experience.

Doc doesn't take a lot of persuading before he says yes. Elsewhere the sewing circle women are trying to help Muriel decide what she should wear for her date with Walt, however as Muriel is putting on a dress she feels a lump in her breast. Mel tells Jack about her dad, talking about how he is still in love with her mom, and that she thinks it is fate that she came to Virgin River and met Jack just like her parents met in the same town all those years before.

Jack thinks it is simply coincidence, but Mel has a more romantic outlook on things and believes in fate. Back at the courthouse Preacher and Kaia talk about what he should do and he eventually decides to fight to clear his name. Kaia tells him for the first time that she loves him and is right beside him every step of the way.

But is he making the right decision not to take the plea bargain?.