‘Jane the Virgin’ Premiere: The Return Of Michael & Show’s Original Love Triangle
SPOILER ALERT: This post contains details of tonight’s final season premiere of the CW’s Jane the Virgin.
After delivering a bombshell of a cliffhanger in the Season 4 finale where Michael was resurrected in the final seconds, Jane the Virgin started its fifth and final season by explaining the twist. No, it is not Michael’s twin (that telenovela trope already was used for Petra and her twin sister). It was a different classic telenovela twist: This is Michael but he has amnesia, calls himself Jason, lives in Montana and doesn’t remember anything.
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It turns out that the Jane the Virgin writers planted the seeds for an amnesia storyline long ago when Michael woke up after getting shot and asked Jane, “Who are you?” before adding, “I’m just kidding.”
Michael’s memory wipe was done by Rose for reasons that are yet unknown but Luisa, whose location Rafael had to give up to her ex Rose in order to get the criminal mastermind to cough up Michael’s whereabouts, is going to try and find out.
Despite Jane’s best efforts to jog Jason’s Michael-Jane memories, Michael is still gone, while Jane is struggling with her identity, not sure whether she is still a widow, a married wife or a single woman .
The ordeal is even worse for Rafael who went from the verge of proposing to Jane to bringing back Michael and reigniting the show’s original love triangle.
How will that triangle, which brings Jane the Virgin full circle, play out?
“I know that not everyone’s going to be happy,” Jane creator/showrunner Jannie Snyder Urman told TV Line. “I think the majority of people want Jane to be happy. Everybody has got strong opinions, and that’s great.. I don’t expect to please everyone, but I do hope that they can understand the choices that she makes and can understand why it’s right for her in this moment.”
Fans quickly formed their opinion, getting firmly behind Rafael, with #Rafael trending in a big way worldwide Wednesday night. Most of the tweets were dubious that the love Jane professed for Rafael in the end of the season premiere would lead to a happily ever after for the rest of the season but, especially after Rafael’s emotional breakdown in Xo’s arms, which showed how much Jane means to him, everyone appears to be on Team Rafael.
Was bringing Michael a mistake that Rafael will regret? “I don’t think he could do anything else. To be a worthy, honest partner for Jane, I don’t think he could, because he couldn’t live with himself, knowing he’s out there and he didn’t tell her,” Urman told TVLine. “At the same time, doing it was going to make his life a thousand times worse, in every way, so it was very selfless. And it’s torture for him.”
Also in the episode, it was revealed that the person JR shot in the finale was Petra’s ex-husband Milos. JR eventually ended her relationship with Petra blaming Petra’s lying.
In other developments, Rose is now the boss of a Charlie’s Angels-style group of young women who look like they are up to no good.
The premiere also included an epic seven-minute monologue by Jane, delivered by star Gina Rodrigues in a single continuous shot. Watch it here:
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