Did preacher shoot Jack on Virgin River?

Hint: It's definitely not Brady.

Warning: This article contains spoilers about Virgin River season 4.

For more than a season, "who shot Jack?" has become the new "who shot J.R.?"

Even Martin Henderson, who plays Jack, says it was what he was most eager to find out before starting season 4. And at last, we have an answer.

Despite the fact that Brady (Benjamin Hollingsworth) was arrested at the end of season 3 for the shooting, he was not the culprit. In fact, it wasn't even anyone connected to Calvin (David Cubitt) and the drug operation. It was Vince (Steve Bacic), twin brother of the late Wes (also Bacic), Paige's (Lexa Doig) abusive husband and father of Christopher (Chase Petriw).

Virgin River. (L to R) Martin Henderson as Jack Sheridan, Alexandra Breckenridge as Mel Monroe in episode 412 of Virgin River. Cr. Courtesy Of Netflix © 2022

When Vince came to Jack's bar looking for Preacher, Jack immediately recognized something was wrong, grabbing a butcher knife from behind the counter. An altercation ensued, resulting in his shooting.

But with that question finally answered, what does it mean for Virgin River? In Brady's case, Hollingsworth hopes it means he is finally able to integrate more into the community.

"I really hope that Brady moves on now that he's exonerated from shooting Jack," he says, before joking, "We all know Brady's a good shot, so if he was really trying to shoot Jack he wouldn't have shot him in the leg. Anyway, I'm really excited have Brady be out of that cloud and hopefully rejoin the community of Virgin River. This might be an opportunity for him to move away from that fringe and that antagonist cloud that he lives under and repair relationships. He is dating Jack's sister and inevitably that's going to come to a head at some point. I would love to see that relationship have more meaning and explore maybe an apology or some resolution to the conflict and then go beyond that. I hope Brady starts to become a little bit more of a town friendly local and less of an on the fringe bad guy."

And now that Jack is healed from his shooting and on the way to becoming a father, we hope he's out of harm's way and ready to have that conversation with Brady.

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While Brady – who served in the army alongside Jack – was arrested in the season 3 finale and certainly seemed to be the number one suspect, something didn't feel quite right about the way detective Mike (Marco Grazzini) reached that conclusion.

Those who've started streaming the new episodes will know that season 4 reveals who did in fact shoot Jack, but if you're still wanting to explore the various theories then read on to find out the various suspects within the Virgin River cast who could have shot him.

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Brady

Suspect number one at the moment is Dan Brady – Jack's army friend who's spent the last two seasons getting involved with some seriously shady people. After falling out with Jack at the end of season one, Brady joined alliances with local drug lord Calvin and only worsened their friendship when he tried to buy Lilly's farm under false pretences on behalf of the marijuana-growing gang.

While season 3 saw Brady try to turn his life around, he was arrested in the season finale after police found a gun in his car – but is the answer that straightforward?

Jack and Brady aren't on the best of terms and we know Calvin, Brady's boss, would ideally like him out of the picture after he convinced Spencer, one of his men, to work with the police so it's possible that Calvin asked him to assassinate Jack.

In season 3, we saw Calvin threaten Brady before saying, "on the plus side, I guess you did try to make up for everything considering what happened to Jack," implying that it was in fact Brady who shot his former Marine buddy.

That being said, we know that Calvin ordered Brady to kill Spencer and that he couldn't do it, instead helping Spencer and his family escape Calvin's clutches and faking his death for the gang.

Benjamin Hollingsworth, who plays Brady on the show, spoke to TVLine about the rumours, saying: "I'm pretty sure Brady is on everyone's suspect list.

"I wouldn’t be surprised if the fans are placing bets about who ended up shooting Jack — and I wonder what the over-under is on Brady,” he added. “When I play the role, I try to dance that line of ambiguity between his intentional actions and actions he might have done out of resentment or anger.

“I want to leave the possibility open that it could have been him, because it is possible. I’d like to believe that he didn’t, but that’s because I’m playing him. Being so close to him, I don’t believe he’s someone that would do that, regardless of his state of mind. But it’s impossible not to make him a suspect.”

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Calvin

If Brady didn't shoot Jack, then it'd be a safe bet to say Calvin (or rather one of his men) did.

The local drug lord has had it out for Jack since he began meddling with the growers' business by discouraging Lilly from selling her farm to them and convincing Spencer to work with the police to bring Calvin down.

We know Calvin would ideally like Jack to be bumped off after having Brady and Jimmy intimidate him and telling Brady in the season three first-look that he'd "made up" for helping Calvin escape with "what happened to Jack". It's very possible that Calvin is behind the shooting.

Charmaine

Some fans are convinced that it's actually Charmaine (Lauren Hammersley) – Jack's former flame and the mother to his twins – who pulled a gun on the bar owner.

While an unlikely theory, we know Charmaine hasn't handled Jack's rejection of her and his new relationship with Mel very well, and on occasions she's taken that out of both Jack and Mel by being incredibly difficult and demanding.

Of course, killing Jack would be counterproductive for her – her twins wouldn't have a father and she would no longer get any financial support. However, in the trailer for season three, we see she's found a new man Todd (Patrick Sabongui), telling Jack: "I know you were having a hard time adjusting to the whole being a dad thing but now Todd's here and I'm not alone, so you're free." Was Charmaine trying to take Jack out of the picture so she could start a new life with the twins and Todd?

Speaking to TVLine about the theory, Lauren Hammersley said: "It's possible!" while Martin Henderson, who plays Jack, said: "I always joke that it's most likely Charmaine. It does pop into your mind!" I guess we'll have to wait for season three to find out.

Wes Logan's twin brother

For those who need reminding, Wes was the abusive husband of Paige Lassiter, who Paige accidentally killed whilst defending herself. In the final episode of season two, we meet Wes's twin brother (Steve Bacic), a police officer who has travelled from Miami to Virgin River to find out what happened to his missing brother. He suspects Paige had something to do with it and that Preacher was close with Paige, threatening Preacher and asking him to pass on a message to Paige.

Could Wes Logan's twin brother have been the one who shot Jack? Hear me out – perhaps he returned to the bar that night with the intention of shooting Preacher but ended up firing at Jack instead. Either way, we're sure we'll see a lot more of Wes's twin brother in the season to come.

Learn more about where Virgin River is filmed and how to read the Virgin River books in order.

Virgin River season 4 is available to stream on Netflix. Looking for something else to watch? Check out our guide to the best series on Netflix and best movies on Netflix, or visit our TV Guide.

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