Virgin River’s Feel-Good Christmas Episodes ‘Balance Out the Darkness’ of Season 5: ‘It Was All By Design,’ EP Says

If you’re looking for one of the year’s best Christmas movies, Netflix just dropped it — and it’s not even a movie.

Now streaming, the two episodes that make up Virgin River Season 5 Part 2 deliver more comfort and joy than you’ll find in any basic cable holiday flick. And after enduring the exact opposite with Part 1 earlier this year, the fans of this show need it now more than ever.

“It was all by design,” showrunner Patrick Sean Smith tells TVLine. “These two episodes technically are still part of Season 5, so to balance out some of the darkness, it was fun to lighten the mood and get everybody ready for the holidays, which is such a natural extension of Virgin River — cozy, family, feel-good. There’s plenty of that in these two episodes, which I’m really proud of.”

Putting aside the miscarriage that nearly broke her in Part 1, Mel spends Part 2 laser focused on tracking down her estranged biological father, the Virgin River resident with whom her mother had an affair many years ago. It’s an emotional journey, full of twists and turns, that ultimately ends on a hopeful note… immediately followed by a cliffhanger that will leave you guessing until Season 6.

Meanwhile, Lizzie works up the courage to tell her mother that she’s pregnant, Cameron and Muriel reach an unexpected crossroads in their relationship (after slaying the town Christmas pageant!), Hope and Doc make an impulsive decision in the spirit of the holiday, and Charmaine finally — and we do mean finally — goes into labor with her twins.

While there’s no guarantee that Virgin River will fend off the darkness forever (hey, the drama’s got to come from somewhere!), Smith at least confirms that Season 6 will be “miscarriage-free” and without any natural disasters, assuring us that “the identity of Season 5 is limited to Season 5.”

And that’s a gift we can all be thankful for.

Have you checked out any of Part 2 yet? Grade it in our poll below, then drop a comment with your thoughts on Virgin River‘s long-awaited first Christmas episodes.