Jane The Virgin – Chapter Seventy-One

By: Sabine Aretz

In the beginning of the episode, the narrator (Anthony Mendez) tells us that Jane (Gina Rodriguez) had needed a push in her career as a writer exactly three times and all of those times Rafael (Justin Baldoni) was the one who gave her the push she needed. The first time was when they first met and he told her to “be brave” about who she is.

Present-day Jane is angry at Adam, who broke up with her right before her book tour starts. Although she is determined to not let him ruining the book tour, she cannot stop talking about how mad she is at him. Xiomara (Andrea Navedo) is packing to join Jane, partly because she needs time away from Rogelio. As they go downstairs, they encounter Rogelio (Jaime Camil) who is there to give Jane the keys to his convertible. Before she leaves, Jane shares a moment with Rafael.

Jane and Xiomara are ready to start the road trip just as Xiomara sees Alba (Ivonne Coll) running towards them. Alba jumps in the car without explanation and the three start to drive. While on the road, Jane gets call from her editor informing her that Iyanla Vanzant (herself), the host of Fix My Life on OWN, will be at the reading, which means that there will be a big crowd.

Back at home, Rogelio and Rafael are worried because Mateo (Elias Janssen) is not feeling well. After Rogelio asks if they should call Jane, Rafael remembers the first time Mateo got sick while Jane was gone to see Michael’s mom Patricia (Molly Hagan).

Petra (Yael Grobglas) and Rafael are now at the Marbella where a mistakenly ordered casket is in the lobby. Petra admits that she is not sad about Anezka (Yael Grobglas) dying and just wants the funeral to be over and move on with her life.

When Jane, Xiomara and Alba arrive at the hotel, they walk in the room to find it decorated for Jane and Adam, which triggers Jane’s rage and sadness. She yells and Xiomara and Alba try to calm her down before her reading. “Now, let’s just go to the reading so I can talk about how FREAKING GREAT true love is!”

After the reading, Jane sits down with Iyanla for a Q&A. When she is asked about the book cover that Adam designed, she starts crying hysterically. As she returns to the hotel room with Xiomara and Alba, Jane expresses her disappointment and embarrassment. She gets a call from her editor, who already knew what had happened because people in the audience tweeted about it. “They were tweets with the hashtag #snotfalling.”

Xiomara gets a text from Rogelio about Mateo being sick. Alba says they should probably tell Jane, but is interrupted when Jane excitedly walks in because the “Romance Weekly” review of her book is out. As she is reading it, she realizes that is rather negative and starts crying.

Back at the Marbella, Rafael gets a call from Xiomara because Mateo has gotten worse. He then calls Rogelio because he is mad he texted Xiomara instead of him. Rafael remembers when Mateo got sick three years ago and he brought him to see Jane, who was away visiting Patricia. While in her hotel room, Rafael saw that Jane had thrown away the manuscript for her book because Patricia did not want Jane to write about Michael. Instead, Patricia told Jane that she blames her for Michael’s death because she should have taken him to the hospital when he first started feeling sick.

A little later, Xiomara convinces Alba and Jane to go out in order to cheer up Jane. At the bar, Xiomara gets a text from Rafael saying that Mateo is feeling better and she decides it was good to not tell Jane about it. Jane is still distracted by thinking about Adam until Alba reveals that Jorge (Alfonso DiLuca) proposed to her. Because she did not know what to answer, she ran away and came on the roundtrip with Jane and Xiomara.

At the Marbella, the twins (Mia and Ella Allan) play in the empty casket and accidentally spray perfume in Petra’s face. They go down to the funeral and as Petra is on her way to rinse her eyes out, she finds Anezka hiding in the bushes. Petra is shocked to see Anezka alive so she explains what happened. Because Anezka did not know who to trust, she hired actors to play EMTs, similarly to how she and Magda (Priscilla Barnes) had hired Carl in order to drive Luisa crazy and fake her own death. Thinking she saw Petra cry, Anezka is now convinced that Petra really loved her. Petra plays along and is determined to prove to Anezka that Magda is not at all sad and that she cannot trust her.

While Petra and Magda are packing up, Magda throws away Anezka’s stuffed animal and says that Anezka was stupid to kill herself and deserved to die. “Petra” takes off her wig and reveals herself to be Anezka before angrily storming off.

Meanwhile, Xiomara, Alba and Jane are sitting at the bar discussing Jorge’s proposal. Upon a comment Xiomara makes, Alba thinks she is implying that she is old, starts ranting and then walks off. Jane stops her, telling her she is just being drunk and dramatic and convinces her to dance. “There is a floor and we’re about to dance on it. So, it’s about to be a dance floor.” Although a little confused at first, Xiomara joins them.

The next day, Petra is on her way to her office to see that the casket is still there because it cannot be picked up until the following day. Now in her office, she sees Anezka who is dressed up as Petra. Anezka tells her that she threw Magda out and now wants Petra to help her with the Marbella because she does not know what to do.  “I know nothing about ruling a hotel!” Petra considers her options and agrees because it will mean that she has control of the Marbella again.

At the Villanueva house, Rogelio is now the one who is sick and being tucked in by Rafael. After Rogelio’s alarm goes off to remind him to apologize to Xiomara hourly, Rafael tells him that he thinks Xiomara should apologize for walking away when things got tough. Rogelio agrees and then shares his thoughts on why he and Rafael are not particularly close. Because Rafael was a ladies’ man and broke Jane’s heart, Rogelio is hesitant to trust him. Rafael tells him that that was a long time ago, but Rogelio says that sometimes he thinks it is only be a matter of time before the two get back together, seeing how close they are.

Rafael then remembers the time Patricia, after reading the manuscript of Jane’s book, came to visit Jane to tell her that it is okay to write about Michael. Rafael had shown them to Patricia, which was the second time Rafael gave Jane the push she needed. “How did I get so lucky to have you as my artificial inseminator?”

Now dancing on the table at the bar with Xiomara and Alba, Jane wants to take a picture to commemorate the moment. She takes Xiomara’s phone and sees the messages between her and Rafael about Mateo being sick. She expresses her anger at Xiomara and Alba because they did not tell her about it. Alba tries to explain to Jane that she tends to overreact when Mateo is sick because of what happened to Michael.

Still angry, Jane calls Rafael. He tells her that he did not tell her about Mateo being sick to protect him. Jane is confused and he explains that when Mateo was sick while Jane was away and they drove to see her, Mateo asked Jane to make sure that he was okay although he was feeling better. When Rafael asked him why, Mateo says that he is scared he could catch a germ and die like Michael. Rafael says he did not want Mateo to be afraid every time he got sick. After Jane gets emotional, Rafael assures her that it is not her fault and she is a great mom.

Back at the hotel, Xiomara takes a flower delivery. Unlike she suspected, the flowers are not from Rogelio but from Jorge, who wrote on a note that he still wants to marry Alba.

A little later, after the Romance Writer Convention, Patricia shows up to have her book signed by Jane. She tells Jane that she felt Michael again while reading the book and loved it. Jane starts crying and lets Patricia know how much that means to her.

On their way home, Alba says she has decided to accept Jorge’s proposal. Xiomara and Jane are excited. However, when she goes to see Jorge and asks him to propose again, she says no instead, apologizes and leaves.

Now at home, Xiomara apologizes to Rogelio for running away. Xiomara tells him she wants to go to counselling. Rogelio is supportive until he realizes that she means couple’s therapy and starts laughing. Seeing the look on Xiomara’s face; however, he reluctantly agrees to accompany her.

At the Marbella, Anezka confronts Petra. While she was dressed as Petra, Anezka asked the twins about missing their aunt and they tell her that they hated her and Petra was only crying at the funeral because they had sprayed perfume in her eyes. Now knowing that she cannot trust anybody, Anezka plans to do things on her own from now on. Petra threatens to tell Luisa that Carl is real so she will sign her shares to Rafael. Anezka had the same plan, but she told Luisa that Petra and Rafael were deceiving her. Seconds later, Anezka falls out of the hotel room on the casket. This time, the narrator promises, she is really dead.

Meanwhile, Jane and Rafael talk while washing the dishes. Jane is still bummed about the bad review she got and doubts if she is cut out to be a writer. Rafael reassures her to not let fear get in the way and, for the third time, gives her the push that she needs. After telling her to be brave, he realizes that he also needs to be brave and kisses her.