Virgin River Season 6 took a trip back into the past to open up the first chapter of Everett (Callum Kerr) and Sarah’s (Jessica Rothe) grand romance. Naturally, Mel’s parents would have an epic love story of their own — and the younger versions of Everett and Sarah didn’t disappoint.

As the show travels back to the 1970s, a chance encounter changes the trajectories of Everett and Sarah’s lives. As soon as Everett spots Sarah hitchhiking and locks eyes with her, they fall into orbit.

“He sees this girl at the side of the road, and time slows down,” Kerr told Swooon. “The moment they catch eyes for a second, he slams on the brakes. He’s like, I’m going to play with fate here.”

When Everett meets Sarah, he’s “full of excitement and wonder.” He’s traveling around, playing music, and trying to “find inspiration in different parts of America.” Love isn’t exactly high on his priority list, but when he crosses paths with Sarah, he doesn’t shy away from it.

Courtesy of Netflix

“What I personally love about her relationship with Everett is that when she first meets him, she’s not pining away for him,” Rothe noted. “She’s not doe-eyed, and I love that this is a story where a strong, badass woman shows up, takes a man and sweeps him off his feet, and he can’t stop thinking about her. I think very often we see the inverse portrayed, and it’s fun to kind of have her be the one that has more confidence, more surety, and more of a sense of where she’s going in the world, even if those ideas she has continue to morph and change and grow.”

Sarah’s introduction in Season 6’s flashback is our first glimpse of Mel’s mother. Her fate is preordained. She dies when Mel is young, devastating her family and Everett from afar. In the 1970s, Sarah is embracing her freedom and everything life may throw her way. Rothe loved dialing into a woman who “not only was ahead of her time but also went through the world with so much love. She was just so who she was all of the time. I loved that she made such an impression on Everett, but also that she continued to make an impression on Mel even after she had passed.”

Sarah and Everett’s love story is complicated, to say the least. This is Virgin River, after all. It’s unclear why Sarah and Everett couldn’t make a relationship work long term, an aspect of their tale that could easily be explored in future flashbacks or the potential prequel series. Even though Sarah and Everett’s romance doesn’t have a happy ending, Rothe doesn’t think it makes their love any less powerful.

“We all have that person that was our first love that we never stopped thinking about, that you just are drawn back to time and time again,” she said. “I think everyone can relate to that feeling of when you find your person, and sometimes fate is generous with that. I love that Sarah’s practical, but she’s also an optimist. She knew she and Everett were going to find each other again, and she has faith in the world in those ways.”

The small-town Netflix drama has already been renewed for Season 7. Showrunner Patrick Sean Smith told Swooon that there are more plans for Everett and Sarah flashbacks in the next season. Kerr and Rothe already have potential story ideas.

Courtesy of Netflix

“I don’t know how the story is going to go, but I think it would be cool if he gets drafted and then he runs away from it, and then he’s going to get arrested because he doesn’t go,” Kerr revealed. “I think it would be really cool if he did something along the lines of the Vietnam War because that’s kind of where we almost leave our relationship. I wonder if that’s going to come back.” He quickly added, “I would love to play young Everett again. So if the opportunity arises, I’ll be waiting eagerly by the phone.”

As for Rothe, she wants to dive into “more of the first summer that they met and fell in love and experience them as a functional or dysfunctional happy couple, living together, and having this experience. I also think it would be really interesting to go into some of the more complicated aspects of both of their lives, and why Sarah at various points has found herself drawn back to Virgin River, whether it’s Everett or other things, and go a little more into the ways that maybe her life hasn’t turned out how she thought it would, but also the ways that she still is an optimist and finds the most beautiful version of the situation that she’s being handed because I really love that part of her.”

Mel and Jack are Virgin River’s central love story, but Everett and Sarah have added another layer. Just before their wedding, Mel takes Jack to the meadow where Everett brought Sarah decades before to pick flowers for their ceremony. The past and present intertwine, giving Mel an opportunity to connect with her mother like never before.

Rothe has recognized the similarities between the two couples. “I think there is a version in both of them that they could have been mortal enemies or great lovers. Luckily for both of them, they ended up beautiful, passionate, fiery lovers,” she noted. “I think that both couples respect each other a lot, and both of them strive and push the other to be the best person that they can be.”

The actress pointed out that Sarah and Everett have a “star-crossed” romance compared to Mel and Jack. “They were always kind of ships passing in the night. They had these beautiful, out of body experience moments where they got to freeze time and be with each other,” she said about Sarah and Everett. “But I think they just never quite landed together. Some of that can be credited to the time and expectation and both of them, I’m sure at different times, being a little pig-headed about things and expectations from Sarah’s family of the kind of woman she was supposed to be and the life she was supposed to have.”

What did you think of the Everett and Sarah flashbacks? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.