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The finale ofJane the Virginis a glorious wash of tears and celebrations.
It felt like completing a marathon, she says.
Like, oh my God, we fucking made it.
The big storytelling moves at the end of this season were split between the two final episodes.
In the final episode, its all about the wedding with very few twists or surprises.
I really wanted it to be about the anxiety of ending something.
How do you hold onto something, even as it ends?
I wanted that to all feel warm.
I know youve planned a few big moments in this finale for a long time.
Did you know what you were working toward?
I knew they were gonna get there somehow by bus.
I knew I wanted it to be warm.
The things that were surprising to me were in the episode before.
I wasnt sure about a confrontation between Rose and Jane.
Ive always kept Jane separate from Rose, and I was talked into having that big penultimate showdown.
The other big thing was Rafaels parents.
How can it land in a way that would feel connected to the family theyve built?
One other big debate was how Luisa and Rose would end, whether Rose would die or not.
What kind of redemption did Luisa need?
Did we want to end them both in jail?
Or did we want to end it the way we ended it?
That was a big debate in the writers room.
It really came down to the deciding factor that shes caused so much harm and pain in Janes life.
Villains in telenovelas get what they deserve thats just such a basic trope of it.
Then wanting Luisa to have a chance at a different kind of happiness.
Were there alternatives for Rafaels parents?
We landed on this early on in the fifth season.
Because I hadnt built that!
Who they were, anything that would mean something, it felt a little retrofitted.
All the other options never felt true enough to me, because they hadnt been planned.
Nothing was feeling right until this pitch.
Also, within the structure of the show, theres a lot of buildup.
He realizes he has everything he needs in front of him.
There are a couple moments in the last episode that are meant to be little telenovela surprises, right?
The reveal of Petras triplet brother Pyotr made me laugh so hard.
This is not gonna affect their lives in any deep way.
Its not gonna get in the way of Petras happiness.
But potentially down the road, you know, you might have to vanquish a triplet.
You also have a cameo in the finale.[Laughs.]
I do, oh my gosh, reluctantly.
Now its done and I will never do it again.
But Im happy I did.
Who else snuck into the finale episode?Justin [Baldonis] parents are guests in the wedding.
My assistant Hannah is a guest in the wedding.
Justins wife is one of the runners in the marathon.
So theres some cameos of people near and dear to us in the finale.
Oh, thats so nice.It is nice.
The thing I loved about your cameo is that youre shouting Keep going!
to Gina.You know, it felt like a marathon.
It felt like the right thing to say in that moment.
I have to imagine a lot of actors were actually crying in those scenes.Were all actually crying.
This felt like it, like,Oh my God, we fucking made it.
So it became something more euphoric and more visceral.
But, you know, we are revealing the bones of the show at the same time.
What was the last scene you shot?The last scene was the bus sequence of getting Jane dressed.
What did it feel like at the end of the last shoot?Oh my God.
He had to be kneeling, or else he couldnt support her body fully.
The whole season had more tail design that I couldve ever imagined.
The fan response to the final season has been pretty intense, especially related to bringing Michael back.
Has the response been about what you expected?
Has it surprised you at all?I expected it to be intense.
I think it ended up being more intense than I expected.
And you know, its a telenovela.
Its about the surprise and the shock and the unpacking afterward about what would you do in that situation.
It was worth the telling.
Thats a little bit harder to parse.
You know, Michael got a happy ending as well.
So that was an interesting tension.
Thats part of putting a show into the world that people feel passionately about.
You have to allow them to have the space and the breadth of their feelings.
There was certainly a lot of feeling.A lot of feeling.
A lot of feeling.
Its hard to watch the heroine be so off track!Exactly.
And that was part of the impetus of that storytelling.
The aftermath of this was something very different.
My husband came back from the dead, its an impossible situation.
Im sorry I didnt act the way that you wanted me to act.
But thats how I acted.
The more murky and complicated those feelings are, the more interesting the drama is.
Shes not ever trying to hurt anyone.
Shes trying to figure out what she wants amidst all these impossible situations.
So she had a little bit of a rough moment, with regards to Rafael.
Whos rich and whos poor?
Whos going to stay home and mind the shop while the other reaches for bigger dreams?
All of that was part of the calculus.
You planned an ending where Jane becomes the breadwinner and Rafaels career takes a back seat.
Was there any debate about making that even more explicit?
Including a scene where he quits his job, for instance?I think its built in there.
His dream changed from where you saw him in season one.
Hes going to be a flexible stay-at-home dad.
Hell show some houses, but his primary commitment is going to be his family.
It just wasnt what he thought he wanted.
And in doing so, he allows Jane to reap the rewards of her hard work.
Theres all different kinds of ADHD.
Theres hyperactivity-focused, and theres more of an attention-focused.
Mateos is more attention-focused.
Parenting is the biggest example of that.
Looking back at the whole series, are there choices that surprised you?
The ADHD story line, certainly.
Its a testament to Bridget [Regan, who plays Sin Rostro].
I knew he was going to die, I didnt know he was going to come back.
That started to piece itself together in the third season.
It taught me the importance of slowing down, centering, and then digging into the emotions.
Then there are certain themes in the first season that we return to.
Ending up in the bus in the finale.
Having some sort of pregnancy in the finale.
Really leaning into big cliffhangers at the end of each season.
Thats all stuff that came in that first season when we created the math of the show.
For me, one of the biggest surprises of the whole series is Petra.
The narrator tells us that its easy to actually cry when what youre saying is true.
So I was always interested in excavating her heart.
You were developing aJanespinoff, but I believe that its not going forward anymore.
Is that still true?Its true.
Its a difficult thing.
I loved the spinoff, and I thought the writer Valentina Garza did such an amazing job.
Letting it exist and moving on to something else.
It taught me a little bit about spinoffs and the expectations of them as well.
And it helped me really reflect on the end ofJanein a different way.
It probably was even more soothing than I recognize to be working on.
It allows a connection to the world to continue in your mind.
So Ive been able to let it go.
Im just happy to have an end of the show that feels like an ending.
You promised your kids that you would get a dog at the end ofJane.
How is that going?We got a dog.
The dog is six years old, but he acts like a puppy.
He came with the name Chance, and his middle name is Jane.
Hes brought us so much joy.
You told me you were looking forward to life being less hectic for a while afterJane.
I get to pick up my kids in the middle of the day if I want to.
We just get to do stuff, which right away feels like a reward for having finished.
I get the full embrace of my family and I get to enjoy them more.
