The Virgin River Timeline Is All Over The Place & Fans Are Thoroughly Confused

It has been four years since Virgin River first debuted on Netflix in our real life timeline. Let us consider all that has happened in our universe since 2019. The pandemic shut down the entire world for nearly two years, that’s a big one. There have been wars and natural disasters and even an insurrection at the U.S. Capitol. The death of a queen, the coronation of a king. In some ways, that’s almost nothing in comparison to what has happened on Netflix’s Virgin River. Especially when you consider the timeline of events for that fictional little town.

Note: Spoilers for Season 5 of Virgin River are ahead!

So much happened has happened since Virgin River Season 1.

Let’s go back to the beginning of Virgin River, when recently widowed and heartbroken nurse Mel Monroe (Alexandra Breckenridge) arrived in the small town in northern California after being hired by Mayor Hope McCrae (Annette O’Toole) to assist the local doctor Vernon “Doc” Mullins (Tim Matheson). There she met local bar owner Jack Sheridan (Martin Henderson), who was dating Charmaine Roberts (Lauren Hammersley) but quickly fell head over heels for Mel.

Since then, here’s a super brief rundown of what has happened. Charmaine got pregnant with twins, said they were Jack’s and then they weren’t and has been pregnant ever since. Doc and Hope reunited then broke up then reunited and have gone through serious health struggles. There has been a murder, a death, a wildfire that nearly destroyed the town. Jack and Mel got together, got engaged, got pregnant, moved in together, suffered a miscarriage, decided to build a house, Mel found out about her biological father who just happened to live in the area, and drug lords were running the local construction site.

It’s been less than a year in Virgin River time.

All of this has happened, and yet Jack and Mel just celebrated their first Christmas together on the Season 5 finale, meaning they’ve known each other for less than a year. And let’s never forget, Charmaine was pregnant for four seasons and just gave birth on that same episode, which seems to point to a timeline of around nine months since the first episode since she welcomed the twins early.

Think about all of the relationships that have come and gone like Brie (Zibby Allen) and Brady (Ben Hollingsworth) that felt like they were such a massive deal but in this timeline would only have happened for maybe a month or so.

Fans cannot wrap their heads around this timeline.

As much as fans love Virgin River, they are really struggling to figure out how so much could possibly happen in so little time, especially in a town with a population of about 25. Even Charmaine couldn’t help saying something about how slow times moves there.

She didn’t even name her babies, you know that’s going to take at least two seasons.

So when will Season 6 of Virgin River take place?

After time crawling along in Virgin River on Netflix, fans will be excited to learn that Season 6 of the series will feature a time jump. Series showrunner Patrick Sean Smith told Deadline that things will move pretty quickly in Season 6 of Virgin River, saying there is “another time jump from the holidays to when Season 6 starts.”

As long as fans get a happy ending and a wedding for Jack and Mel at some point down the road, we’re all good.