In Chapter 5 of Jane the Virgin, Jane’s world was shattered when she found out she did not in fact know the man she thought she knew so well … that well.
In Chapter 6, she’s reeling from his betrayal while she tackles her next big challenge – going back to high school!
Back to School
Jane is horrified when she gets her placement for teacher’s college and finds herself assigned to a high school instead of the middle school she requested. Turns out our heroine had some trouble with mean girls in her own high school and she’s not anxious to return to the scene of the crime. I don’t want to burst Jane’s bubble, but I don’t think middle school girls are any better. These days mean girls are well into their reign of terror by fifth grade.
Adding to Jane’s anxiety is that fact that her placement school is Catholic – the real American version of Catholic school with full-garbed nuns, not the half-assed version us Canadians are used to.
Evil Stepsisters
While she mentally prepares for her journey into the lion’s den, Jane has an #awkwardfamilydinner with her father and her new (former) stepsisters. Rogelio agreed to tone down the dramatic gestures, but when you start with the Mayan Ruins it’s a loooong descent into normal father/daughter interaction. He heaps an embarrassing amount of praise onto Jane while her twin stepsisters Victoria and Valeria snicker and sneer. At the end of the night, Rogelio presents Jane with a brand new car wrapped in a big bow.
The next day when a very nervous Jane shows up at her new school she comes face to face with the two newest students, Victoria and Valeria. GULP. Any hopes Jane had of keeping her pregnant virgin status under wraps are immediately crushed when they out her as an unwed mother-to-be. Jane promises the incredulous nuns that she won’t cause any drama, but with her evil stepsisters on the case, that’s a promise she’s unable to keep. In less than two days they manage to get Jane fired, when they smash a tablet and accuse her of going crazy.
It will come as a surprise to no one that Jane is the kind of girl who prefers to take the high road. Equally unsurprising, Xiomara is not. When Jane can’t thwart the twins with logic and understanding, she finally agrees to a more devious plan. She enlists Rafael to distract the twins with his magic abs while she steals their phones and collects embarrassing dirt on them. The twins did get played, but their consolation prize was a water romp with a shirtless Rafael. Obviously worth it!
Jane’s blackmail finally breaks the twins and they’re ready to confess. But Jane takes pity on them when she realizes they’re screwed up because they don’t have a loving family like hers. The nuns re-hire Jane and she convinces them to go easy on Victoria and Valeria.
So the moral of this story folks is that blackmail has a sappy, happy ending! If only.
Meant to Be
Speaking of Happy Endings, Rafael finally throws his hat into Jane’s romantic ring and it becomes Michael vs. Rafael in the battle of ‘Meant to Be’.
In one corner we have Michael, the earnest cop who showed up at Jane’s 21st birthday to answer a noise complaint and nearly lost his pants when he was mistaken for a stripper. He spent a romantic post-party evening with the birthday girl, learning the secrets of telenovelas and kissing under a light dusting of snow from the ‘yes I’m a real cop’ bullet hole through Jane’s ceiling.
But his armour is more than a little dented. What scares Jane the most is that he would have let her give her flesh and blood to a dysfunctional couple (and a crazy woman!) for selfish reasons. While she wrestles with Michael’s deception, Jane can’t bring herself to take off her engagement ring.
In the other corner we have reformed bad boy turned hotel owner, Rafael, who shared a magical kiss with Jane over five years ago and resurfaced in her life as the father of her medical mistake miracle baby. He and Jane have been separately sex dreaming of each other, while sharing deep conversation and flirtatious banter.
But he did kiss and ditch all those years ago, never calling Jane back after what she thought was a special evening. And even if the circumstances surrounding their re-connection are more than coincidental, can Jane really jump into something new after planning a future with Michael for two years?
After much soul searching, Jane meets with Michael to return the engagement ring. She forgives him, but something has changed and she can’t pick up where they left off.
Later that night, Jane tells Rafael that it’s over with Michael and allows him to sweep her up into a passionate embrace. And WOW, while it was glorious to watch … I worry it’s much too soon for the series to pair up Jane and Rafael. I sense doom and gloom ahead.
Case of the Ex
Xiomara’s big singing debut at the hotel is coming up and Rogelio offers to hook her up with a back-up band. Unfortunately his manager Melissa does all the booking … and she’s also his vengeful ex-wife. She taunts Xo by finding a band filled with hot female musicians that Rogelio has slept with. When Xo rises above the slight and makes it work, Melissa cancels the band at the last minute and claims it was a misunderstanding. Despite the setback, Xo hits the hotel lounge with force, belting out a hypnotic a cappella song that captivates the room.
But her professional success is clouded by a difficult personal decision. Xiomara breaks off her budding romance with Rogelio for fear that their relationship could compromise his more important one with Jane. Xo realizes that she’s often let her dating escapades impact her daughter’s life in negative ways and she won’t do that with Jane’s father.
The Standoff
Rafael spends a night in jail because of Petra’s abuse allegations, but he refuses to give into her financial demands. He kicks her out of their penthouse suite but she and her mother stage a sit-in to fight for Petra’s communal property. They stay put even when Rafael cuts the power to the room. Petra is finally out of moves when Rafael shows up with a cleaning lady who remembers Petra leaving Rafael’s office bruise free on the night she claims he hit her. You see Petra, it pays to be nice to the help and remember their names … or at least have the ability to pick them out of a crowd.
My Boyfriend’s Back
Petra and Magda are unceremoniously displaced to a regular people hotel room (GASP) with a special parting gift — Rafael reunites Petra with her former lover by sticking her with an urn full of Roman Zazo’s ashes.
While Petra hates losing on principle, she has good reason to be panicked about her lack of cash. Ivan the mystery Czech man keeps calling and demanding his money. When he tires of asking ‘nicely’, he shows up at the hotel room waving a gun around. Magda thinks fast and clocks him with the Zazo urn. So now they’ve got to figure out what to do with an unconscious Czech blackmailer covered in Zaz. But at least they’re still alive!
Break in the Case
The search for the elusive Sin Rostro heats up when Michael and his partner Nadine find a phone number for someone named Eli in Disgusting Tom’s locker. But when a heartbroken Michael drowns his sorrows on a patrol boat trip around the harbor, he realizes the numbers actually relate to a ship, crate and dock #.
Favourite Quote:
Xiomara: I know how to take down 16-year-old bitches.
Photo Courtesy of The CW