‘Jane The Virgin’ EP Teases ‘Big Twists’ in Season Finale, Changes for Season 2

“It’s going to feel like the conclusion to part one of our story,” showrunner Jennie Urman tells TheWrap

The fact that Jane will give birth on the season finale of The CW’s “Jane The Virgin” is not a surprise, so the telenovela-based drama will be throwing in all sorts of other surprises to keep viewers on their toes.

“The first season has been shaped around Jane’s pregnancy so because she’s having the baby, there’s going to be a lot of emotion,” the show’s executive producer Jennie Urman told TheWrap ahead of Monday’s season finale. “It’s going to feel like the conclusion to part one of our story. At the same time, there are going to be huge things thrown in that are going to launch our second season. I’m excited to see how the audience reacts to all the twists we have thrown in.”

Of the storylines that are currently being juggled include Jane’s (Gina Rodriguez) complicated love life as she vacillates between her ex-fiancee Michael (Brett Dier) and baby daddy/ex-boyfriend Rafael (Justin Baldoni); Rafael’s ex-wife Petra (Yael Grogblas) continuing to try to manipulate her way back to him; and Jane’s parents Xo (Andrea Navedo) and Rogelio (Jaime Camil) navigating their own on-again off-again relationship.

Urman doesn’t promise a neat resolution to anything in Monday’s episode, so it’s a good thing the show has already been renewed for a second season.

Below, Urman teases what to expect in the finale, which characters everyone will be talking about come Tuesday morning, and how things are going to change in Season 2.

TheWrap: Tell us a little about what to expect in the season finale.
 Jennie Urman: The first season has been shaped around Jane’s pregnancy so because she’s having the baby, there’s going to be a lot of emotion. It’s going to feel like the conclusion to part one of our story. At the same time, there are going to be huge things thrown in that are going to launch our second season. I’m excited to see how the audience reacts to all the twists we have thrown in.

Which characters will people be talking about after the episode?
There are big twists involving Jane, of course. Petra’s got a big doozy. Xo and Rogelio have a pretty great twist. The love triangle, I’m sure, will be of interest to those who are interested in it. It’s a pretty wide-sweeping finale.

The love triangle between Jane, Rafael and Michael has really shifted back and forth. Is there going to be any sort of resolution to it in the finale?
There’s resolution that we’ve been building to this season. It’s hard to say endgame because we hope to have seasons and seasons and seasons, but we’re leaving her in the only place we can leave her in this season with regards to the love triangle. Things are coming full circle in a lot of ways, but it’s tricky to say without giving too much away. There are moments that both Team Rafael and Team Michael fans will enjoy, and then how it will play out I’ll have to leave more vague.

Do you see the triangle as lasting the whole show or will she make a definitive choice at some point?
There will be a definitive choice at some point and then things will shift beyond that.

So there’s more story to tell even after she makes her choice.
Yes. It’s a big emotional part of the show, but it’s not the driving force of the show. To me the real love story is family, the relationship between these three women and now the new baby, the new father, Rogelio, and then the love triangle is another big part of that, but to me once we resolve the love triangle, we don’t run out of show juice, so to speak.

What about Petra? She seemed to be on a redemption arc for a while and has really become a fan favorite, but now she’s back up to her old tricks again.
For Petra it’s a really complicated thing. What we tried to show this season, we started her off doing some dastardly acts, but we tried to unpack why and who she is and what her pressures are and who she loves. That “who she loves” is still driving a lot of what she’s doing. So she might do a lot of things you and I might not do, but as long as we understand where her heart is located in this game, then she does have redemption. This accidental insemination screwed up a lot of people’s lives. Petra makes decisions that are not always the most sympathetic but I find her sympathetic because I understand where she’s coming from, and that’s because she loves Rafael.

Is there hope for her with Rafael?
There’s always hope.

Has this season unfolded according to your plan?
Yes. The writers and I really plotted very heavily. We plotted the first thirteen episodes, and then we were lucky enough to get the order for the back nine early in the season, so we did the same thing and plotted really, really meticulously. So everything we’ve laid out are not random, we’ve been threading the needle for a while and that’s going to continue. We plan things out very carefully so the audience can go on these flights of fancy but still really trust in the story and the storytelling.

How are things going to change in Season 2, with Jane now as a young mother?
If the first season, underneath it all, was the story of this unexpected pregnancy, then the second season has to be about someone who never expected to be a mother at this point in her life. How does she balance that with what she wanted for herself? That being said, there’s going to be a lot of things launched by the end of the season finale. Definitely the experience of being an unprepared and a little bit conflicted mom is going to be the emotional underpinning of next season.

“Jane The Virgin” airs Mondays at 9 p.m. ET on The CW.

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