Episode 330: Kandyse McClure returns

The YVR Screen Scene Podcast

Late last month, Kandyse McClure won a 2024 UBCP/ACTRA Award for her work as fearless firefighter Kaia Bryant on Netflix’s wildly popular dramatic serial Virgin River. Audiences first met Kaia early on in season five, when she delivers a baby on the side of a mountain with Mel and Cameron consulting over FaceTime. From the jump, it’s clear that Kaia is an alpha woman: she’s confident, shoots back sipping tequila, and goes after what she wants, which by the end of that first episode is Preacher, played by Colin Lawrence – and the fact that she has a douche-canoe of an estranged husband and a high-octane career aren’t going to hold her back from getting what she wants. As season five ends, Kaia is Virgin River’s new fire chief, and Kaia and Preacher are building something new together. Things would be perfect if it weren’t for the fact that the body of an abusive asshole that Preacher buried seasons before in order to help Paige has just been unearthed. What does this blast from the past mean for Kaia and Preacher? We’ll get closer to some answers to this and many other questions when Virgin River returns for its highly anticipated sixth season on December 19. In this fascinating interview, Kandyse dishes on what she learned about fighting fires from the pros, where Kaia ends and Kandyse begins, her Virgin River scene partner Colin Lawrence, and that fan-favourite leap over the bar. Episode sponsor: UBCP/ACTRA