-This Week in Titles: Jane The Flirt, which appears over Jane pulling a Marilyn Monroe with her skirt blowing up. At least in her mind.
-Romance has been a key part of Jane The Virgin since it's very beginning. Though never quite as important a theme to the show as family, Jane's various romantic entanglements and relationships, whether with Michael, Rafael, or occasionally someone else (Jonathan Chavez, anyone?) have often been at the forefront of the narrative. Then Michael died, a move that necessitated a backgrounding of the romantic elements, at least where Jane was concerned. There was still romance in the show, most notably Petra's fling with Chuck and Xo's engagement to Bruce but it was all secondary to exploring where the characters were three years later and how Jane was starting to get to a place where she could heal from what she went through with Michael. This was a smart choice on the writer's part because rushing the romance in almost immediately after Michael died would feel sloppy and disrespectful to the fans who were invested in that relationship and this approach. Now that there's a bit of distance from Michael's death though, the romance comes rushing back in this week (after testing the waters for it last week) and Chapter Fifty-Nine has practically everyone trying to get some action.
-There are going to be a fair number of people out there who feel that it's still too soon for Jane to move on from Michael, at least for the audience who only lost him a couple months ago as opposed to three years. That's understandable but I suspect that even if the show waited until the end of next season for Jane to start dating again people would think it was too soon. Losing Michael was painful and his love story with Jane was one for the ages but romance is in "Jane's" blood and the show couldn't keep it away forever. Luckily Chapter Fifty-Nine makes it clear that the show isn't that eager for Jane to be rushing into a serious or even casual relationship anytime soon as multiple possible love interests for Jane are set-up then shut down.
-"Jane" loves it's visual devices and motifs and it comes up with the best one it's had in a while tonight as various characters (Mainly Jane but Rafael and Alba get in on it too) use a Terminator-esque love radar to try and determine if the person they're interacting with is flirting with them. It's a fun device that beautifully captures how hard it can be to figure out if a person is flirting with you or not as the signs and clues differ from situation to situation and person to person. Of course there's no such thing as perfect love radar and it's especially tough to get a handle on the signs when you've been out of the game for a long time and Jane and Rafael both misread situations at various points causing embarrassing situations.
-When Mateo's aide Alex was introduced last episode, it seemed pretty likely that he could end up as Jane's new love interest, and the promos for the episode heavily revolved around the scene where he lets Jane know in no uncertain terms that he is not interested in her, giving the impression that the entire episode would be about this. Happily, the writers go a different way with this. Alex is Mateo's aide and it would be entirely inappropriate for him to pursue a relationship with Jane or for her to even consider him as a romantic prospect, as multiple characters including Jane point out. Once Alex firmly shuts down the idea that he's interested in Jane, it's the end of that particular story. Instead the show uses this moment as a springboard to dive into just how rusty Jane has gotten at reading signs of romantic interest, showing how much work Jane has ahead of her if she really wants to get back into the dating game.
-After an interlude night out at the Fairwick which we'll get to in a sec, the show brings back Dennis, Michael's old partner who's investigating Scott's murder and who is also recently single. Pairing the two together would make a lot of sense in some ways. The two know each other, both have struggled with Michael's death and we saw their connection be rekindled a few episodes back. If they were to get together for a few episodes, no one would be that surprised so it's not shocking when they go out on a mini-golf date. But the show also recognizes that in the long run it doesn't make sense for Jane to date Dennis. His long history with Michael means she'd be thrown with constant reminders of him, which wouldn't bode well for the health of the relationship. Additionally Dennis is clearly not as over his ex-fiancee as he wants to think he is. So instead of forcing them to be together for a few episodes for the sake of drama, "Jane" has the two recognize at the end of the date that it won't work and Dennis decides to give his ex-fiancee another chance. After all the important thing about this story wasn't that Jane find her next great love, it's that she decided to put herself back out there again, even though it's not going to be an easy road for her.
-Now, let's be real. The easiest option for a new great romantic love for Jane would be her old great romantic love, Rafael. In fact it's almost a certainty that Jane and Rafael will get back together at some point, and a worse show would have pushed them back together already. "Jane" isn't a worse show though and instead, they continue to explore Jane and Rafael being best friends. Justin Baldoni is very charming as Raf attempts to help Jane get back up there, especially as it quickly becomes apparent that Rafael might not entirely know what he's doing either, suggesting Jane look for someone in "kids hotel" The Marbella and not realizing his presence will have people assuming they're a couple. It's once Petra gets involved and the action moves to the Fairwick that things really heat up and the interplay between Jane, Rafael, and Petra is very fun to watch. After all these three have been to, it's nice to see them in a place where they can be friends to each other and support each other, even if it's not the most conventional way of support.
-After Rafael and Petra hooked up at the end of last week's episode, it seemed like a sign that we would be returning to the Rafael/Petra romance, something that the show hinted at throughout the second season but never pulled the trigger on. This time however, they're flipping the script by having Rafael be in love with Petra while Petra dates Chuck. It's a neat twist that the episode cleverly builds to throughout the episode, having Rafael assume Petra is interested in him like in the past until she shuts that idea down hard. Petra still likes Chuck and the flirting we see her doing with Raf is just an attempt to make Chuck jealous. It's a nice way to play on expectations and it's nice that Chuck isn't going to be as disposable a love interest as Abby was for the sake of getting Raf and Petra back together.
-Chuck was introduced as a broad, gross slimeball, and while he's still a broad character, "Jane" and Johnny Messner have done an admirable job, making him more nuanced and complex. Chuck is as confused about why Petra cares about him as Petra is and that confusion translates into a much-needed vulnerability for the character.
-Alba's romance with Jorge continues to be a delightful turn for the character. Ivonne Coll has never really had the chance to play a full-blown love story for Alba (There was that priest in season 1 and her old flame Pablo in season 2 but the priest was just a flirtation and Pablo's story was mainly about what bad news the guy was) and it's fun to see her play lovestruck, as she finds a way to work Jorge into every conversation she has without fail. Her walk of shame at the end is a great pay-off to the "walk of lame" Jane, Rafael, and Petra had earlier and it'll be interesting to see how "Jane" continues to explore this as it lays the groundwork for Jorge maybe being not so perfect for Alba. After all Jorge seems sweet, but he also seems like more talk than action and his big romantic idea only came about because he overheard a lovestruck Alba waxing romantic about minigolf. He and Alba are cute together but it feels like Alba can do better than him.
-Rogelio and Xo are back together at last! Once Xo broke up with Bruce, it was only a matter of time before her and Rogelio reunited but it was still a fun surprise when they almost immediately started making out in the settlement chambers after Rogelio found out the engagement was off. Bruce was a nice guy and the show made me more invested in him than I ever expected but Xo and Ro are meant to be.
-The downside of this storyline is it exposes how much of a plot stall Rogelio's desire to have kids really was. Yes, it's nice that Mateo is filling that part of Rogelio's life and the pair's interactions are filling the bromance void that's been empty since Michael died nicely but it still feels cheap that we spent almost a season watching Rogelio insist he needed kids only for him to abruptly change his mind. Sure time changes things but it just keeps me from enjoying the reunion of Xo and Ro as much as I want to (Though Rogelio matter of factly informing Jane that he and Xo had just had sex in his car was hysterical).
-Rogelio also gets back in the telenovella game this week with Los Viajes De Guillermo, a very loose adaption of Gulliver's Travels that's also based off of Honey, I Shrunk The Kids. It's an idea that looks like a lot of fun and the introduction of a sexier male co-star should lead to some great stories as a jealous Rogelio confronts his aging but hopefully The Passion of Santos remake isn't entirely being forgotten about. Dropping the idea in favour of more telenovella shenanigans for the rest of the show would feel like a step backwards. Rogelio mentioning it gives me hope that it'll come to fruition again sooner rather than later though.
-The heart glow is one of "Jane's" favourite visual devices, deployed many times over the years before being used to break everyone's hearts as we watched Michael's heart glow fade out. It was so effective that I was a little surprised that they brought the device back so soon to indicate Rafael's growing feelings for Petra. Things clicked into place however with the last-second reveal of Rogelio's new co-star, the young, very handsome Fabian who inspires a glow from a um, different part of Jane's body. The message is clear. It might be a while before Jane's heart is ready to glow again but her crotch isn't going to wait.
-The Scott murder investigation is mostly in the background this episode but we do learn that Petra has apparently kept in contact with Anezka these past couple years and has her hiding away somewhere. That sounds suspicious.
-So as the narrator begins to run down the great romantic loves of Jane's life, there's a first one before Michael that he purposely refrains from going into detail on. So yeah, whoever that is will definitely be showing up again by finale time.
-The narrator struggling to remember Dana's name, drawing our attention to the character as he struggles: cute joke or foreshadowing that she's important to the murder plot?
-"Jane" will be off for almost a month now after recently being off for three weeks. Come on CW, you're killing me here. The last five episodes of the season should air uninterrupted though, which will be nice.
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