Jane the Virgin started its winter hiatus but there’s plenty to talk about it in its absence, like the future of Rafael and Jane, and of course, her career.
I’m pretty sure that Jane the Virgin is the only show that consistently surprises me. More importantly, I love everyone in the cast, and, with the exception of Rafael (who could easily win me over), I’m either always amused by a character’s arc or development. However, the mid-season finale, “Chapter Seventy-One,” featured one major hit for me and one major miss.
So let’s start with what I enjoyed most:
Michael’s mother working through her grief
I fully and truly understand that a portion of this was only meant to serve as Rafael’s “Oh, look at me, I’m such a good guy” thing. But it really stood on its own and probably warranted a full episode. It’s probably too late to explore now.
To remind anyone, Michael’s mother initially disapproved of Jane’s novel idea. And after Rafael showed her the manuscript, she asked Jane to cease contact with her. In the present day, Jane began her book tour and was surprised to find that Michael’s mother was in attendance at one of her Q&A’s and ended up liking the novel, and of course, apologizing.
Obviously, I’m not a fan of anyone who brushes Jane aside, but Michael’s mother had every right to be upset and to take as much time as she needed to work through her pain. We also learned that she blamed Jane for Michael’s death, and that alone could’ve used an hour of exploration. Especially once we found out how this affected Mateo.
And for my least favorite moment.
Instead of giving the aforementioned plot strands the attention they deserved, Jane the Virgin squeezed the very last minutes of airtime that it could out of the Anezka storyline, thus creating my least favorite moments of the episode.
I mean, Anezka’s been around for quite some time but never really did anything for the storyline besides make Petra seem like the smartest person on the planet. And though I love whenever Petra gets to outsmart people, I’ve had enough with the accent and didn’t need her to come back to life only to die again.
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Jane the Virgin returns to The CW on Jan. 26 at 9 p.m. ET.