Going into Jane the Virgin’s Season 3 premiere, it seemed safe to assume that most fans had the same question: would the gunshot wound Michael apparently sustained in the Season 2 finale kill him, or not? Fresh off the aisle, newlyweds Jane and Michael had settled into their hotel room for the night when poor, sweet, innocent Michael went out for a bucket of ice. Before you know it, he’d been shot by Sin Rostro—who’s been posing as his partner Susanna this whole time! Cliffhangers have been something of a hot topic lately, but Jane, with its telenovela D.N.A., is something of a different beast—which is why this gambit went off without a hitch. More discussion ahead, but if you haven’t watched the premiere yet, drop what you’re doing and give it a watch.

The premiere took its sweet time in telling us what happened to Michael, although his life-and-death predicament ended just as many fans thought it would: with him alive and on the happy road to recovery. Because this is Jane the Virgin, and Michael’s death would be a big change in mood. Plus, we already knew Jane was going to lose her virginity soon, and did anyone really think that she would recover quickly enough to have sex with someone else in Season 3 if Michael had died?

That said, how the show chose to reveal Michael’s prognosis is fascinating. The cliffhanger wasn’t officially resolved until the end of the episode; on the way there, we journeyed through time to look at Jane and Michael’s relationship through flashbacks. Turns out their meet-cute wasn’t the end of it. Jane got a call the next day from a guy she’d been crushing on for two years—or 17 months, depending on whom you ask. She blew off Michael to go on a date with her longtime crush, but he saw the two leaving Jane’s house to go their date—and pulled them over for an illegal U-turn. That’s what happens when you tell Michael Cordero you’re too sick to go on a date: he drops by to bring you homemade soup.

In short, the two got in a few tiffs, and Jane thought she’d never see him again. But in the present, as Jane faces the tough decision of whether or not to try surgery to remove the bullet from near Michael’s spine, she remembers the moment they actually got together: he dropped by her house one last time, and she told him to leave, but he delivered a spirited (though, admittedly, very on-the-nose and cheesy) speech about being “a fighter.” They kiss, yada yada, give or take a baby, and here they are, newlywed and facing that “‘til death” vow way too early in the hospital. Jane decides to let Michael “fight,” which in this case means getting the surgery. Her bet works, and he lives—though when he wakes up, he gives her a serious scare by faking amnesia. Oh, Michael.