Netflix's romantic drama series Virgin River has just debuted its fourth season, and the various parallel character stories of the small California town have new ups and downs for everyone involved. That includes Virgin River's mayor Hope McCrea, played by Annette O'Toole. While her role in season 3 was much more minor, Virgin River brings her back into the show's main fold once again.
In Virgin River season 4, Hope McCrea is having to face the challenges of healing from the injuries of her bad car accident. Hope's husband Doc (Tim Matheson) is remaining very supportive of her during Hope's recovery period, and Hope's determination to return to normal life forms the backbone of her story in season 4.
We speak to Annette O'Toole on what Virgin River season 4's story entails for Hope McCrea, Hope's challenges in overcoming the impact of her accident, and a bit about what Virgin River season 5 will be about.
Screen Rant: With Virgin River entering season 4, what can you share about where Hope McCrea's story is at the beginning of the season?
Annette O'Toole: She is recovering from a traumatic brain injury that she had in a car accident, and she's actually doing pretty well compared to most people who have these injuries. I think that with our showrunner Sue [Tenney], it was a really nice way to leave everybody hanging about 'Is she going to come back or not?', and the reality is coming back from that is a hard road.
So, we're taking a little bit of license in that with the time element, people can recover from these kind of injuries, but her recovery time is very short! So, we see her at home and each episode, she's coming back a little more. I don't know if she'll ever be exactly the same, we'll see, but she will be similar to what she was.
Going off of that, in recovering from a traumatic brain injury like that, how does that recovery process play into her story in season 4?
Annette O'Toole: Well, it affects everything in her life, mainly her relationship with Doc, because he is a doctor, he's more knowledgeable than a normal husband would be about her injury. It's a very devastating thing, and he's of course very concerned, so she's used to being very independent and going where she wants and doing what she wants to do, and it's difficult and really throws a wrench into their relationship, which is not on solid ground anyway. They haven't been back together after their estrangement for very long and then this happens, so they keep getting things thrown into their path, but they're dealing with it.
I think they have a real true basis of friendship and love between them, and I think they're a great couple and a really interesting example that marriage can be whatever you decide it's going to be. The fact that they still want to be together after a very long, tumultuous relationship is great, it's very positive. In other ways, Hope is very frustrated, she wants to recover immediately and she's a very impatient and it doesn't help that, so she's going to be plagued with some very physical issues, balance issues, a lot of headaches, a dependence on some medication she doesn't want to take. So, you can imagine, it's pretty much what her reaction you would think would be.
The last couple of seasons of Virgin River, like everyone, you'd had to work through the pandemic, and things as far as film and television productions have adapted in the two years since it began. What has the experience of making Virgin River been with the pandemic and especially more recently as things have gotten more under control?
Annette O'Toole: Season 3 I only participated in from home, because it was impossible for me to get to Vancouver. My mom is 96 - 94 then - and taking care of her part time, it was this situation that was impossible, and I was really, really grateful that Netflix understood and Sue wrote around it and I was able to do some scenes from home. My younger daughter Anna works in film production, and she was able to come up with her iPhone and film four scenes that they plugged me into the show. So, I wasn't completely gone from season 3, but I was not on set and I only know what they told me, which was a bit scary. There wasn't a vaccine then and it was a hard time, and my heart goes out to them having to deal with that. It's hard enough having to deal with a pandemic, but they were very careful about it.
Coming back in season 4, everybody's vaccinated, we're masked all through rehearsal and we only take our masks off right as we're going to shoot, and there's one person on set who has these zip-lock bags with our names on them that we keep them in when we're shooting. So, they're very careful about our health, we're tested at least three times a week, because it's a very physical show, it's a very romantic show with a lot of close contact between the actors. So, this year seems like a lot of the same, and the tests are more rapid, although some of the tests are whatever the other kind is, molecular or whatever, about once a week we do that. There's a whole procedure and I feel completely safe and taken care of, as much as I can be, and probably more on this set than in the real world with the new variant.
Trying to avoid spoilers for season 4, what are some of the more memorable moments or some of your favorite scenes for Hope in season 4 of Virgin River?
Annette O'Toole: Well, they've already put out the pictures about it, so I don't think it's a real spoiler, but there's a renaissance fair. Everyone's dressed up for the renaissance fair, and for me, every time there's been a big event like the Moonlight Mingle or the big fair we had outside, those are my favorite things to shoot, because everybody's there.
It's a show where I have a storyline that's mostly with Tim Matheson, and a little bit with Alexandra [Breckenridge] and little bit with Sarah Dugdale and a few others, but I don't get to be with a lot of the other people. So, it's wonderful whenever we have a big thing like that, because we get to sit together and talk and catch up. We have a lovely cast and I love being with all of them, so to me, those are my favorite things as an actor and also in the show, it's great to see them all interacting in one place. The renaissance fair was great, we shot it in this really pretty place with silly costumes, so it'll be fun to see who is what.
So, with Virgin River season 5 greenlit - again, avoiding spoilers - what can you reveal about what's in store for season 5?
Annette O'Toole: Well, you know, I don't know a ton about it, because we don't get the scripts until a couple of weeks before we shoot them. I know that Hope is on the road to recovery and she's going to get better, and I'm hoping that there's going to be more of her doing her mayoral duties than we've seen her do. Politics on a local level like that is really interesting and we haven't really seen that side of her. We've seen Hope in the kind of side of it of just showing up and drinking free coffee, all the perks of being mayor, but to see the real work of being mayor and that see really is dedicated to that, to see that side of her is going to be really interesting, I think.
And there will be another big event, which I can't say what it is, but that does seem to be a theme of every season where we do have one big thing where everybody comes together, and it's very exciting. I wish I could say more about it, but it's a more important event than what we've had in the past of just having a gathering. But for all of season 5, I probably only know a little bit more than everyone else right now! Something I love about Netflix in general is, with all 12 episodes, you can either go through the whole season at once or sit down and make it last, and you get to choose your own adventure of how you want to take it in.
Virgin River season 4 is now streaming on Netflix.