Jane the Virgin boss previews 'joy and romance' in season 4

When Jane the Virgin ended its third season, Jane found herself reading a letter from her late husband, feeling something for her ex-boyfriend, and running smack into her first love. I know, straight out of a telenovela, right?

Needless to say, when season 4 picks up, Jane will have a lot of feelings to face, and she’s not the only one. EW spoke with showrunner Jennie Snyder Urman about what fans can expect this year.

ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: Where do we pick up in terms of time?
JENNIE SNYDER URMAN: It’s a direct pick-up from the last episode. I will say there’s a mystery woman who you meet very early on that throws everyone for a loop at the beginning of the season. We find out what happened with Jane and Adam in the past and we find out interesting things about how he fit in or didn’t fit into her family in the past as well.

We know Adam is an illustrator. What else can you tell me about him?
He brings a much more youthful energy to Jane and to the show. In them coming together, it’s going to be fun to see Jane remembering that she’s only 28 and that she is still young and is not only a mother. She’s had some tragedy and trauma in her life so she’s had to deal with that and had to be Mateo’s mom while working through her own grief and trying to make her dreams come true and make enough money. All of those things have been pressures for Jane. I describe this season as a season where our characters are refinding their joy and a lot of that of that starts off right away with this relationship and what it reawakens in Jane three-and-a-half years after the trauma of losing Michael.

Last we saw Jane, she was also dealing with some feelings for Rafael…
The feelings for Rafael play a huge part in the first episode. And you’re going to see Jane deciding what she should do about them. We don’t hold things in very long on our show, so Rafael learns about those feelings very quickly in the first episode and a lot happens and evolves between the two of them and takes them into a very new place at the end of the first episode where they cross lines that they haven’t before in terms of their romantic and emotional lives.

Speaking of Raf, how’s he holding up after Luisa’s big takeover?
It’s a s–tty start to the year for Rafael. He’s been kicked out of the hotel, he crashes with the Villanuevas for at least four episodes. He’s going to be trying desperately to get his money back. This is somebody whose entire self worth and sense of self had been defined by who he is and who his family is and the fact that he has a lot of money, and he’s going to find it very difficult when the circumstances change and that’s going to bring a lot of drama and of course comedy as he tries to figure out how to live without the enormous privilege that he’s enjoyed. And Jane has to learn how to live without the enormous privilege she’s enjoyed as well. Being co-parent with Rafael has allowed her to raise her son without the pressures that she would feel had she not had him in her life and this year she’s going to start to feel those financial pressures.

We also have to touch on Darci’s pregnancy. How is that going to affect things for Rogelio and Xo?
Rogelio wants to make sure he is a co-parent with Darci and Xo wants to be supportive. The Darci-Rogelio situation has a lot of twists and turns and it’s one of the arcs that I’m most excited about. She makes a surprising connection with someone from his telenovela world that starts to upset him. And when the baby is born, it’s a beautiful set piece that I don’t want to spoil but it’s a different kind of birth than we’ve seen. I think this season is some of our funniest material. There’s a lot of joy and romance this year.

Jane the Virgin premieres Friday, Oct. 13 at 9 p.m. ET on The CW.