-This week in titles: Jane The Guilty Catholic after Alba brings up her lapsed church-going and how she's responsible for Mateo's spiritual upbringing
-For the winter finale, "Jane" pays tribute to master of suspense Alfred Hitchcock as an assignment for Jane's writers group allows them to explore and play with his rules for "bomb under the table" suspense. This helps reinvigorate the crime plot this week as Rafael and Michael's investigation into Elena's secret bank account connected to an Italian convent benefits greatly from some Hitchcockian flair. The camerawork becomes more dynamic, the music more exciting, the lighting darker (particularly during the climatic trip to the convent and Rafael's final conversation with Jane) and the narration more intense. The writers also work in several delightful visual references to classic Hitchcock films like Vertigo and To Catch A Thief throughout the episode, which enhance the story without distracting from it. It makes for a very exciting winter finale that makes the wait for next year that much more difficult.
-The crime stuff is more engaging than usual this week but again it's the smaller, more personal stories that resonant most so we'll talk about that first. Jane's faith is brought to the forefront this week as she resolves to start attending church more (with Mateo in tow) when she realizes she hasn't been since before she got married. Rafael is less onboard with Mateo going to church so young however and in keeping with the new Jane/Rafael dynamic, puts up a fight about it. Faith is one of those big differences between Jane and Rafael that doesn't get touched on a lot so it's nice to see it brought up here even if it ultimately isn't explored that much.
-As someone who has a fair amount of church friends with children about Mateo's age, I can confirm that scene of him fidgeting and acting up in church is accurate with what often happens with my friend's kids. I find it cute though (mainly because I don't have to do anything but revel in the cuteness).
-Of course Jane suddenly becoming concerned about Mateo going to church is a cover for her real concern: why SHE hasn't been going to church lately. When talking to the nun she thinks is Mother Superior though she realizes that she's been angry with God ever since Michael was shot. Jane's faith is important to her and important to the character so watching her be so open about the doubt she's experienced is quite affecting. it's also good to see that the aftereffects of Michael's shooting are still being felt weeks after it happened. Something that big doesn't just go away and "Jane"'s commitment to exploring the aftermath thoroughly and honestly is refreshing. Jane deciding to work on her own relationship with God before working on Mateo's relationship with God is an easy way to curb the Jane/Rafael conflict about church for now but it also feels like the honest, mature thing for Jane to do.
-Michael's recovery also gets an interesting wrinkle as we learn that he failed his physical and can't go back into the field. Suddenly Michael being able to officially resume his detective work isn't as much of a given as it seemed even last episode. It's something that again keeps Rose shooting him from being something that's easily brushed off and promises to send Michael's arc in a new direction when the show returns from hiatus.
-Catalina is still around and Jane is getting tired of her. Suddenly the stories of her many exploits go from feeling exciting and glamorous to annoying and tiresome. It's impressive how "Jane" changes the context of how we see Catalina's behavior without changing Catalina herself.
-Jane gets suspicious of Catalina (Who goes from crashing at Jane's to crashing at the Marbella once Jane politely asks her to leave) from doing a little digging into one of the organizations she's supposedly involved with and noticing a lot of cash and jewels. Catalina has innocent explanations for all of this but it all turns out to be lies when we learn that she has a secret French lover who she stole the jewels from. I wasn't that interested in Catalina being shady last week but now I'm intrigued.
-Rogelio's quest to start a family and have a baby leads him to Darci Factor, The High-Roller Love Dealer (TM). This story mainly seems there to bring in the likes of Denise Richards, Carmen Electra, and Brooke Burke for cameos but takes an interesting turn when Darci and Rogelio decide to have a baby together.
-Darci is played by Justina Machado, AKA Vanessa Diaz from Six Feet Under (Which on an unrelated note, I watched for the first time earlier this year. Highly recommended.). She brings a lot of life and charm to Darci and is able to match the energy and ridiculousness of Jaime Camil perfectly (with a lot of chemistry there to boot) so I'm glad that she seems to be sticking around for a bit. Pairing Rogelio up with someone who's almost as bombastic and narcissistic as he is is also a good idea that I'm surprised hasn't been tried earlier.
-On a minor Rogelio note the show is going all in on it's product integration of Honey Bunches of Oats while also making fun of it and it's beautiful.
-Xo and Alba are mostly on the sidelines this week but Jane does learn from Rogelio about Xo's rekindled romance with Bruce that leads to the revelation that Xo did know he was married the first time she got involved with him. With that reveal adding to Jane's already present dislike of the guy, it's safe to say there's going to be a fair amount of Jane/Xo tension in the next couple episodes.
-I actually didn't think we'd be hearing about the cash discrepancies Rafael covered up for his late father again so I was pleasantly surprised when it came back tonight as we learned the reason for them: it turns out the late Mr. Solano trafficked in stolen paintings and had bribed the Italian convent Elena was connected to to steal some for him.
-While Rafael revealing the truth about what he's done but asking Michael not to say anything looked like it could create new tension between them, his decision to turn himself in at the end to hopefully break the cycle of the Solano's criminal activities for Mateo quickly solved that tension. It was good to see that Jane calling him out on his lack of morals combined with that other revelation (Which I'll talk about in a minute) had sunk in for him.
-I mentioned it briefly above but the whole scene with Jane and Rafael trying to find information at the convent was masterful and a great demonstration of Hitchcock's rules for creating suspense in action as it managed to build suspense, even as it took us step by step through what it was doing. The kicker of waiting until after the commercial to actually complete the "resolve the tension" step was also clever.
-In keeping with the "bomb under the table" method of suspense of letting the audience know things the characters don't, The Narrator shows us an envelope that he promises will change everything near the beginning of the episode. That turns out to be no exaggeration as the envelope contains Rafael's birth certificate which reveals that he isn't a Solano. His mother lost a baby around the time he was born in Italy and bribed the nuns to bring him over as a replacement.
-The reveal of Rafael not actually being a Solano is a great twist for a few reasons. It's a reveal that fits into the heightened Telenovella world of "Jane" perfectly and doesn't feel like a huge retcon. It also turns what could've been another dull crime story into a big personal character story for Rafael, which is very welcome. We've seen how Rafael's negative relationships with his parents and his struggling with their dark legacies has impacted and twisted him throughout the series so this twist is a smart way to bring that all back to the forefront in a way that the death of the mother he didn't really know wouldn't. It also parallels nicely with Jane exploring her family roots this season as Rafael now has the chance to find his real family. This opens up a lot of new avenues of story possibilities and I'm excited to see where this all goes.
-A few choice hashtags this week but my favourite was #nunsontherun , which later got followed with #nunsontherun-back
-Jane returns January 23rd. Ugh, that's such a long ways away.
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