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‘Jane the Virgin’: Watch the 7-minute monologue unpacking that Michael twist

"Jane the Virgin" star Gina Rodriguez.
(Carolyn Cole / Los Angeles Times)
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OK, friends! We’re back!

The CW’s “Jane the Virgin” returned Wednesday for its fifth and final season and began to unravel its Season 4 finale twist: The return of Jane’s dead husband, Michael, who now goes by Jason for reasons we’ll get to in a second.

Actress Gina Rodriguez’s titular character had a lot of unpacking to do — not just for her impending move-in with baby daddy Rafael (Justin Baldoni) — and she did so expertly in “Chapter Eighty-Two’s” seven-minute monologue performed around a kitchen table while her mother (Andrea Navedo) and grandmother (Ivonne Coll) listened intently.

(Fair warning: Spoilers ahead.)

Michael’s (Brett Dier) telenovela-style resurrection and the amnesia that erased his identity were plenty for fans to grapple with in the Season 5 opener. And it was plenty for Jane, too, as she told the tale of four seasons in the fast-paced, tragicomic monologue.

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It took the Golden Globe winner, who also directed the episode, about an hour and a half to learn the speech, and four run-throughs. She nailed it the first time, but performed it a few more times to have options.

“It’s easy to memorize because I know the story. It’s not like [writer-creator] Jennie [Urman] threw in some wacky new information,” Rodriguez told reporters at a table read in September. “She had me talking like a normal human being would, going from one thought to the next seamlessly and realistically. When you’ve got magic, it’s butter. It’s nothing.”

The scene is framed by a writer’s inability to write when her life is upended yet again. So Jane gets into how she’s handling not being a widow anymore, jogging Michael’s memories, dealing with her almost-engagement to Rafael and how she’s supposed to explain the whole saga to their young son.

Watch it below, and see if you can hold back your tears better than Rodriguez.

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Twitter: @NardineSaad

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