The groundwater may be getting poisoned by the pot growers, but IMO the biggest health hazard in Virgin River is stupidity!
Jack: The minute Charmaine introduced herself as his girlfriend he should have realized she was getting way more serious than he was and broken it off with her. And when Mel tried to explain it to him he should have listened, FFS.
Mel: Just because she wanted a child so badly, she assumed that the best thing for Jack would be to have a family with Charmaine. Never mind that he plainly did not love Charmaine and would have ended up divorcing her someday.
Charmaine: Telling Mel that she should leave town so she’d have a chance with Jack was beyond stupid. In Mel’s shoes I’d have told her “Look. It doesn’t matter whether I stay or go. It‘s been two years. If he hasn’t fallen in love with you by now, it’s never going to happen.”
Hope: Telling Doc to date other people is dumb enough, but freaking MURIEL, of all people? WTF was she thinking?!
Brady: Arrogant, entitled moron.
I swear, Preacher is the only person in Virgin River with half a brain.
And then there are the plot cliches.
Charmaine’s pregnancy bombshell the minute Jack and Mel get together: Soap Opera 101 and done to death. The only surprise is that she wasn’t faking it to trick Jack into getting back together.
Paige’s backstory turned out to be exactly what I figured it would be, and the abusive husband being killed by falling down the stairs during an argument was predictable, too. (And was already done in one of the book sequels to Home Fires.) I just wished she’d pushed the SOB on purpose.
Hope pushing for the divorce and then balking at the last minute was all too predictable as well.
And BTW, the scene where a bunch of ladies were knitting? Only one of them apparently actually knew how. Connie with the double-pointed needles plainly had no clue what to do with them.