It's High Time We Finally Admit Jack Is the Worst Part Of Virgin River
While Virgin River is nearing three and a half years on air and fans are eagerly waiting for season 5, we think it's about time we address the elephant in the room.
Amongst the show's amazing cast and characters, a specific someone stands out quite a lot. We're talking about Martin Henderson in his role as Jack Sheridan, of course, but the issue is with Jack, not with Martin himself…
Even though, admittedly, he doesn't exactly give off those romantic novel hero vibes.
Jack's a former US marine suffering from PTSD who opened a bar in Virgin River after returning to the mainland. Apart from that's a massive thorn in the backside for many.
The issues with Jack begin basically from day one as we start getting acquainted with him through Mel's eyes. Let's start with season one.
Jack's attitude towards Charmaine is the first red flag: it's sad and borderline pathetic, the way he tries to avoid any sort of commitment or responsibility.
Jack insists that there's nothing more to his relationship with Charmaine than just friends with benefits… After they've been together for two years.
When you decide to be friends with benefits with someone, stick with them for a couple of years, and then give them the ignorance treatment, this says quite a lot about you as a person.
If your partner is giving you hints and commitment clues, ignoring and denying them is inappropriate: it must be sorted out one way or another.
It's not like Charmaine is such a nice person and Jack is not; it's just the fact that no one deserves to be treated this way, and running from responsibilities is childish and dumb either way.
In the next season, Jack seemed to be improving: he managed to handle most of the stress related to Charmaine pretty well, and overall was being a more decent person…
Until he wasn't, because, in season 3, he started being an a-hole again.
Always second-guessing and questioning each Mel's word, not trusting her (the one person who cared about him) acting like a douche, and finally, going for the good old "I must break up with you to save you"...
Mel was totally right to kick him out.
We know that there were reasons for all of this: Jack's had a tough life, many awful experiences, PTSD, etc. But it doesn't justify his attitude towards both Mel and himself.
Instead of trying to open up to her and explain the state he was in, he just kept building these unnecessary walls, drowning his grief in whiskey, and being a total ass towards the woman who cared about him.
Jack's arc is literally painful to watch, and it has been since the first season.
We can only hope that he finally improves in the next season as he showed some symptoms of becoming a somewhat responsible and adequate human being both in season 2 and at the end of season 4.