Relationships are at the heart of Virgin River, whether they’re romantic, platonic, or familial. Over the course of Season 7, our favorite Virgin River couples faced emotional challenges and massive life changes, with quite a few relationships in jeopardy by the final episode.

After seasons of heartbreak, Mel (Alexandra Breckenridge) and Jack (Martin Henderson) finally became parents in Season 7 via adoption. The newlyweds also enjoyed a romantic honeymoon in Tulum before welcoming their baby boy. However, going into Season 8, they won’t be able to rest until their newborn is out of the woods after being diagnosed with a heart defect.

Brady (Benjamin Hollingsworth) and Brie’s (Zibby Allen) love story is in jeopardy after Brady’s motorcycle crash in the final moments of the Season 7 finale. One couple whose relationship is in even deeper trouble? Doc (Tim Matheson) and Hope (Annette O’Toole). Their finale fight will echo into Season 8, and nothing is off the table — not even divorce. Showrunner Patrick Sean Smith spoke with Swooon about where each major couple stands at the end of the Season 7 finale and what’s next in Season 8.

Virgin River, Season 8, TBA, Netflix

Netflix

Mel & Jack

At the end of the season, Mel and Jack welcomed their baby boy. The couple went through the adoption process with Marley (Rachel Drance), and Mel delivered her baby in the Season 7 finale. The road ahead won’t be easy for the new parents because their newborn needs surgery for a heart defect, but the arrival of baby Sheridan is a long-awaited miracle for Mel and Jack.

Smith knew he wanted Mel and Jack to become parents in Season 7 because “to hold off any longer would feel like a stall for the audience.” He was “excited” to explore the adoption storyline because it’s “personal to me, and I have a lot of insight into it that I thought was something I hadn’t seen before.”

Eli (Austin Nichols), one of Mel’s past loves, surfaced in Season 7. He’s also the doctor who will save baby Sheridan’s life, so he’ll be back in Season 8 to shake things up for Mel and Jack.

“It’s a whole new energy that we haven’t had on the show before. Specifically, a man from Mel’s romantic past, because all we ever had was Mark, and Jack had Charmaine and his first wife. It just felt like a fun opportunity to continue to grow her backstory out, and keep digging into this character as much as we can.”

Netflix

Brie & Brady

Brie and Brady just can’t catch a break. These two continued to circle around each other for most of the season. Brady’s love for Brie never changed, but Brie needed to figure out what she wanted her future to look like — and the man she wanted to spend it with. In the end, all roads lead back to Brady. Following a very sexy motorcycle hookup, Brady and Brie finally got on the same page about their feelings, but their bliss was short-lived. Brady got into a motorcycle accident in the Season 7 finale, and his fate is uncertain.

“They’re a tortured couple. I think we were looking at, once we got them together, how to make it feel interesting and not just like everybody’s kind of just living to walk down the aisle and get married and live happily ever after,” the showrunner explained of the latest twist for the couple. “I think eventually that’s going to start to feel like Joanie and Chachi, feel obligatory, as opposed to something that feels earned and an experience. So we’re looking at all of our couples with that sort of in mind, and trying to have them all stay in their own lane, dealing with their own respective things.”

Netflix

Kaia & Preacher

Preacher (Colin Lawrence) and Kaia’s (Kandyse McClure) relationship was solid in Season 7, which was such a good thing after so much turmoil in earlier seasons.

Smith noted that Season 7 for Preacher and Kaia was “one where we really kind of wanted to just pull back. In Season 5, he was in the fires, and then he was meeting Kaia, and she was married, and then he’s on trial for murder.”

The stability of their romance helped as Preacher tried to figure out his next step and whether that meant stepping out of Jack’s bar and building something of his own. “You want to see these people grow,” Smith said, and that’s exactly what Kaia and Preacher will be doing in Season 8.

Netflix

Doc & Hope

Doc and Hope’s Facebook relationship status at the end of Season 7 is: It’s Complicated. When Doc decided to work with Grace Valley Hospital (and the doctor who put his medical license at risk) by the end of the season, Hope was furious. “I fought tooth and nail for your legacy, and you gave up the fight without even having the decency to talk to me first,” Hope told Doc in the finale.

Could this be the beginning of the end of Doc and Hope? “I think we’re really going to see their relationship and their marriage at a crossroads,” Smith said about the couple in Season 8. “What I thought was interesting is when characters get to be of a certain age, you hear people talk about the ‘gray divorce,’ when people divorce later in life.” He’s not saying this will be the case for Doc and Hope, but it’s possible.

“I think where we find Hope in Season 8 is she’s really on this journey of self-exploration. She found out this information, she knew her dad to be one way, and Roland explained that he was counter to that, so she was able to grieve him in the end. But now, she’s kind of looking back on her life and questioning the choices that she made that were under false pretenses, from what she thought her father was. She really shakes things up in Season 8, and to Doc’s fear, she’s operating from a place that he hasn’t seen before, and that disconnection is what’s threatening to keep them apart forever.”

Netflix

Lizzie & Denny

Lizzie (Sarah Dugdale) and Denny (Kai Bradbury) welcomed their baby girl at the start of Season 7, and the young couple faced plenty of challenges as they adjusted to life as new parents. The EP acknowledged that Lizzie and Denny are “the youngest characters on the show, and they talk more about palliative care end-of-life stuff.”

In Season 8, Smith teased, “We really just wanted to try to lighten them up a little bit and remember their youth, despite them having a kid.”