SPOILER ALERT: This post contains major spoilers for the Season 4 finale of Jane the Virgin: "Chapter Eighty-One."

Jane the Virgin has always had a knack for wringing our hearts out like old rags (sometimes in a good way), but the Season 4 finale ended with a special kind of torture.

In the very last moment of the episode, Jane visits a grimly aloof Rafael at his apartment, expecting him to propose, where instead he reveals the secret he learned from Rose: a living, breathing Michael Cordero.





So, in no particular order, here are 12 thoughts we had during that 5-second scene that felt like it lasted an eternity, and which we subsequently watched dozens of times and will haunt us until fall.

1. How dare you?

I reached the end of this episode and ripped out my headphones, closed my laptop, then put my head between my legs and practiced yogic breathing. Not hyperbole.

2. Wait – that is Michael, right?

At first, my editor was doubtful, wondered if her eyes were playing tricks on her, but make no mistake, friends – his hair is longer, his beard unkempt, but that's Michael. At the very least, that is actor Brett Dier, and he's back.

3. How dare you!

I am a relatively good person who does not deserve this!!

4. But Michael died.

He got shot in the Season 2 finale and we thought we lost him for good, which we then did for real(?) halfway through Season 3. There was a funeral, and probably a body! There was a freaking time jump because things were too painful for the next three years!

5. How is this even possible?

We're still processing, but more on that later.

6. You! How dare??

What did we ever do to you, Jennie Snyder Urman?? This might be good news (we will love Michael 'til our dying breath!) but it is the most stressful thing ever to have happened!!

7. What about Rafael?

Shortly before the ending, while Rafael was being distant with Jane, there was tangible desperation in the way he kissed and held her, and during the last time they slept together before she finds out the truth. Raf and Jane took years to wind up together and somehow managed to stay friends and family throughout; now that they were about to live happily ever after, here's the man Raf still feels insecure about! This is prime fodder for a classic Rafael Downward Spiral™.

8. What about Jane and Rafael?

Listen, I can't do this love triangle again. Every love has its time and this is supposed to be their time. It made sense and we all got there together, even those of us who hashtag #TeamMichaelForever at least once a week.

9. how dare how dare how dare.

What kind of monsters do this to people?

10. Will Jane and Michael just pick up where they left off?

They can't possibly! She made peace with his death, and depending on where he's at he's obviously made some peace with living apart from her (again, more on that later). Also, see above!

11. Does Michael have amnesia?

If you rewatch the scene (several hundred times, as I have), you see Jane's immediate shock when she lays eyes on Michael – but there's something off in his expression as he looks back. Does he not recognize her? Is he just emotionally conflicted? Why the heck did Rafael not prep her better for this??

12.

Anyway, we'll be over her theorizing until Jane the Virgin returns for what is presumably its final season in the fall.



