-This Week in Titles: Jane The Helicopter Mom
-Apologies for missing last week's recap. Unexpected business came up and I wasn't able to get around to it.
-Each chapter of "Jane" tends to be focused around a main unifying theme or idea or motif, like stress or faith or the selectiveness of memory or suspense that weaves it's way through the episode, informing most of the stories that week. There might be other themes or motifs that pop up throughout the episode but by the end you can typically tie those in to a larger picture that the episode is weaving Chapter Fifty-Seven throws a lot of ideas out there, but it's unable to unify them the way it usually does. It's main thing is about Jane finding her voice (Both figuratively and literally) as she writes and revisits her novel and it does that in interesting ways. But it also throws in a running theme about various biases Jane has, as well as stuff about communication and conflict mediation and a recurring thing about how Abbey (Raf's oft-forgotten girlfriend) tends to sneak up on people and while some of it tries to connect back to the finding your voice thing, ultimately it's unclear what the main takeaway from Chapter Fifty-Seven is supposed to be, making for a more muddled "Jane" than usual, though one that still had excellent moments.
-The episode begins with a flashback explaining how Jane came to write Falling Snow, her novel about her relationship with Michael. Feeling unable to connect with or work on her Venezuela novel after the death of Michael, Rafael encourages a hoarse-voiced Jane to write about something, anything, to get her voice back again. She winds up researching the history of Florida and gets sucked in but it's not until she looks at a photo of Michael and envisions him telling her "you got this" that she's able to start writing again. This results in Falling Snow, a love story set against the back-drop of the rise of the hotel industry in early 20th-century Florida. Jane takes her pain and makes something very personal with it reclaiming her voice in the process. But when she's asked to re-examine it and add to it, the personal nature of the work causes her to lose her voice again as she struggles to find a way to insert more obstacles into the story and confront the parts of her history with Michael that she'd rather ignore.
-Jane's basically asked to include more obstacles in her idealized love story, particularly involving the robber baron character "Rake" (The Rafael analogue in her story). This leads to a series of scenes where essentially the whole cast gets to dress up in early 20th century garb (Probably the main reason they decided to set Jane's novel in 1902) as Jane tries to figure out a way to bring more conflict into the story. But making the "Rake" character more sinister just doesn't ring true (Possible foreshadowing that whatever shadiness Raf is up to with his prison friend isn't so bad after all?) and all her efforts fall flat. As it turns out though, what her story really needs is to sell the idea that "Josephine" and "Rake" were in love before "Josephine" went back to Martin, which is when Jane is confronted with a whole new dilemma.
-Since Jane chose Michael back in early season 2, the Jane/Rafael romance has been cast to the side for the sake of simplifying things. However it's hard to forget that the bulk of season 1 centered around the love story of Jane and Rafael and that history isn't just going to disappear. Jane feels that to tap into what she once felt for Rafael would be a betrayal of Michael, but Alba rightfully points out that the fact that she fell in love with someone else but ultimately chose Michael only made the love between her and Michael more impactful (Which is true. I was much more invested in Michael after her relationship with Raf had ended). It feels like a justification for the writers to begin exploring the Jane-Rafael bond again and it mostly works. I am a bit concerned that they are setting up for a new Jane/Rafael romance by the end of the season though, which would be unfortunate. I'm not opposed to Jane and Rafael finding their way back to each other eventually, but anything between them that happened this season would feel much too soon.
-The episode sets up that Jane has a gender bias because she tends to gravitate to female authority figures over male ones, which they back up by pointing out the large number of female mentors Jane has turned to over the course of the episode (Even though the episode starts with her taking Rafael's advice about writing again, proving that she doesn't only listen to women). This is a development that makes sense, considering Jane's upbringing in a household of strong women and then it's not really explored in any meaningful way apart from some choice narrator quips. Jane has Jeremy, a male editor for her book who seems like an obnoxious bro, but has genuine good advice and a desire to meaningfully engage with the material under his exterior. She also has Carly, a female aide for Mateo who seems perfect until it becomes apparent that she's a huge gossip who has no qualms with revealing sensitive information about kids and parents in addition to the disinterest and negligence Mateo reveals. Both these turn-arounds are easy to predict and while Jane recognizes by the end that she does engage in bias, at no point does the show attempt to dig into where this bias comes from or what it means on a deeper level, which seems like a big misstep. If you're going to introduce the idea of Jane being biased, at least be willing to explore it beyond the most surface level.
-Calling it now: Jane's first post-Michael love interest will be either Jeremy or this Alex, who's never seen but is set up tonight as the perfect aide for Mateo. Also at some point down the line, Jane's definitely going to have to change the ending of her book so that "Martin" dies.
-Somewhere between Jane writing her novel and Jane dealing with her biases is the plot of Jane accidentally yelling at the director of the preschool over a conversation with apparent mean girl mom Stacy that she misunderstood to be about Mateo's behavioral problems. It brings together both the idea of Jane losing her voice (Jane just can't find the right thing to say or action to show to this director to smooth this whole incident over, with everyone of Petra's ideas that she tries making it worse) and the idea of Jane having bias (Jane feels Stacy is just a mean girl, when Stacy turns out to have real problems of her own). In the end Jane is able to resolve both of these conflicts by being true to herself and coming through when it counts the most (Washing dishes at a school fundraiser when they're almost out and no one else is able to do it, firing Carly and reaching out to Stacy with empathy) making some new friends in the process. The Jane preschool stories are interesting because it's the rare environment where Jane can't seem to easily impress the people around her. Having her clash with both Stacy and the director though on top of the whole aide thing may have been too much for one episode though and added to the muddled feel.
-I've been pretty lukewarm on Bruce since he first showed up, but he won me over tonight with that sweetness the show keeps insisting he has. As he steps in to mediate the conflict between Xo and Ro, asks Jane and Alba for permission to propose and agrees to become Rogelio's new lawyer even though Rogelio has inadvertently interrupted his proposal, he does it with a patience and understanding that makes you see how he could be good for Xo. Based on the look on Rogelio's face when he proposes, it doesn't seem likely that Bruce and Xo will go off into the sunset together but I am more invested in Bruce than I am in other temporary love interests like Chuck or Abbey.
-Rogelio bursting in on Bruce's proposal and mistaking his careful planning for signs that Bruce is meant to be his lawyer alone makes this a good episode of "Jane", even if it's muddled. That scene was incredible.
-It was a little frustrating to see Rogelio and Xo have the exact same fight about Xo's portrayal in The Del La Vega Factor Factor that they've been having and resolving for three episodes now. Yes, Xo's anger is justified and this isn't something you get over right away, but it seemed unnecessary to venture into that territory yet again. Hopefully we're done with that for the time being and can move onto different things like how Rogelio feels about Xo and Bruce's engagement and his lawsuit.
-Danny Woodburn makes an appearance as a lawyer to the stars nicknamed "The Jaguar". He helps Rogelio by starting a smear campaign against the Del La Vega Factor, only to make things worse when his campaign is uncovered and Rogelio is in further breach of contract. It's an alright story but it feels like the majority of action in it occurs offscreen with us only getting updates from Rogelio or "The Lawyer" on how it's going so that we have more time for rehashing the Xo and Ro conflict.
-Rafael considers moving in with Abbey tonight and is ready to go through with it until reading the new version of Jane's novel reminds him of the passion he wants in a relationship that he doesn't feel with Abbey (Though we're led to believe he made his choice because of Petra's advice, as is Abbey). This shines a light on why Abbey is portrayed as being "just there" and is constantly forgotten by the narrator. It's an intentional show choice designed to show us how complacent and disconnected the relationship is in contrast to Rafael's relationship with Jane. She's intentionally unexciting and boring to get across what we haven't seen of the last year or so of her relationship with Rafael. It's an interesting choice but the result is there's zero emotional heft to Raf's relationship at all so why should we care about whether or not he moves in with her. We know she's not going to last so it makes the whole storyline feel slight (Though the end reveal helps a bit).
-Chuck isn't much better of a character than Abbey so far but at the least there's been a clear effort to dig into his and Petra's relationship and explain why she finds herself falling for him in spite of her better instincts. He's a gross caricature but he actually does care about Petra and wants a meaningful relationship that can actually be public. So when Petra comes clean with him about moving the bones (Something that's been gnawing at her all episode) and he rightfully breaks up with her over it, there's an actual emotional impact to the moment, unlike the Raf/Abbey break-up.
-Just when I assumed that Abbey was exactly as nice and forgettable as she seemed and the show was done with her for good, along came the reveal that she had assumed Rafael broke up with her over what Petra said, stole the book she saw Petra hid (Scott's burn book, which contains all of the secrets he has on people) and sent it to Dennis with the most incredible pop-up card I've ever seen. There's still a good chance we won't see more Abbey after this episode, and that "Jane" mostly wasted Minka Kelley's talents but this was a strong twist that manages to kick the murder story back into high gear. Also did the show came up with the idea for the greeting card first before settling on Abbey being a greeting card designer? I would not be surprised if they did.
-Ultimately even if this episode was kind of a misstep, there was still enough strong moments in there that I'm not worried that this is the beginning of some kind of decline for "Jane". Everyone's allowed to have an off week, especially with such a strong record of quality.
-Jane is taking a mini-break until March 20th. Agh, I don't know how I'll survive.
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