SPOILER ALERT, if you're a Jane the Virgin fan who couldn't fit the February 6 episode into your schedule yet (and if so, why'd you click on this? Get out of here, go!): "Chapter Fifty-Four" broke a lot of viewers' hearts with the death of a major character on Monday night.

In a plot twist that's been slightly telegraphed by the wry narrator of The CW's telenovela-inspired dramedy (as the Hollywood Reporter points out, Chapter Ten saw the narrator saying the character would love Jane for as long as he lived, "until he drew his very last breath"), Michael Cordero, Jane's husband played by Brett Dier, died of complications from the gunshot he sustained in the Season 2 finale.

The turn of events was devastating for those who'd been rooting for Jane and the homicide detective despite frequent roadblocks to their romance, and that comes as no surprise to the people behind the series. Show creator Jennie Snyder Urman wrote an open letter about it on Jane the Virgin's Tumblr after the bombshell, thanking Brett Dier for making Michael "so likable, so funny, so sincere in all the right ways, that most of our writers’ room became #teammichael by the end of the first season."

Urman went on to say Michael's death had indeed been a concept since Season 1, owning up to that Chapter Ten foreshadowing line: "The other reason I put that line in the script was to prepare you… a little.  If the writers and actors loved Michael so much, then I knew it would be devastating for the fans.  So then, the only surprise we had left, was when…" Brutal!

The chemistry between star Gina Rodriguez and Dier actually extended Michael's time on the show (allowing them to finally have sex), Urman writes, and regarding how Jane will move on:

Well, it’s certainly not quick.  And that’s why we’re now three years later in our story.  We’ll be flashing back to those three years and filling in gaps, but mining emotions realistically is something we work hard on and we knew the immediate pain of that loss would overwhelm our storytelling.  After talking to grief counselors, this felt like the right time to reenter Jane’s journey.  She’ll always feel Michael’s absence (and trust me, we will too), but it opens up our storytelling in new and exciting ways, while allowing for the light and bright Jane world that we love to write.

Brett Dier had his own lengthy message thanking the cult favorite's fans on Twitter,, writing that "playing Michael has been a life changing experience," and that the Jane cast and crew was "the most incredible group of people I've ever worked with in my life."

Meanwhile, his costar Rodriguez tweeted, "TeamMichaelForever this show, my journey is absolutely nothing without Brett Dier I love you dude. We made this together."

Fans are reeling in the aftermath of the tragic development — see Dier and Rodriguez's tweets, as well as reactions to Michael Cordero's death in "Chapter Fifty-Four," below.

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