S04.E14: Chapter Seventy-Eight

[ElectricBoogaloo]

Quote

Xo struggles to make an important decision and looks to Jane for guidance, leaving Rogelio feeling like an outsider. Alba is frustrated with Rogelio when it seems he is once again making his career a priority over Xo. Meanwhile, Petra turns to Rafael for advice on her love life.

Promo:

[cardigirl]

Okay, I’ll bite, who is the evil person shown walking in the dark at the end, that the narrator refers to? 

[JamieLynn832002]

Was Derek (Rafael's not really half-brother) ever caught? If not, I could see it being him. For some reason that I couldn't explain if my life depended on it, when the feet first appeared (before the evil voiceover) my first thought was Michael.

 

So far they did a pretty good job of balancing the lightheartedness with  the cancer story. Rafael's face while listening to Petra practice her speech to Jane cracked me up while Xo/Jane's flashbacks while Xo was trying to decide what to do broke my heart.

[Cranberry]

Every second of Petra was fantastic tonight. I especially enjoyed Jane and Rafael thinking Petra was into Jane and misinterpreting every supportive thing she said, and Petra smugly telling them she and JR had had sex... and Petra preaching to Rafael for 45 minutes about how awesome JR is... and Petra ranting about how she's everyone's type and bragging about how she's been kidnapped twice. I just loved all of it. There hasn't been a misstep in that storyline yet. I just hope that if the writers feel the need to make the "who shot JR" joke we've all been anticipating, that JR gets shot but does not die (or leave Petra, because Petra deserves some happiness).

The breast cancer stuff is being handled well, too. It's sad but not saccharine, which is a line this show manages to walk well quite often. I've always thought this show had strong writing, but I feel like this season has been especially good, which isn't always true of a fourth season. 

Also, Justin Baldoni directed this episode! He did a good job.

[ElectricBoogaloo]

Awwww, poor Rogelio. Everyone is depending on him to be the strong, responsible one - Xiomara, Jane, Alba. When Alba snapped at hiim that things aren't okay because her daughter has cancer, I felt so bad for Rogelio because his wife has cancer. I know they're not exactly the same situation (child vs spouse) but he is still scared and worried, just like Alba and Jane. They are all worried about losing the most important person in their lives.

Alba was way harsh when she accused Rogelio of not giving his full attention to Xiomara just because he took a phone call while they were at the pharmacy. Regardless of who was calling him or why, it's not horrible to take a phone call while you're shopping. Better to take a phone call when he's not even with Xo (not that he should feel guilty for taking phone calls when he's with her either).

One thing I appreciated was that as funny as it was for Rafael to think Petra had a thing for Jane, the writers didn't drag that out for several episodes. He told Jane right away and then Jane immediately asked Petra. The end. Heh, I also loved how offended Jane was by Petra's "ewwww!" and then Petra saying she'd rather go to Chuck E. Cheese during flu season. But Rafael's face when Petra was over her sympathy about Xo's cancer was hilarious!

Typical that Rafael's response to learning about Petra/JR was to ask, "Does this mean you're into women now?" I liked that Jane just wanted to ask if the sex was good. That seemed like something that a supportive yet nosy friend would say so it was perfect.

[srpturtle80]

11 hours ago, JamieLynn832002 said:

Was Derek (Rafael's not really half-brother) ever caught? If not, I could see it being him. For some reason that I couldn't explain if my life depended on it, when the feet first appeared (before the evil voiceover) my first thought was Michael.

Derek was on the list that Rose gave to Luisa of all the people she had killed. 

[Calvada]

I thought the depiction of the first days following a cancer diagnosis was very realistic.  As someone who has been there, I was crying watching Xiomara go through the confusion, fear, and being deluged with advice and sympathy.  People want to help, but you feel so overwhelmed.  It seems everyone knows someone who has had breast cancer, so you get a lot of "my Aunt Millie had this reaction to chemo" or "my cousin's experience with radiation was such and such."  You learn to bite your tongue and thank people for their concern, when all you want to do is say this is MY cancer, not Aunt Millie's.  And then there will be the people who "help" by giving you articles from the newspaper about new cancer drugs or studies, which usually don't apply to you.  Thanks, but this talks about inflammatory breast cancer and I don't have that.   And the stories abut celebrities with breast cancer - if one more person brought up that bitch Angelina Jolie, I would have started screaming.  My advice is simply to listen, send a supportive text/email/card, and make specific offers, not general offers of assistance.  For example, don't say I'd like to bring you and your family dinner some night.  Instead say I'm going to bring you dinner.  Should I bring it Tuesday or Wednesday?  And would you like chicken or lasagna?  

Thank goodness the episode had some comedic elements too.  The scenes about Rafael believing that Petra was interested in Jane, then him telling Jane, and Jane confronting Petra about it were hysterical.  

[tennisgurl]

Poor Rogelio. He was trying so hard to be helpful while also feeling like he was being shut out of his own wife's cancer discussion, and he got yelled at for it. Glad that Alba at least apologized, I get that she is upset (very understandable) but lashing out isnt helping anyone. I also love that Rogelio and Alba always speak Spanish to each other.

The Petra stuff was hilarious, everything from her stalking JR to bragging about her multiple stalkers and kidnappings, to Rafael thinking that she was into Jane, and his and Jane's reactions to Petra and JR, it was hilarious. I also continue to love the Petra and Jane friendship, its become very sweet, as well as very in character.  

Everything with the cancer plot was so sad, but they made sure to add in some jokes and nice moments. I especially loved when Jane was writing about her mom (might have teared up a little) and the conversation between Rafael and Xo. 

[Jillybean]

It seemed as though when it dawned on Xo that she should be discussing her health with her husband (!) she appeared at his door and he answered it. Doesn't she live there? 

[crashdown]

I was actually pretty annoyed by the cancer stuff, because it seems as though the writers didn't care to do a modicum of research about a disease common enough to occur in 1 out of every 8 women in the United States. You can't stage breast cancer before surgery--you don't know until surgery how l large the tumor is, or whether the cancer has spread to local or distant lymph nodes or other organs.  The definition of stage 3 breast cancer is that it's spread to several lymph nodes, so saying that Xo had stage 3 breast cancer and that she was also lucky that it hadn't spread to her lymph nodes was nonsensical on two levels--she couldn't have stage 3 if it hadn't spread, and they couldn't know that it had spread prior to surgery. That's just sheer laziness.

[Simba122504]

For the first time in 4 seasons, the show actually made my eyes watery. Those Xo scenes got me. This is the first time I truly loved Xo/Ro as a couple. I enjoyed their scenes. Xo loves Jane, she's her daughter, but her telling Jane, Rogelio is her husband, so there are things she will discuss with him. It reminded me of Michael's mom disrespecting Jane as Michael's new wife when he was in the hospital. OMG at Rafael thinking Petra wanted Jane. That was hilarious. Raf is a great father. He doesn't believe in religion, but he knew praying helped his son. Mateo is a young boy who just found out his grandma has cancer. That was an awesome parent moment. Thank you, show for mentioning Rafael's cancer and the scene between Xo & Rafael. I have no idea who that guy is. This episode definitely hits close to home for everyone. Sadly, cancer is way too popular. It's something you wish wasn't popular.