Virgin River fans slam 'pointless' storyline as absent character leaves them baffled

Virgin River fans have been left confused and frustrated over a storyline that seemingly went nowhere after several seasons of build-up.

Baker Paige Lassiter (played by Lexa Doig) played a key role in the series from season one onwards and struck up a close relationship with Preacher (Colin Lawrence).

After leaving her abusive marriage to Wes (Steve Bacic), Paige moves to the small town of Virgin River only to be pursued by her ex-husband's twin brother, Vince.

Vince ends up shooting Jack Sheridan (Martin Henderson) and kidnaps Paige's son Christopher (Chase Petriw) but is revealed to have been arrested in season five.

However, fans were disappointed when, after all that, Paige simply decided to leave town at the start of season five, not appearing in the series since.

One disgruntled viewer recently took to Reddit to ask what happened to the storyline after such an unsatisfying conclusion.

The user posted: "They go through all this s**t and in the end, she just leaves town and they don't even end up together.

"After all the built up, he ends up with this random firefighter with whom he has zero chemistry no less, unlike Paige," they added, throwing shade on Preacher's new love interest Kaia Bryant (Kandyse McClure).

They continued: "But really, what was the point of this entire weird, B-story arc about Preach doing all this for Paige?

"There is no payoff for him. I am thinking maybe the writers had a bigger role for the actress playing her and she probably could not fit it into her schedule or something - which makes sense given that she was pretty much entirely absent in later seasons and then only she came back to wrap up this loose end."

Since the start of her stint on Virgin River, actress Lexa has landed roles in major shows like Goosebumps, The Power and Chucky, as well as the Aurora Teagarden Mysteries TV movies, so the theory she was too busy to commit to a full season of the Netflix hit could be accurate.

Other fans have been left equally let down by the outcome, especially considering Preacher and Paige's storyline in Robyn Carr's original novels.

"I've always wondered this as well. Went on so long and for what?" one viewer replied.

"I assumed the actress got another acting job so they wrote her off," another said.

A third added: "They surely must have intended them to end up together as they are in the books. So IDK what happened but I agree it was just unnecessary."

And a fourth replied: "In the books, Preacher does end up with Paige. My guess is the writers didn't know she was leaving the show."

Could Paige eventually come back if things don't work out between Preacher and Kaia? Or was accidentally letting slip an "I love you" in season five a sign Preacher's ready to settle down?

Virgin River is available to stream on Netflix.