Brie’s Hardest Change But: Zibby Allen Talks Season 7 of Netflix’s ‘Virgin River’

Speak Credit score: Netflix

Season 7 of Virgin River places Brie Sheridan in the most emotionally jagged position the character has faced since her frantic arrival on town. She is currently suspended between stability and passion, security and vulnerability. Her arc this yr isn’t ethical about a romantic triangle; it’s a forensic notion on the lingering effects of trauma and the monstrous prospect of essentially trusting one’s possess instincts.

I sat down with Zibby Allen to dissect Brie’s psychological panorama, the “horse metaphor” that cracked the character delivery, and why the Mike vs. Brady debate is basically a mediate for Brie’s possess identification disaster.

This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity and length.

Originally of the season, Brie tells Mike she wanted to cherish him but merely couldn’t give him her entire heart. Out of your standpoint, became once that a moment of clarity, lastly winning the rush?

Completely. Clarity lastly caught up alongside with her. She’s been arduous herself combating between her head and her heart for a truly very prolonged time. Inspect, she and Brady occupy a straightforward, nearly mobile chemistry. When she’s physically advance him, she feels this habitual paradox: the most abandoned and the most have confidence on the staunch same time.

The right kind hurdle is the “day-to-day.” Can she have confidence what a purposeful relationship with Brady essentially appears to be love? She’s been negotiating between a stable, “safe” lifestyles with Mike and something with Brady that would possibly perchance perchance upend her world. When she lastly tells Mike the truth, the phrases nearly beat her to the punch. It came out earlier than she became once ready to tell it due to admitting it intended mourning the “functional” resolution.

The fandom has change into nearly tribal over the Mike vs. Brady contention. Decide up you mediate this legend became once ever essentially about picking a man, or became once it about Brie picking which version of herself she became once sharp to dwell with?

That is perfectly put. That is precisely it. It’s a series of identification. Every relationship invitations a varied aspect of her personality to the table. Brady is the bad route, no ask. But for Brie, he’s indisputably the extra attention-grabbing version of her lifestyles.

Virgin River S7. (L to R) Martin Henderson as Jack Sheridan and Zibby Allen as Brie Sheridan in Episode #707 of Virgin River S7. Cr. Courtesy of Netflix © 2025

There is a pivotal moment involving a horse this season. Clay aspects out that Brie handles the animal the same skill she handles her lifestyles: with a ways too essential regulate. Did that metaphor click for you without delay?

It clicked without delay. Brie has deep-seated have confidence disorders, and they’re fully justified. We favor to be conscious she landed in Virgin River after a huge betrayal by a companion who then assaulted her. She isn’t ethical struggling to have confidence males; she’s struggling to have confidence her possess inside compass. Within the viewer’s timeline, that trauma became once seasons ago. In Brie’s lifestyles timeline? These wounds are silent incredibly contemporary. Have confidence is the gravity of her entire legend.

When Brie lastly announces her cherish for Brady, is she formally clocking out of “survival mode”?

She has to let traipse of that instinct to jump, but the survival mode never undoubtedly vanishes. That’s what makes the reconciliation compelling, she’s picking Brady even whereas the alarm bells in her head are silent ringing. Followers in most cases shout on the show, “Trusty develop a resolution!” She does. But she isn’t doing it due to she’s 100% particular this would possibly perchance perchance work. She’s doing it due to she’s sharp to steal a jump of faith to procure that sense of abandon she’s denied herself her entire lifestyles.

Virgin River S7. Zibby Allen as Brie Sheridan in Episode #706 of Virgin River S7. Cr. Courtesy of Netflix © 2025

Brie’s trauma is rarely always portrayed by “TV outbursts.” It’s shown by hesitation and her fierce empathy for folks love Charmaine. How develop you abet that trauma feeling lived-in as adversarial to performative?

Most folks carrying trauma don’t dwell in a permanent assert of high-octane emotion. It’s a tint on the lens by which you see the sector. It presentations up as a second-wager or a subtle flinch in an day to day conversation. I strive and bring Brie’s entire history into every frame, even when the dialogue doesn’t explicitly mention her past.

When Brie goes into “Authorized legit Mode”, defending Preacher or assisting Charmaine, she turns into incredibly silent. Is that her safest identification?

It’s the set apart she’s most confident. It’s also a Sheridan sibling trait she shares with Jack. They every occupy this inherent ought to repair issues; they every occupy pretty of a hero complicated. For Brie, ethical work is a channel for her energy. Helping Charmaine this season became once her skill of reclaiming vitality that became once stolen from her.

Season 8 is already in the works. Decide up you prefer to favor to notion her end in this assert of emotional resign, or develop you mediate she’ll retreat abet into regulate?

I’m tiny in what I do know, but I’ve instantaneous the writers I hope she retains surrendering. She lastly made a proper resolution. Of route, Brady’s accident throws a huge wrench into that. You ethical hope the trauma of that accident doesn’t fear her abet into her shell.

Virgin River S7. (L to R) Zibby Allen as Brie Sheridan and Marco Grazzini as Mike Valenzuela in Episode #706 of Virgin River S7. Cr. Courtesy of Netflix © 2025

There has been talk of a capacity time leap. Decide up you mediate that will income the characters?

I don’t know the writers’ belief, but a time leap most often is a attention-grabbing skill to notion how these folks evolve outside of the instant crises we in most cases apply.

Searching on the prolonged-timeframe horizon, is there an expertise Brie hasn’t had yet that you’re itching to play?

I’m uncommon about Brie’s motherhood. She’s tricky, but seeing that nurturing aspect most often is an unparalleled evolution. Many folks heal their past by the households they assemble. Seeing her wrestle by that alongside Jack would be a essentially stout-circle moment for the Sheridans.

Beyond the River: Zibby Allen’s Portfolio Outside the scripted drama of the Sheridan family, Allen is aggressively constructing her possess artistic slate. Her major level of interest upright now is The Hollywood Trot, a income event scheduled for September 27th on the Wilshire Ebell Theatre in Los Angeles. The undertaking is deeply private; Allen based the unique event 15 years ago following the inability of her brother to suicide. What began because the “Tiny one Dragon Fund” to gasoline toughen packages in his memory has developed real into a huge industry collaboration.

The logistics of the “Trot” are a stress cooker for creatives: 5 writers, 5 directors, and 25 star actors find to conceive, write, and rehearse 5 ten-minute plays, all inside a single 24-hour window. “It’s such a essentially wild, unique, one-evening-most effective, flee-by-the-seat-of-your-pants nights of theater,” Allen explains. This yr’s roster contains a couple of Virgin River mainstays, with Alexandra Breckenridge, Benjamin Hollingsworth, and Kandyse McClure all confirmed to hit the stage. Every cent of the proceeds from sign sales and donations goes without delay to FosterMore, a nonprofit dedicated to enhancing outcomes for foster youth.

Beyond the stage, Allen is rising a tv adaptation of the e-book Women folks of the Canyons. The series is a historical “female Western” following four girls folks who abandoned the stifling Victorian society of the early 1900s to forge original, unruly lives in Santa Fe, Original Mexico. “I love acting extra than anything,” Allen says of her multi-hyphenate occupation, “but I also cherish rising. I’m able to’t ethical sit down and rely on the phone to ring”.

As for the podcast with co-huge name Alexandra Breckenridge, the actuality is one of logistical burnout as adversarial to an absence of hobby. Because the duo produced the total first season independently, handling every technical and artistic aspect themselves, the workload became unsustainable alongside their filming schedules. Whereas they’re proud of the “special season” they captured with the Virgin River cast, a second season is unlikely. “There’ll be something around the nook,” Allen teases, noting they occupy got already obtained 5 original collaborative suggestions in the works, “perchance now no longer one more podcast, though”.