The CWWe told you this Michael (Brett Dier) situation would be torture for everyone. Literally everyone.
At the moment, it's a particular torture for fans of Jane (Gina Rodriguez) and Rafael (Justin Baldoni), because Rafael's so mad about the return of Michael that he fully kicked Jane out of their house in the final moments of tonight's episode, because she was just too confused. Her husband's her husband again, and now her decision about whether or not to send the divorce papers is more complicated than ever.
Michael did exactly what many fans expected him to do, and tried to leave quietly without telling Jane the truth, but then Jane accidentally caught his eye as he was getting in a cab to leave, and she immediately knew what had happened. Jane tried to call Rafael immediately, but Raf was so excited about work that she put it off, which obviously didn't help.
Meanwhile, Petra (Yael Groblas) was dealing with the return of her mother and trying to text JR (Rosario Dawson), and it resulted in one of the best #Jetra scenes in the history of the show as Jane and Petra got drunk and made impulsive decisions, and later, we saw Xiomara collapse after dancing with Mateo at Grandparents' Day. We'll talk about all that in a sec, but first we got the scoop from executive producer Jennie Snyder Urman on Rafael's heartbreaking decision.
E! News: So I understood Rafael's reaction, but at the same time, he was the one who brought Michael back to her and seemed so understanding at first.
Urman: "He brought him back to her because what else could he do? And in these moments, you can't anticipate, you can never plan how you're going to feel, and I feel like that's such an important part of life in general. It's like you think you can take things a certain way and then all of a sudden they happen and your feelings are bigger than your plans. For Rafael, he had to bring him back and the hope is that he brings him back and then Jane helps him and then she says, OK, he needs to leave, cause I'm with you, and here we are. And it's just not that clean and simple for her, because it's so confusing. So based on her reaction, his feelings change too. And he gets reminded--he gets his memory back too, we say in episode four. He remembered all those moments where he wasn't chosen, and it just becomes too heartbreaking for him. You just kind of have to go into self-preservation mode."
So everything has changed, but Rafael is still thinking this is exactly like the first season when she picked Michael.
"And he doesn't even want there to be a choice. He doesn't want there to be a moment. He wants it to be, 'of course he's back, but that means nothing to me because I'm with you.' That's his fantasy. And you know, that could happen, but it's kind of impossible for that to happen if your husband comes back from the dead. It can't be as clean and as easy as he wants, but that doesn't mean it's not what he wants, and it's not valid and it's not heartbreaking when he doesn't get it. And you know for him, he's been through so much and he's gotten over his ego in really significant ways, and seeing Michael back and seeing Jane torn, it's the fact that she's torn that is just too much torture for him, and he has to ask her to leave and give him space."
I find this new Michael very fascinating, because he's like a mix of Michael and Jason. Is he even the same person then?
"Exactly. He has Michael's memories now. He has Michael's memories, but he also has the four years where he has evolved and changed as well in a significant, significant way. And you know, just because he got his memories back, he didn't flip back into who he was, 'cause he also knows what the last four years felt like. So now he himself is a different kind of person, and it's really a dramatization of the ways that we change, the subtle ways that we change over the years. And he's had a more drastic change, but it's all part of the same theme. It's just his had a bigger, more telenovela-esque proportions."
So the fact that Michael's still not exactly Michael is going to factor into Jane's decision, too?
"It's all going to factor in. All of it's going to factor in—who he is, who he was, who he is now, what they want, how their life looks. That's all of the things that she's going to start to explore in the next three episodes."
I have to talk to you about Jane and Petra, because those drunk scenes were just my favorite.
"Yes, mine too. And you know, that's its own love story—platonic love story obviously, but their relationship and where they started and where they got to, and how Petra and Jane becmae family from bitter rivals and people who had nothing in common to people who still don't have very much in common, but who love each other and who are there through thick and thin and who look at each other as family, and a real friendship has formed, and a real sense of who they can rely on. I don't think either of them could ever imagine their lives without each other now, and that's a growth and change that I've also been really interested in, that I really love how these two very different women have come to be each other's support throughout this journey."
Xo's OK for now after collapsing, but should we still be worried about her?
"Yeah, she obviously overexerted herself, but you have to be worried because she hasn't gotten her PET scan and she doesn't know if her treatments have worked, and we're going to resolve that, but it's not for a few more episodes. And once that information is dropped, then you'll be able to see she moves on from there."
To be quite honest with you, that's not a very comforting answer, but pretty much nothing right now is a comfort except maybe for Petra and JR's rekindling romance. That's currently all we have, no matter who you ship Jane with, but as Urman told us last week, Jane's struggles with choosing between her husband and her almost husband will be resolved in just a few episodes, so we've just got to wait patiently. Inhala, exhala.
Jane the Virgin airs Wednesdays at 9 p.m. on The CW.