The Real It-Couple of ‘Virgin River’ Isn’t Jack and Mel. It’s Denny and Lizzie
To know them is to stan them.
It’s out with the old, in with the new in the latest installment of Netflix’s Virgin River. Season 5, Part 1 of the beloved romantic drama dropped on Sept. 7, bringing with it the customary avalanche of bombshells mostly having to do with paternity. But fans of the series will have noticed a change in the air this season as Denny and Lizzie, the Gen Z heartthrobs of Virgin River, took center stage. The hierarchy of power in the quaint northern California town has shifted away from sad sacks Jack and Mel and towards doomed lovers Denny and Lizzie, the Romeo and Juliet of the streaming era. And thank God for it.
Every binge-worthy streaming drama includes at least one teenage love plot. Think Ty Townsend and Annie Sullivan in Sweet Magnolias. These kids give us that punch of innocence and young love in the most harmless of ways… usually. Denny and Lizzie are different from their trope-ey peers who almost always play it safe. These two are beautiful, endlessly fun and actually messy misfits who stumble into positions of influence in the tiny town of Virgin River — all while carrying out a tragic romance. Denny, played by Kai Bradbury, is suffering from a terminal illness. Lizzie, played by Sarah Dugdale, showed up in Season 2 as Connie’s naughty grandniece; she’s now a reformed town hero with a gaggle of old ladies for BFFs.
Denny and Lizzie’s thrilling, absurd love affair will leave you wondering why you watched the comparably boring Jack and Mel fret over Charmaine’s pregnancy for four seasons. To honor Virgin River’s new It-couple, we’ve rounded up every hilarious, adorable and otherwise iconic thing about Denny and Lizzie’s existence that’s bound to warm even the most hard-hearted non-believers.
Lizzie Is Basic, and Denny Is Literally Dying
Other than the sheer fun of it, a deep-dive into Denny and Lizzie’s doomed romance is required reading given what’s next for the pair. In the Season 5, Part 1 finale, Lizzie tells Denny that she may be pregnant. Reader, she is 19 years old, and he is suffering from a terminal illness. They are the moment.
Think of it this way: Lizzie (just Lizzie — she doesn’t have a last name and, frankly, she’s above all that) is so amazing that a dying man would pledge his final days to nothing but her happiness. For starters, she’s unabashedly basic. Canonically, her favorite movies are The Notebook, Notting Hill, and Bridget Jones’ Diary. Her parents are loaded, so she stole a Wet N Wild mascara as a cry for help. She is perpetually mean-mugging while trapped inside Paige’s bakery truck. You just know Aunt Connie has told her, “If you keep making that face, it’ll get stuck that way!”
Lizzie once kissed two boys in one day — at a Renaissance Fair, no less! She skips around town in short-shorts with a bare midriff. She’s the only person in history to pull off Kelly green. She bullied you in high school. When Timothy Olyphant went blonde, he used her photo as a reference. None of this will stop us from declaring her Mother of the Year if, or when, she has that baby.
At first blush, Lizzie’s teeny-bopper sparkle makes her an odd mate for an old soul like Denny. Then, you remember his own California-boy ethos. He’s a Stanford dropout who once said, “Just carb-loading for a day of rock climbing.” He also said, “If I could get paid to stare in your eyes all day, I would” — to Lizzie, of course. He’s still sore over losing out on class president in high school to the kid who bribed voters with lollipops. He drives a famously unsafe Jeep because, well, he has Huntington’s disease. But he won’t let his diagnosis rob him of joy. And, ironically, it’s former wild-child Lizzie who has the strength of character to stick with a man she knows she’ll lose prematurely.
Everything They Do Is Instantly Iconic
We’d be remiss not to mention the absolute fact that Denny and Lizzie (but mostly Lizzie) are the heart of the Virgin River community. Somehow, they’ve become town heroes while retaining their messy teenage ways. It makes for perfect television.
Case in point: Denny and Lizzie first hooked up in Hope and Doc’s guest bedroom. The easy choice is the parents’ bedroom, but these two are made of sterner stuff. So they skipped a generation. Plus, they fearlessly ventured out into the wildfires to save Burt (the local towman with whom they have never interacted) and Lydie, Lizzie’s ex-boyfriend’s grandmother. In classic oppressed matron fashion, Lydie refused to vacate her home during a life-or-death situation; when she finally gave in, she tried to bring all her old photobooks with her. Lizzie not only saved her life, but took her down a peg: “Your memories aren’t in that house, Lydie. They’re in your heart” followed by “Also, you have like four million boxes in your car already.” Lizzie knows that, sometimes, tough love is the only way.
Lest we forget, Denny and Lizzie nearly perished in the wildfires because, as Hope tells it, they don’t know about car radios. What do they do but serve Spielberg Face while trapped in a car, Jurassic Park-style? And how do they cope with their near-death experience? Why, they use it as inspiration, of course! Lizzie goes from Hope’s at-home caretaker to her Chief of Staff, which is really the second-most-important position in Virgin River’s town governance. Denny swoops in with that Stanford brain and coins their re-election slogan, “Hope and Liz Mean Biz!” All this do-gooding begs the question: What the heck have Jack and Mel done lately?
They’re Only Friends With Old People
Despite their aggressive Gen Z energy, Denny and Lizzie are surrounded by oldies and they couldn’t be more thrilled about it. Lizzie went to the spa with her octogenarian gal pals, and they got kicked out for starting a mud fight. And you know what? She probably had a perfectly lovely time.
Seriously, think of the transformation Lizzie has undergone since Season 2. She went from trying to seduce a thirty-something Brady into getting her a beer to stitching Virgin River back together with the knitting circle ladies, one crochet cozie at a time. Not all heroes wear capes. Some don crop tops.
For his part, Denny is just as devoted to the wrinkled community as Lizzie. He had the chutzpah to track down his long-lost grandfather and show up at his doorstep unannounced. Then, he used his trust fund to pay off Doc’s mortgage on the clinic — which should, of course, be renamed in Denny’s honor. It’s called public service, people.
So the next time one of Jack and Mel’s tragedies gets you down, remember that the real superstars of Virgin River, Denny and Lizzie, are waiting in the wings, plotting their gradual takeover. No safer hands than theirs.
