S03.E07: Chapter Fifty-One

[ElectricBoogaloo]

MID-SEASON FINALE!

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When Alba makes Jane feel guilty for not attending church, Jane decides she wants to bring Mateo against Rafael's wishes. Rafael unlocks a long lost memory of him and his mother, which could be a clue in the Mutter case. Rogelio hires a matchmaker to help him get over Xo. Meanwhile, Jane's cousin is starting to wear out her welcome.

Promo:

Edited November 22, 2016 by ElectricBoogaloo

[Primetimer]

Counting down the biggest surprises in Jane The Virgin's mid-season finale.

View the full article

[SeanC]

Different attitudes toward religious upbringing are certainly a viable source of conflict.  To an extent, the obvious solution is just for Mateo to go whenever he's already spending the Sunday with Jane, though that becomes problematic when you get to things like First Communion and Confirmation, which would require more consistent attendance in the leadup cycle.  My father was Catholic and my mother is Presbyterian; my brother I and were both raised as Catholics and always attended Mass with him (mom came occasionally too, but mostly went to the Kirk by herself).

While I sort of buy that Rogelio's feelings about Jane have inspired him to be more interested in raising another child, on a certain level this entire storyline (both now and in the previous season) feels like the writers just trying to throw a roadblock between him and Xo.

[Gin and Tonic]

I feel like the MVPs of this episode were Faith M. Whiskers, III and redonkulously adorable baby Rafael.

Not sure what to make of Michael not being able to be a cop. What exactly is his remaining infirmity and will it have an impact on his normal activities? He seems fine in the day-to-day.

Regarding the big Solano reveal, I find it a little underwhelming. Yes, knowing your biological family is hugely important for many people, and clearly this reveal would upend him, but he was still raised by Emilo and Elena, and raised as a brother to Luisa. That has meaning too and I hope the show doesn't go down the biology=destiny route.

Rogelio's comments in the preview about Michael having "stage fright or an ill-timed serious of tiny consecutive strokes" was hilarious.

Where the hell is Petra?

Edited November 29, 2016 by Gin and Tonic

[Lady Calypso]

I was also slightly underwhelmed by the Rafael reveal at the end. I'm definitely willing to wait and see what this means for Rafael and I'm glad that he'll be getting a big storyline, but I'm hoping that it's well written. On the bright side, at least we know he doesn't take after his crazy family! But the question is if his genes come from an even crazier family. 

So, Michael is not a cop anymore. I mean, he's not a cop at this point in time. I'm sure that has to be hard on him, since that's what he has been working toward, especially since getting shot. I'm sure it'll be another huge adjustment for him. I'm kind of expecting some sort of second meltdown with everything that's happened to him the last few months in his life. 

Crazy Catalina is shady, and the narrator agrees! Of course she lied about stuff. Oh.....is Catalina Rafael's biological sister? Ohhh....first off, that would be creepy. Maybe she just knows his biological family. But now I'm thinking she has to do something with this big reveal. 

So, Rogelio is wanting to have a baby for a second chance, of sorts. I'm totally fine with him going through this but I can't see this business deal ending well.

I was intrigued by the crisis of faith this episode. From Alba guilting Jane to Rafael/Jane fighting about Mateo's part in going to church to Jane admitting that her own crisis with Michael getting shot led her questioning her own faith, it was all handled very well. 

I missed Petra about three quarters of the way through the episode. 

[possibilities]

If you have scads of money and jewels, do you leave them lying around in an open gym bag?

If everyone at home is desperately poor, how did they somehow have a collection of "family jewels" that could be sold for lots of money?

Catalina's story makes no sense and Jane just comes across dim for buying it.

I didn't get why being adopted made such a big difference to Rogelio. Are they implying he was kidnapped, not legitimately adopted? For the sister to be trafficking stolen art to fund child welfare seems way less corrupt than her selling an actual child. Also, I didn't really understand the art thing. If the paintings were "stolen from the convent" why didn't the convent just sell them legitimately, if they needed money?

[annewithaneee]

I found bringing Mateo to mass really odd. Do Catholic churches not have an infant and/or toddler nursery, or a breastfeeding/cry room? I was raised protestant (now I'm just not religious), and maybe they just handle it differently, but at any church I went to there were a variety of options for parents with young, fussy children. I often volunteered myself for tours of nursery duty, since I didn't really want to go to service, either. Any time I have been to a mass, there weren't any babies in the sanctuary, making me think most churches do supply a nursery. There's absolutely no point in making a baby sit through a service; plugging him into the religious community from a young age makes a certain amount of sense, but not trying to make him be quiet for an hour-plus in the midst of a bunch of rituals he can't yet understand.

I'm glad they're doing this storyline for Rogelio. I've been wondering why he doesn't just go the surrogate route.

[chocolatine]

What was matchmaker lady doing setting Rogelio up with Denise Richards, Brooke Burke, and Carmen Electra? They're all in their mid-40s, so it's hardly guaranteed that they'd be "fertile", as he requested. She was probably gunning for his sperm from the beginning and set him up with women she knew he would turn down.

The "biological baby dies, so mother takes replacement baby from an overseas orphanage/convent" has already been done on Desperate Housewives, and it wasn't particularly interesting then either.

Jane failed miserably at channeling Hitchcock if she bought Catalina's story about the miserably poor family in Venezuela.

Does Michael just need more recovery time to pass the physical, or are his injuries permanent and have him limited to desk duty forever?

Edited November 29, 2016 by chocolatine

[ElectricBoogaloo]

While I totally agree that the people who raise you are your family and that is far more important than whose sperm met whose egg, I can understand Rafael's reaction. First of all, that means he has an entire biological family somewhere out there that he never knew about and will probably want to find. Secondly, if he isn't a Solano, does that mean he will lose whatever he inherited? I think this would be a much bigger concern plotwise if he was on the outs with Luisa (or if she were a money hungry bitch who hated him), but I would imagine he is worried that if the truth comes out, he could lose all of his money and have no way to support Mateo, which is a valid concern.

I really hope that Rogelio decides not to go through with having a baby with Darcy. Look at how Jane and Rafael originally thought they would be able to easily coparent and all the conflicts that arose (many of which were solved because Rafael was in love with Jane and gave in to what she wanted).

On a related note, I love the threeway coparenting we have going on with Michael telling Jane behind closed doors that he agreed with Rafael. It's stuff like that scene that makes me glad Jane and Rafael aren't together so that we get to see what real coparenting looks like. Not every family is made up of bio mom, bio dad, and bio kid all agreeing about everything. The fact that Rafael is not in love with Jane and not afraid to say no to her anymore makes this situation a lot more realistic, which I like.

Even with a typical family (bio mom, bio dad, bio kid), there can still be conflicts about religion so it's nice to see the family trying to work things out. Of course Jane's M.O. is to make them all go to church. I agree with Michael and Rafael - Mateo is still too young. My general rule of thumb is if a kid can't sit through a meal at a restaurant or a movie in a theater without making a ruckus, then that kid is also too young for church. Babies can't be expected to sit still and stay quiet for an hour, and they're too young to be reasoned with so you're just asking for trouble (aka disruptive noises). Part of being a responsible parent is knowing what's appropriate for your kid's age and not torturing other people with your kid being loud. I wouldn't take a kid his age to the opera and I wouldn't take him to church. He's too young to understand what's going on. He will get bored and start squirming. That's what kids his age do. It's not fair to him or anyone else in church. If Jane wants him to start having a relationship with God, she doesn't need to take him to church on Sundays to do that.

Hated that Alba totally guilt tripped Jane about not going to church. Just because you go doesn't mean that everyone else has to go. Heh, I had to laugh when Jane said she wanted Mateo to go to church because religion is important to her but then Michael said she hadn't gone to church since their wedding.

[Serena]

2 hours ago, ElectricBoogaloo said:

Secondly, if he isn't a Solano, does that mean he will lose whatever he inherited? I think this would be a much bigger concern plotwise if he was on the outs with Luisa (or if she were a money hungry bitch who hated him), but I would imagine he is worried that if the truth comes out, he could lose all of his money and have no way to support Mateo, which is a valid concern.

Definitely not. Adopted children have the same rights regarding inheritance that biological children have.

[ElectricBoogaloo]

31 minutes ago, Serena said:

Definitely not. Adopted children have the same rights regarding inheritance that biological children have.

True, but it sounds like he wasn't legally adopted but passed off as the biological son of Elena and Emilio. I doubt Emilio would have gone along with this if he had known that Rafael was some random baby who Elena brought home. 

[beadgirl]

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I found bringing Mateo to mass really odd. Do Catholic churches not have an infant and/or toddler nursery, or a breastfeeding/cry room? I was raised protestant (now I'm just not religious), and maybe they just handle it differently, but at any church I went to there were a variety of options for parents with young, fussy children.

Some churches do, some don't; and don't forget some are hundreds of years old and therefore built before the idea of cry rooms.  Also, Catholics are split on whether it's a good idea, with those opposed saying it ghetto-izes (so to speak) families and encourages the notion that kids don't belong at Mass. 

As for whether it's a good idea to bring young children, I think it depends on the child and the family.  I brought my kids when they were infants, but once they started walking I stopped for a while.  But then, I also have 1) unusually active boys, 2) an oldest with significant special needs, minimizing my ability to look after a toddler, too, and 3) a non-Catholic husband who doesn't attend.  But I have seen kids in the 1-3 age range who really are able to sit quietly for the most part (why can't I get one of those???).  It helps, too, to do it every Sunday, because the kids eventually get used to it.

I like that this show takes faith so seriously, and has characters with different perspectives on and levels of faith.  That's quite rare on TV.

[kirinan]

I don't think Michael's problem is physical. I'm not even sure why I feel this so strongly, but I think he's getting too close to something with the investigation into Rafael's mother's death and someone in the background is pulling some strings to keep him off duty. (Of course, I hardly ever get these kinds of things right, so take it with the proverbial grain of salt.)

The rest of the episode...meh. I thought the Hitchcockian touches were very cute, but really, it just didn't draw me in this week (except the narrator; I never have a problem with him). I liked last week much better. It's probably good there will be a few weeks until the next one.

[Joana]

I thought the episode was interesting in itself, but it felt quite un-JtV like. IMO the show works best when the whole cast is included and here it seemed like we kept seeing the same people over and over again. Petra's absence definitely showed. Also it felt like there were fewer of those blink-and-you-miss-it hilarious little details that are the show's trademark. I still liked it, but I hope the next episode will be more like the usual Jane the Virgin. 

I feel like we're approaching the point where they either need to integrate Luisa (and Rose) in the storyline full time or find a way to write them out. I mean, I'd hate to see it happen, especially with Luisa, but it's better than this start and stop storytelling where weeks go by with them MIA. 

Agree that Rafael's big discovery seemed a bit underwhelming, but let's see where they take it from there.

I liked it that Xiomara admitted knowing Bruce was married when she started seeing him. I kinda suspected that all along. 

Edited November 29, 2016 by Joana

[Lady Calypso]

2 hours ago, kirinan said:

I don't think Michael's problem is physical. I'm not even sure why I feel this so strongly, but I think he's getting too close to something with the investigation into Rafael's mother's death and someone in the background is pulling some strings to keep him off duty. (Of course, I hardly ever get these kinds of things right, so take it with the proverbial grain of salt.)

I thought something similar. I'm not sure if I'm even right, but I'm thinking that Michael's problem isn't physical, but mental. I think that maybe his subconscious is keeping him from passing his physical because he's still not over the shooting. He's been so gung-ho to get back, especially when he was still in the hospital, and he's only had one small moment to break down. He may think he's ready to go back, but maybe his body is literally keeping him from going back because he's still scared about going out on the field, but he probably doesn't realize it yet.

But it's more than likely that he just plain failed his physical.

[Joana]

I wonder if Yael Grobglas hasn't been as available lately. We haven't even seen Anezka since the big reveal, and last week the resolution of Evil Petra's storyline felt rushed and incomplete and the episode was generally Petra-light.

The show really isn't the same without her. 

[JennyMominFL]

I haven't been to a Catholic church in years but I was raised a strict catholic in New England. I never saw a church with a seerate place for babies/kids. Everyone went to mass together.

[DianeDobbler]

Yes, the women the matchmaker paired with Rogelio were ridiculous. Every single one of them is pushing fifty.  And why were they all celebrities? If there's a dead horse that Jane the Virgin is beating to death, it's cameo appearances from the C list that the show pretends is A list. I am so damn tired of it. As well, no sooner were we introduced to the matchmaker that I thought - it's going to be HER. Only I didn't think she was the one who would propose it - I thought it would be Rogelio. However, she too, is on the far side of the fertility spectrum. As is Rogelio himself. The age of the father CAN impact the health of a child.

I have to agree they need to write out Luisa/Rose or integrate them into the show. Right now they don't fit. Luisa checks in with Rafael from time to time, and that's it. I also don't know what's going on with Yael Grobglas's availability, but this is unacceptable.

Edited November 29, 2016 by DianeDobbler

[xander874]

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I wonder if Yael Grobglas hasn't been as available lately.

Maybe she was filming her Crazy Ex-Girlfriend guest spot? Honestly, I forgot about Petra until the last few minutes and I love her. I think there was too much going on in this episode to wedge her in. I do, however, think the writers aren't sure what to do with her character right now since she's on the outs with everyone. I hope it turns around because she does add some "Alexis Carrington" to the soap opera aspect of it.

[Joana]

Oh God, I didn't even realize this was the midseason finale. Fortunately the break is only two weeks or I'd be pissed they're leaving it at this. 

I don't really think the show has got significantly worse or anything, but I'm afraid we might find ourselves at an impass there if some things don't change. They need to commit to some storylines seriously or let them go. It seems like no one is even mentioning Sin Rostro nowadays - is that storyline officially over? I could live with it, even though I'd find it odd if Michael didn't go after the person who shot him - I just don't want it to suddenly resurface 7 episodes from now. Also, the whole business with Mutter's bank account number better be good, the way they're dragging it out.

Like I mentioned, decide what to do with Luisa and/or Rose and stick to it. Give Petra something meaningful to do. I was never too thrilled with the addition of Anezka, but after all the trouble she caused, it would kinda suck if her storyline just fizzled out like that. Give her a proper send-off, if nothing.

If they go the way of Grey's Anatomy and start randomly dropping and resuming major storylines, I'm NOT going to be happy.

[wonderwoman]

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Fortunately the break is only two weeks or I'd be pissed they're leaving it at this. 

Hate to burst your bubble, but JtV doesn't return until Jaunary 23rd.

[Joana]

Sigh. It's true. I read somewhere it would be back on December 19th. 

And I'm officially pissed off now. I'll probably come back to watch in January, but it would have been a no-brainer just a couple of weeks ago.

[possibilities]

I didn't miss Petra and I always hate Anezka. Anezka just seems like bad acting and blatant fakery. I don't understand why anyone thinks Yael G is doing a good job playing the twin. I don't understand why any of the other characters take Anezka at face value, she seems so ridiculously fake to me. Not fake in the "over the top" way that can be funny, but fake in the sense of: bad acting, not believable, not funny, not interesting.

I liked Petra making peace with Jane even though I had to really disconnect from myself to get over her false accusation of abuse by Rafael. Having her revert to villainy isn't being fun for me at all. I just don't like seeing them boomerang her characterization -- it's gotten boring. Also, Rafael as the show's punching bag is wearing me out.

I like the co-parenting dynamics with Rafael and Jane and Michael. I am tolerating Rogelio's quest for parenthood, but I find it hard to believe he'll actually be able to be a good parent to an infant. And if age or finding an ovum is a problem, there's always adoption, but for some reason the show doesn't think that's interesting and they'd rather try to sell us on him making a business arrangement with another "aging narcissist"? I don't get it.

I like how they manage to be feminist and also respect religion. This show is amazingly awesome in how it portrays the complexity of women's lives, and I all people's lives really.

I hope they do find a way to bring Luisa back and keep her around doing something other than bouncing back and forth between Rose-Rehab-Rogelio.

It was surprising to me that they didn't reveal what was wrong that caused Michael to not pass his physical. No way is that going to be just shrugged off and he just accepts desk duty forever and no drama. There's going to be more to this, for sure.

[moonorchid]

This episode embodied what I still love about this show and what has been grating to me after each episode. 

There are genuine moments of laughter and heart that I still enjoy. Jane saying goodbye to Mateo and the narrator calling him a traitor and mateos toothy grin as he waves...best toddler on tv! 

Jane in her comedic moments and her heart warming moments I still love very much. 

But then she slips into her morally righteous moments and that's when I start to get really angry at Jane. 

Rafael has been a punching bag for this show from the beginning but that has amped up this season. 

jane being mad at Rafael for putting Michael in a position to lie for him, I understand. Jane firing with "maybe if you had gone to church you'd know right from wrong"

im sorry, F.U Jane! 

[kieyra]

6 hours ago, moonorchid said:

This episode embodied what I still love about this show and what has been grating to me after each episode. 

There are genuine moments of laughter and heart that I still enjoy. Jane saying goodbye to Mateo and the narrator calling him a traitor and mateos toothy grin as he waves...best toddler on tv! 

Jane in her comedic moments and her heart warming moments I still love very much. 

But then she slips into her morally righteous moments and that's when I start to get really angry at Jane. 

Rafael has been a punching bag for this show from the beginning but that has amped up this season. 

jane being mad at Rafael for putting Michael in a position to lie for him, I understand. Jane firing with "maybe if you had gone to church you'd know right from wrong"

im sorry, F.U Jane! 

Characters without flaws are boring, and we end up calling them Mary Sues. 

Jane has been shown to be judgmental, but she's also acting on fear and guilt that Alba put into her. 

Rafael's very handsome and wears tight shirts, but he hasn't been a punching bag, and he usually gives as good as he gets when it comes to conflict. 

[DianeDobbler]

I'm on the fence with this season as well. I love Yael Grobglas, and I guess I made assumptions about this season about what to expect for her character, and so far it's been nothing. I don't see the point of Anezka or in having Petra petrified - nothing new came from it except she was "bad" again, but her being "bad" lasted on episode before she was out maneuvered. That could have been accomplished a million ways without setting us up to expect so much more from the twin switch and her paralysis.

Jennie the showrunner talked so much about Luisa/Rose in her Season 3 previews I thought there would be much more, not that I'm complaining. I've realized now that when she previews a season, she can be talking about just ONE and done episode, not an ongoing theme or issue.

I think it was a missed opportunity not to have Petra react to Catalina. Even though Petra is angry at Rafael, 10-1 she'd have seen through Catalina in one second, and IMO we missed snark she could have thrown out there in front of Jane, Rafael or Michael - the sort of thing where they'd be "Well, that's just Petra being bitchy." but it also plants a seed.

[Anisky]

55 minutes ago, DianeDobbler said:

I think it was a missed opportunity not to have Petra react to Catalina. Even though Petra is angry at Rafael, 10-1 she'd have seen through Catalina in one second, and IMO we missed snark she could have thrown out there in front of Jane, Rafael or Michael - the sort of thing where they'd be "Well, that's just Petra being bitchy." but it also plants a seed.

This hadn't occurred to me until you said it, but YES YES YES THIS. Especially considering that Petra actually DID at least partially  move in those kinds of circles! (Though, now that I think of it, shouldn't Rafael be at least familiar enough with those sorts of social circles that he would notice something off about Catalina's stories? I guess we can fanwank that he doesn't think about it because he's so into her, but still.) 

But yeah, Petra would have seen through Catalina in an instant, and however she responded, it would have been MAGNIFICENT. 

(Also once things were in the open it could sort of open up a bitchy-halfway-forgiveness-Petra-style type of comment-- "Apparently you are not only ridiculously inept at judging a woman's character, you also fall for any fake or con artist alive, no matter how obvious the scam. Maybe I shouldn't take it personally that you couldn't tell that Anezka wasn't me.") 

Edited December 2, 2016 by Anisky

[Joana]

I was 100% sure Petra was going to react to Catalina, it was one of the main reasons why I was so looking forward to this episode. I still think it's going to happen, but the perfect moment has maybe passed.

We definitely need more of Petra in the rest of the season. Not Anezka, not Anezka pretending to be Petra. Petra. She's been tragically underused so far. 

[MoreCoffeePlease]

Finally watched ... what the heck happened to Denise Richards?  She looks terrible.

[Clanstarling]

On 11/29/2016 at 2:12 AM, ElectricBoogaloo said:

Secondly, if he isn't a Solano, does that mean he will lose whatever he inherited? I think this would be a much bigger concern plotwise if he was on the outs with Luisa (or if she were a money hungry bitch who hated him), but I would imagine he is worried that if the truth comes out, he could lose all of his money and have no way to support Mateo, which is a valid concern

This was my first thought. I'm actually kind of interested to find out who his parents really are. It could be bad, but JtV has always done something slightly unexpected with standard twists, in my opinion.

The cousin can go. Seriously, her stories don't track in any way, and haven't from the get-go. Michael's blase attitude when Jane (finally) got suspicious is more than a hint that he's really not at the top of his cop game. Desk duty might just be his speed right now.

[Joana]

1 hour ago, Clanstarling said:

Michael's blase attitude when Jane (finally) got suspicious is more than a hint that he's really not at the top of his cop game. Desk duty might just be his speed right now.

It could be, but I feel that entire storyline is generally off at the moment. Alba insisted so much that Catalina is up to no good right from the start, and then when Jane started suspecting her, she was also all "meh" about it. It didn't make a lot of sense either. 

[AnnaRose]

1 hour ago, Clanstarling said:

On 11/29/2016 at 5:12 AM, ElectricBoogaloo said:

Secondly, if he isn't a Solano, does that mean he will lose whatever he inherited? I think this would be a much bigger concern plotwise if he was on the outs with Luisa (or if she were a money hungry bitch who hated him), but I would imagine he is worried that if the truth comes out, he could lose all of his money and have no way to support Mateo, which is a valid concern

I'm not a lawyer, but it seems to me that Raphael's inheritance wouldn't be threatened because it isn't a case of fraud - he wasn't pretending to be someone else... and also because Raphael's father always considered Raph his son and left his estate to his son and daughter.  Raphael finding out that Emilio wasn't his biological father doesn't change the fact that he was Emilio's son his whole life.  Half of the estate was left to Raphael Solano, and that is his legal name.  Again, no fraud involved, at least by Raphael.  (Mom's another story, but that's not his fault.)

I think it could be considered similar to a wife having an affair and her husband being considered the child's father.  If there was an inheritance in that case and later it's found that dad wasn't the biological father... I don't think the person would be disqualified from their rightful inheritance.  Would they?  There's more to parenthood than biology. I don't think it's possible or reasonable to tell that person, you don't have your father's dna so you have to give back the inheritance he left you.

[Lady Calypso]

2 hours ago, Joana said:

It could be, but I feel that entire storyline is generally off at the moment. Alba insisted so much that Catalina is up to no good right from the start, and then when Jane started suspecting her, she was also all "meh" about it. It didn't make a lot of sense either. 

Yeah, agreed. Michael also was suspicious about Catalina in the previous episode as well, and then it's suddenly dropped when Jane brings it up.

[LisaM]

I'm wondering if Catalina isn't really Jane's cousin but an imposter who did a ton of research and is after the Solano fortune?

Agreed that the episode really needed Petra. The whole Anezka-as-Petra storyline really fizzled.

[AudienceofOne]

On 22/12/2016 at 10:15 AM, LisaM said:

I'm wondering if Catalina isn't really Jane's cousin but an imposter who did a ton of research and is after the Solano fortune?

But if she was then why would she have mentioned to Abuela's sister that Jane contacted her? I'm getting a clear con artist vibe from her but I don't suspect she's not Jane's cousin. 

On 02/12/2016 at 2:27 PM, Anisky said:

This hadn't occurred to me until you said it, but YES YES YES THIS. Especially considering that Petra actually DID at least partially  move in those kinds of circles! (Though, now that I think of it, shouldn't Rafael be at least familiar enough with those sorts of social circles that he would notice something off about Catalina's stories? I guess we can fanwank that he doesn't think about it because he's so into her, but still.) 

I'm willing to accept that Rafael believes that any cousin of Jane's is a good person because Jane is too so he's not doing his due diligence. 

Also, I know Luisa's in rehab (again) but surely she has some sort of opinion on Raf signing over the shares to the hotel to Petra. 

[CooperTV]

Now Jane is jealous of Catalina, while trying desperately rationalize it into something else and projecting her jealousy to the Raf and the church thing.