“Virgin River” is not “Outlander,” even if there are a lot of erotic scenes in the books. The creator of the series explains why Mel and Jack’s romance is developing slowly and what’s next for sex. Spoilers!

Have you seen episode 2 of season 2 of “Virgin River”? If so, feel free to read on. If not, come back later, because there are more spoilers about the romance between Mel (Alexandra Breckenridge) and Jack (Martin Henderson).

Why is the romance in Virgin River developing slowly?
This is a plot that is developing quite slowly, even though there are nice sparks between the series couple: we had to wait almost until the end of season 1 for their first kiss, while Mel and Jack go to bed for the first time in episode 2 of series 2. Virgin River showrunner Sue Tenney tells TVLine that she wanted to wait a bit.

Alexandra Breckenridge says Mel and Jack’s first time together is “nice and tasteful” and romantic and satisfying. There are no premium cable sex scenes on Virgin River, and there won’t be any.

“I think our show is 14-ish, so there’s not a lot of body parts that you can show. We also have a very wide age range in the audience, from younger viewers to older viewers, and I don’t think everyone wants to see a full-on sex scene like in True Blood. And I did a scene like that on True Blood once,” the actress says.

The showrunner admits that she wanted the story to unfold slowly on Virgin River, and Netflix didn’t mind. That’s why there wasn’t a big time jump between seasons.

“We’re sticking to a shorter time frame, which I haven’t done on other shows I’ve worked on. But we were afraid we would miss out on some really great stuff between these characters. They didn’t try to rush us or speed us up. They let us tell the story, and as a storyteller, that’s catnip,” Sue Tenney says of Netflix.

Finally, the creator assures us that the show in this form is also approved by Robyn Carr, the author of the Virgin River books, who personally called her after Season 1.