Jane The Virgin – Chapter Thirty-Six

By starrymag | March 9, 2016

By: Jennifer Verzuh

 

 

“I HATE her,” my roommate proclaims when we sit down to watch “Jane the Virgin” nearly every time Petra’s onscreen. And it’s not a ridiculous reaction to have and one I’m sure many other fans of the show share. Petra (Yael Grobglas) is manipulative, self-serving, prone to lying and practically evil at times. But each character on this show is more complex than they initially appear, including Petra. This season, particularly, has striven to make us root for Petra and I think (my roommate withstanding) it’s been fairly successful in achieving that goal due to strong writing and an excellent performance from Yael Grobglas, which is on full display in this week’s episode.

 

Petra’s reached the end of her pregnancy and like every other expectant mother is worried about a million things, her biggest concern: Rafael. He’s been acting depressed, drinking and sleeping with various women since Jane (Gina Rodriguez) chose Michael (Brett Dier) over him last week. She calls him out on his behavior and accuses him of going to his dark place. She reminds him he’s about to be a father of three and needs to shape up. She calls Jane repeatedly, interrupting time she’s trying to spend reconnecting with Michael. She wants the two of them to go confront Rafael, telling Jane he’ll actually listen to her. Jane’s hesitant to get involved though.

 

The next morning Petra shows up unannounced to Jane’s home and asks her to accompany her to a birthing class she doesn’t want to take alone. Jane being the kindhearted person we know and love agrees. Petra, being the annoyingly determined and strong-willed person we know her to be, reveals when they are on the road that they’re actually on their way to confront an intoxicated and misbehaving Rafael (Justin Baldoni). Jane informs her, based on information she learned from Michael, that Rafael is actually working with the police attempting (unsuccessfully) to gather information on his missing stepbrother Derek in connection with Mutter.

 

The two wind up instead at a book signing for one of Jane’s favorite romance authors who she’s convinced stole her idea for her latest novel. Uncharacteristically, Petra has decided to help Jane confront her. She even schools her on how to take the woman down with a low voice and intimidating stare. It’s pretty great! But before they can get to the battle, Petra’s water breaks and with Rafael stuck in traffic Jane winds up her birthing partner.

 

I love the building relationship between these two. Will they ever be good friends? After everything that’s transpired between the two of them it’s highly unlikely. Yet they care about and support each other in a way that feels very genuine as well as entertaining. These two actresses are excellent together and the chemistry between them is better than with any of the guys. Watching Petra hurl ridiculous insults at Jane in Czech while giving birth as Jane attempts to comfort and encourage her is golden.

 

Rafael arrives to find two beautiful twin baby girls: Anna and Elsa. Yes, you read that correctly. Apparently, neither of them have seen Frozen. For all the faults they have, I can tell these two are still going to be great parents. The pair are ecstatic and Jane leaves with her heart full.

 

Jane’s spent much of the episode wondering what life would have been like had she not broken up with Michael earlier and the two had married a year ago as originally planned. She imagines Michael and Rafael would get along great and she and Michael would be a perfect, happy couple with no secrets or jealousy. She even rents a boat in hopes of erasing the night where she broke up with him at the dock and creating a new, special memory instead.

 

When Jane sees Michael waiting outside the hospital for her, she realizes those Sliding Doors illusions were a fantasy. As Petra bluntly told her earlier, Jane wouldn’t have broken up with Michael if things were perfect between the two of them. She tells him she doesn’t want to go back to how things were before. Michael was lying and behaving selfishly and Jane wasn’t admitting what she really wanted out of life. They’re stronger now and more confidently in love. Michael bends down to propose and has trouble getting the question out as Jane keeps saying “Yes!” over and over. Everyone say it with me now: Awwww.

 

Jane’s family is facing their own struggles this week. While looking at Jane’s laptop, Xiomara (Andrea Navedo) spies messages between Alba (Ivonne Coll) and the man she lost her virginity to her decades ago, Pablo. When Xo learns that her mother didn’t save herself to marriage she’s understandably very upset. She feels her mother lied to her and calls her a hypocrite. Alba insists that she did nothing wrong and they are not the same. She didn’t sleep around, unlike Xiomara. In a moment that made me cheer, Xo refuses to be shamed by her and says she’s not mad that Alba had premarital sex, she’s angry her mom always made her feel about herself for enjoying sex and made her feel like a whore, which she isn’t.

 

It’s a tense, emotional scene that required some heavy dramatic lifting by Andrea Navedo, it really delivers to the point where tears are streaming down her face (and possibly yours too). Alba looks to Jane to back her up, but she and I are both with Xo on this one. Eventually, Alba realizes this too and in a small, but beautiful scene she admits she was wrong and apologizes for instilling the same shame she felt into her daughter. Well done to the cast and writers on this very moving and truthful moment. Xo, having reconnected with her mother, invites Pablo to dinner and shares with Alba that he’ll be coming. Alba isn’t pleased though, he’s apparently BAD LUCK.

 

The worst week all around goes to Rogelio (Jaime Camill) though. His assistant Paola (Ana de la Reguera) revealed herself to be his number one fan, former pen pal and a stalker in last week’s episode – locking him in secluded room. How are things going? About as well as can be expected considering the circumstances. She’s attempting to re-enact one the storyline of his very first telenovela in which his character kidnapped a woman and eventually the two fell in love. He’s taking a page out of Daniel Day Lewis’ handbook and attempting to make her believe he has feelings for her through the magic of method acting. She’s controlling his social media and text messages to Jane in order to make everyone believe he’s on vacation. She’s been drugging him each night, but he manages to hold onto one of the pills and slips it into her drink while they’re eating. With her passed out, he searches for a key to escape. Soon she’s up though and coming at him. Rogelio pulls the trigger on a gun he found only for it to be revealed as a toy. Enraged he would have shot her, she knocks him out.

 

Poor Ro. Hopefully, he’ll hatch a better escape attempt next time as this was the least satisfying of many plot threads occurring simultaneously this episode. The show seems to be trying to take a funny and over-the-top approach to the situation, but you also have to admit what’s happening is legitimately scary and creepy. Separate plotlines on “Jane the Virgin” have a tendency to intersect though and I’m curious to see if/how this storyline will connect with other aspects of the show. Will Lola be involved with Mutter’s criminal enterprise perhaps?

 

Speaking of Mutter, her son/Rafael’s stepbrother Derek is back in town and he’s staying at the Marbella. Can’t wait to see how that turns out!