Here we go – I’m not gonna recap the recap this time, If you want to know what happened in chapter seventy two do a quick read of the last recap – trust me, it’s worth it.
Jane the Virgin is so much drama, so much novela realness that I’ve decided to break up the structure a bit and focus on the relationships – so let us begin.
Xiomara and Rogelio
As we saw last Rogelio decided to take one year off of work to be a full-time dad. Everyone is proud of him and I’m all about JTV bringing in the full-time dad life into the storyline, but I’ll be honest: I am not buying it. He cannot live one month without his career, he loves acting and being in Novelas – it really is him at his best self. I’m not knocking him for wanting to really be around for his new baby in ways he didn’t get to with his other children, but it’s Rogelio. C’mon. (side note: what ever happened to his twin teenage daughters, na’meen?)
Either way, Rogelio convinced Darcy and Esteban that he could be the Nanny, or as he says it, the “Danny.” Dad + nanny… get it?
On Xo’s end, she is supportive of his decision and is ramping up to promote the dance studio. She has an open house that does pretty well and she just looks completely unsatisfied. I get it, she feels like she was giving up on her dreams so she makes a switch by taking a teaching job and trying to focus on her dancing.
Sad to say Rogelio had almost the same idea when deciding to be a stay at home dad and, as predicted, was feeling lonely and was going to announce that he’d be going back to work. He didn’t tell Xo ‘cuz she was so excited that he had inspired her to make a change in her career.
We all know his silence will bite him in the butt in the end.
Alba and Jorge
I cannot with this storyline, it is so internally painful. Alba as we know turned down Jorge because of her connection to her late husband. But now he is doing that man thing and asserting his power and giving her crap shifts at work. To be honest, I think he is actually super sweet and is just in pain and trying to find a way in which he does not have to see Alba. Giving her the late shift means he can avoid her at all costs.
Then! We see he has a new boo! What the deuce! Alba comes to confront him on the shift thing and she sees him kissing another woman and leaving with her – oh dang, he moved on quick. We find out that he didn’t just move on he move back! It’s Sofia his ex that he had been with for 2 years before Alba, and now Alba is convinced she was the rebound. I don’t think so, I think Alba was the one – and he got turned down, what else would you do? I honestly want Alba to be happy and its almost like she can’t be happy unless she has her Mateo back – and she’s knows she can’t have that. She feels so deeply sad, because she knows how complex she feels inside. I’m so invested in Alba… sigh.
Petra and Lawyer Jane
Petra gets more and more interesting as time goes by, which probably not everyone agrees. Compared to her past criminal days she has really gotten soft, but it makes her a bit more layered to me. In this episode Petra is really trying to understand why Rafael won’t forgive her for leaving his sister in a mental institution when Petra knew she wasn’t hallucinating. Jane is like “you left his sister in a mental institution when you knew she wasn’t hallucinating.” See, Petra is still cold at heart. She even is still trying to convince Lawyer Jane to let her call her JR (her initials). You can’t convince Lawyer Jane of nothing. It’s Rosario Dawson, c’mon. I like her come back though, she says she’s gonna call her Peter – ha! And then Rosario talks about her ex girlfriend something something and I am like yaaaasss – JTV doing it again really solidifying the culture of this world in the best way! I really love programs that show how the world really is. JTV has been showing us love as it is, politics in our everyday lives, and so much more. I truly applaud shows that addresses life issues not as a “special” episode, but more and more as just reality. We also learn that Lawyer Jane’s mother has Alzheimer’s and has been trying to get an appointment with a top doctor for sometime.
Even though Lawyer Jane may be a villain, I feel like a good relationship is building between her and Petra. They both have ulterior motives in this episode: Petra tries to prove she has compassion and gets the appointment for Lawyer Jane’s mom, and Lawyer Jane needs the blueprints to Petra’s office for the “authorities” in the investigation on her sister’s death. After a great evening with wine and sharing – which I’m like is this the beginning of a beautiful friendship? Or something…? But after she gets the blueprints – you see her text “unknown” like “you sure she’s guilty?” Of course everyone thinks unknown is Sin Rostro, but I think it’s actually Rafael… we’ll see what twist this novela has for us.
Towards the end Petra forces brunch onto Jane after advice from Lawyer Jane because “brunch happens with our without Rafael,” and Petra admits that Jane is a good person who is really her moral compass. See the layers that unfold?! Also we’re doing flashbacks to past seasons to move the story forward – we’ve made it! We can say, “I remember that episode” in a flashback!
Jane and… Everything
Finally to Jane, and so much is happening with her. Right out the gate, she gets dropped from her publisher I’m like, damn, this is real. She has a very strong point about how difficult it is in this world for women writers of color. That there really is only one chance to get it right, second chances are so hard to come by. At that moment, I was like is this the episode that Gina Rodriguez directed? She got that fire on issues like this – did you see her rant on the red carpet?
Then they reference JK – they were like “what about that Harry Potter lady, she probably wrote a bunch of books before hitting it big.” Which is not the case – Harry Potter was her first book that she wrote, like, baby in tow and broke on life, which needless to say did not make Jane feel better.
It’s also all about Mateo. He is all about Rafael and Jane being together so they can be a family. I really feel they need to teach him about revolutionary family structures here in a teachable moment; I get it though, when kids are at this age they get ideas about how families are “supposed” to be from school. I have a friend who split from her husband, whom she has a child with and upon re-entering the dating world was dating a woman. Her daughter came home from school one day and told her mom she shouldn’t date girls, that she is supposed to date boys. It’s hard out there trying to show your children how complex we are as humans and then they are inundated with what society says is “normal.” To top it off Rafael does want to be together with Jane, so Mateo gets in his mind that Jane is the only reason they can’t be a family. That is so much pressure.
Then Rafael finds a way to get Jane a meeting with the big publisher, “Jeffrey Mullins.” She’s freaking out because she doesn’t have any new book ideas, she actually has writer’s block. She meets with the agent and – ummm, dashing man.
Anyway, this agent is also obsessed with Petra. He then calls Petra over and offers her a book deal! It’s like salt in the wound for Jane, who is a writer who desperately needs another break and this guy is not concerned with her ideas at all. She pitches a 50 Shades-type book but with a gender role reversal, and the guy is like, sure. And then asks Petra to give them a proposal and that he’d push it like crazy. That’s life sometimes, you know. She’s gonna get her break though, I know it.
So now she has to write an S&M romance story with Mrs. Grey…? And I cannot with these fantasies — Jane in leather whipping Rafael, and then talking about properly raising Mateo. Oh no!
In the end she can’t write that book, and Rafael is there to tell her, “your not passionate about it.” She’s just trying to write something that sells, but she keeps talking about herself as a villain. From what Mateo says, I say she write a superhero villain romance novel! I would legit read that if it were a real book written by Jane Villanueva.
At brunch you see her inner struggle as Petra talks about having writer’s block and Jane keeps throwing low-key shade at Petra. It comes out of course and they talk civil, and Jane tells Petra to just get a ghost writer, and yep… next thing the brunch table turns into a negotiation table, and boom! Jane is hired as Petra’s ghost writer. I have a feeling the book is gonna be big, and that means more internal struggle for Jane for sure.
In the end Mateo is really having a hard time with wanting his family to be together and it’s coming out in school, so Jane and Rafael need to make a decision. After all of Jane’s book fantasies she wants to try their relationship, but just then Rafael feels that they shouldn’t. I’m with him! Sorry, team Rafael fans. Well, actually, not sorry, ‘cuz that is just a lie they decide to tell the family and we see them making out in the car right after. I mean, I’m no longer team Rafael, but I still agree they should get it in!
Again we are left with passionate kissing and, for me, mixed feelings. Tune in next week on Jane the S&M romance novelist.
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