Spoiler alert: Do not read until you have watched “Jane the Virgin” Season 3, episode ten titled “Chapter Fifty Four.”
“Jane the Virgin” showrunner Jennie Snyder Urman addressed the CW show’s shocking death on Monday night in an open letter to fans. She called the episode “devastating” to write.
The episode saw the demise of Michael, played by Brett Dier who, until Monday’s episode, was one side of show’s central love triangle.
“Originally, I thought Michael would die earlier,” Urman wrote, revealing that Dier’s charisma and chemistry with Jane (Gina Rodriguez) was cause for some rewrites to keep him around longer than originally planned. “Jane and Michael got married. They had sex. They moved into their first home. And I’m so glad we did that and I’m so glad all those firsts for Jane were with Michael,” she wrote.
Urman added about the show, known for churning through plot, “But this is a telenovela, as we so frequently remind you. And we are only at our midpoint.”
The letter praised Dier’s performance and his value on the show, and concluded her letter by paying tribute to the actors as well as the character: “Michael will be missed in Jane’s world, just as Brett is already missed in ours.”
Read the full letter here.
