'The theme this year is things coming full circle,' executive producer Jennie Snyder Urman said. 'I want a real sense of closure.'
The countdown to Jane the Virgin's final season has begun.
With less than two months to go before The CW kicks off the farewell season, star Gina Rodriguez and showrunner Jennie Snyder Urman were on hand at the Television Critics Association press tour on Thursday to emotionally reflect on their groundbreaking five-season run and offer hints as to what audiences can expect in the swan song.
Basically, expect to cry. A lot.
"I cry a lot in the editing room, if that's an indication," Urman told reporters. "A writer in the room, Carolina Rivera, once described telenovelas to me as a pornography of emotion, and that crystallized in my mind somehow, which is just that you juice it to the max and you feel everything and you ground it and let these characters feel. We go through all the feels this last season, certainly."
Urman spoke in generalities in regard to the final season, but offered a glimpse into what awaits when Wednesday, March 27 rolls around. The Middle's Eden Sher, for instance, will be joining for the last hurrah.
"The theme this year is things coming full circle. I want to revisit certain moments, both visually and emotionally, and in storylines that feel similar in some ways -- a mirror to where we started, but have shown how much these characters have grown and changed," she shared. "There's a moment in the pilot where I want Gina to be coming in this yellow dress when she's going to Rafael because she came in in a yellow dress in the beginning when she proposed to Michael in the pilot. There are things like that all throughout."
"We're going to revisit a few issues that have come up with the couples and with the relationships that are handled in different ways because you're not the same person, five years later. I'm not the same person, Gina's not," Urman continued. "For the audience, to see that these people have grown up a little bit and they make their decisions in a slightly different way and different things are more important because what happens in life, your priorities shift. I want a real sense of closure in the end."
Though the final season will be emotional for obvious reasons, Urman revealed that she intends on going all out.
"Our philosophy in the writers' room is how can we have our cake and eat it too? How can this person die and then come back? How can this person cry and then laugh? We find something beautiful out of something tragic. I'm trying to push that into our last season where we can have it all, where we can have these big family moments," she said of her intentions. "I want to say goodbye in the right way and I feel I want to stick the landing. That's a lot of pressure, but I want to."
In reflecting on their memorable run, Urman and Rodriguez got visibly emotional in speaking about the impact Jane the Virgin has had on their lives and careers. For both, the show thrust them into a different stratosphere.
"How much representation matters, what it feels like to be seen. That was something that I didn't understand inside my body until I started the show...," Urman said. "We want to create a space where everyone feels valued and lead with empathy. That's something I've taken out of this job. I think it can be great because this has been a really amazing experience for me, in terms of the writing and the actors and the collaboration between all the departments."
"I used to believe that seeing myself onscreen was going to help so many young girls feel seen and visible and heard and capable and worthy, and I do believe that happened. I do believe that Jane helped me accomplish that part of me that didn't see my community reflected onscreen in a positive way," Rodriguez said. "But what I realize is that the reflection of me wasn't where the power lies and I needed to shift my energy and learn about the spaces in which I could really create change that, I think, does make a young child feel capable, worthy and valued. I've been able to see where I can see my creativity that I wish I was given in other spaces: directing, producing. I'm really, hopefully, doing for someone else, what Jane and Jennie did for me."
Jane the Virgin returns for its final season Wednesday, March 27 on The CW.
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