Jane the Virgin: Gina Rodriguez Nailed a Momentous 7-Minute Monologue, and We're in Awe

A lot goes down in the season five premiere of Jane the Virgin. We learn exactly what happened to Michael after that insane cliffhanger from season four, Sin Rostro hatches another mysterious scheme, and we get a sad — but honestly, realistic — end to Petra's relationship with Jane Ramos. The entire episode is a roller coaster, but there is one scene that has fans universally astonished: Jane's (Gina Rodriguez) fervent monologue after discovering Michael's amnesia. Not only is the monologue impressive onscreen, but the story behind the camera is even more remarkable.

If you need some context: After mourning the death of her husband Michael, Jane learns that he's still alive, but has amnesia. She learns this on the same night that she anticipated getting engaged to her boyfriend Rafael, just before they moved in together, and right when she's finally getting her life back on track. It doesn't help that Michael (who prefers to be called Jason now) is a completely different person than the man she married, and can't even look her in the eye. It also doesn't help that, according to their local neurologist, there's no telling if and when Michael/Jason will get his memory back. Saying that Jane is pretty stressed would be an understatement.

The scene begins when Jane returns to Alba's house after visiting the neurologist and Xo asks her if she's "okay." The result is a near eight-minute-long soliloquy that manages to encompass all the stages of grief and a full range of emotions that all add up to, "My amnesiac dead husband is back and I don't know what to do." Jane then details the tumultuous journey that was her grieving process, falling in love with Rafael, and discovering the truth about Michael. She goes from laughing to crying to eating arepas and taking off her pants to walk around in shorts. She doesn't know if Michael's memory will return, and she can't help but feel a little angry with him about it, even though it isn't his fault.

The gamut of emotions that Jane runs through are so painfully realistic, even though the situation is so ridiculously not. It's one of the things fans love about Jane the Virgin: its ability to make the fantastical feel so grounded because of its endearing, relatable characters. Still, the monologue isn't just notable because of how well it's acted by Rodriguez; the premiere was also directed by Rodriguez herself. In January, the actress told press at the Television Critics Association Winter tour that she had been more than up for the challenge when showrunner Jennie Snyder Urman first told her about the six-page monologue. "I can definitely memorize a monologue. I went to theater school. I can memorize an entire play," she said. "I was like, 'All right, Jennie! Let's do this!'" It's safe to say that Rodriguez stood up to that challenge and crushed it.