Jane The Virgin – Chapter Forty-Three

By: Jennifer Verzuh

Next week is “Jane the Virgin’s” season finale! So, this week was largely spent setting some very interesting plots in motion which will lead to what I can only expect to be a very exciting and intriguing conclusion to Season Two.

Jane (Gina Rodriguez) starts off the episode feeling good – busy, but good. Mateo’s first birthday is coming up and Jane is going all out, determined to make the party a success. She and Rafael (Justin Baldoni) have even booked the Beyonce of children’s performers. She’s also in the midst of perfecting the final details for her wedding. Plus, she finally heard back from her college advisor about her work and she actually liked it! To top it off, a publisher has agreed to read it! This being “Jane the Virgin” though, things start to fall apart for her pretty quickly.

First, her wedding venue is in jeopardy. The crew of Rogelio’s telenovela “Tiago” are unhappy with their working conditions and lack of benefits so they are planning to go on strike. Unfortunately for Rogelio and Jane, the strike is set to begin right before her wedding, which is taking place on the set. Jane is juggling enough as it is so Rogelio (Jaime Camil) does the best he can to try and reach some sort of agreement with the crew. Ultimately they decide to make a bet: if Rogelio can last one week as a member of the show’s crew they’ll postpone the strike until after Jane’s wedding, if not Rogelio will become the public face of the strike. Surprisingly, Rogelio does very well as a member of the crew and actually seems to enjoy the hard work, seeing it as a workout routine. He nearly loses the bet though when he’s requested to climb the catwalk and change a lightbulb, but Jane coaches him through his fear of heights and he winds up earning the crew’s respect and winning their wager. When he learns the studio execs are planning to fire and replace the entire crew before they eventually go on strike, Rogelio convinces Jane to move up the date of her wedding so they won’t lose their jobs.

To make things even worse, the star entertainer for Mateo’s party cancelled. This leaves Jane scrambling to find new performers. Alba (Ivonne Coll) suggests she just cancel the party, reminding her that Mateo won’t remember it anyway. But Jane is insistent it go on and be special.

The tension between Jane and Petra, which escalated last episode, grows even further this time as they compete to give Rafael advice on what to do about the blackmailing situation with Derek (Mat Vairo). Jane suggests he turn himself in and offer to work with the police, but Petra (Yael Grobglas) has her own plan to trick Derek – one that Jane thinks is ridiculous. In the end, Rafael goes with Petra’s plan, which involves a fake FBI raid and arrest in order to get Derek on tape confessing to his role in the scheme. Unfortunately, Derek catches on and Rafael is forced to sign over the Fairwick property.

Petra comes over to apologize for behaving rudely and competitively with her earlier, only for Jane to reject the apology and criticizes Petra for her bad advice. She even says that she’ll try and keep Rafael from listening to her in the future! Petra is sick of Jane acting like she’s better than her and lets her know it. Based on this episode alone, it’s apparent Petra is still in love with Rafael and is jealous of Jane.

And perhaps she has good reason to be as Mateo’s party never happens after all. He’d been coughing all episode and the night before his birthday Jane calls the doctor and is forced to take him to the ER. He’s alright the doctors tell her and Rafael, but they keep overnight just to be sure. It is during this time where Jane and Rafael celebrate his birthday and reminisce on Mateo’s first year. They hold hands and while it’s not a romantic moment for Jane, for Rafael it certainly is. Although Jane’s moved on, he hasn’t.

Michael (Brett Dier) is back on the case (unofficially) with Susanna (Megan Keach) looking for answers about Mutter and Derek. Susanna tells him there’s millions of unaccounted dollars hidden somewhere from Rose and Mutter’s plastic surgery ring. Michael thinks that the money could be buried underneath the Fairwick, which would explain why Derek wanted it so badly. Michael and Susanna enter the Fairwick only to find Mutter all tied up in a hole in the floor. Derek left her there while he, along with the money, escaped on a plane.

The biggest jaw drop moment though comes from Anezka, Petra’s seemingly clueless and innocent foreign twin sister. Towards the end of the episode Petra pays a visit to her and Anezka’s mother in prison. However, we come to realize it’s not Petra at all, but Anezka masquerading as her sister in with a wig, clothes and an American accent. Her mother warns her not to screw their plan up, one Anezka says has been a whole year in the making.

Get ready for Michael and Jane’s wedding next week (for real this time hopefully)! If all goes as plannend, our beloved Jane may no longer even be a virgin by episode’s end!