“Chapter Four” of Jane the Virgin was written by Corinne Brinkerhoff and directed by Debbie Allen. Brinkerhoff’s other credits include Elementary, The Good Wife, and Boston Legal, so clearly, she’s no stranger to both terrific dialogue and balancing between drama and comedy. Allen, of course, is both a director and an actor, appearing most recently in Grey’s Anatomy, which she has also directed. Honestly, her resume is too extensive to even scratch the surface here, but I can think of few directors more perfect for this show. Gina Rodriguez (Jane) continues to impress. Her performance is once again both endearing and sincere. This show is truly the breakout of this season.
I’m still really loving all the delightful little touches in the show – like the narrator (Anthony Mendez) greeting us with “Hola!” and then filling us in on what’s come before. Be sure to tell everyone you know, who isn’t watching the show, that the re-cap is thorough and fantastic! Not to mention that we have helpful captions and glosses typed onto the screen – often with arrows! Perhaps the best “gimmick” in this episode was the halo that appeared around Rafael’s (Justin Baldoni) head while Jane was fantasizing about him. I wonder if we’ll see Jane with one in “Chapter Five”…
The flashback in this episode is to Jane’s “first” wedding – to her best friend… and mother, Xo (Andrea Navedo). I’ve said it before, but it bears repeating, Rodriguez and Navedo have terrific chemistry. One of the most endearing things about Jane is that she is very honest. She doesn’t hesitate to confide in her mother about the feelings she’s having about Rafael. In fact, she cautions Jane not to tell Michael and to keep her distance from Rafael – which naturally becomes impossible. Later, once Michael has found out, Xo tells Jane that if she was a regular person, she’d tell Jane to go and “bang him with gusto.” So she tells Jane to do whatever her version of that is – which turns out to be to write him a very sexy letter. Once again, I loved how they handled the content of the letter with random words appearing on the screen which were nonetheless sufficient to give us a good idea about how hot it was!
Michael (Brett Dier) and Jane are planning the wedding, when Rafael’s face appears in the magazine Jane is looking at and he winks at her – just as Rogelio (Jaime Camil) has done from the bus advertisements in previous episodes. Rafael is Jane’s fantasy, much as Rogelio is his fans’ fantasy – but also Xo’s. After Jane gets upset, Michael tells her that he can live without a food truck, but he can’t live without her. And then the narrator tells us, you never see a broken heart coming.
The scene with Father Ortega (Tony Plana) at the pre-cana is hilarious. I loved his attempt at being more “accessible.” Of course, Jane really can’t lie in front of a Priest, and he is completely flummoxed when she tells him about being pregnant – never mind her fantasy! Michael, however, is completely hurt by her admission.
Jane’s attempts to avoid Rafael are doomed. He essentially corners her and asks her to write an article about the hotel to help improve its reputation after the murder. It’s interesting that he really does think of her as a writer, and it’s also through writing that she reaches out to Michael to make it better. It’s hilarious when she is caught between Rogelio – who is really endearingly desperate to get to know his daughter – and Rafael. I loved her sending the fangirls to intercept Rogelio. It’s hilarious when she falls into the pool and Rafael jumps in after her. She tells him, “It’s four feet, Baywatch!” and then she giggles – I loved the line and the giggle – it’s infectious. Rafael lamely says, “I didn’t know if you could swim,” and she immediately shoots back, “you knew I could stand, right?”
Michael, of course, happens by at that exact moment. Michael does the bravest possible thing at that point and tells Jane that if she’s having feelings for another man, they shouldn’t be getting married. I know we are probably supposed to be pulling for Jane and Rafael to be together – because he gets her writing and she’s carrying his baby – but Dier is doing a wonderful job with Michael, and it’s impossible not to root for him too! Naturally, in another coincidental mix up, Rafael gets the sexy letter meant for Michael. When Jane goes to get it back, her fantasy is burst by Rafael telling her he thinks of her like a sister – EW! Jane then realizes her folly and goes to Michael, who is abrupt with her. I loved that Jane was not afraid to tell him enough! And then once again, speak from the heart, telling him that the distance between them had been heartbreaking and scary since finding out about the baby. She tells him she wants to marry him, but only if things go back the way they were. Rodriguez knocks this scene out of the park as her voice breaks with emotion.
Dier is absolutely fantastic in the final scene when he goes to Jane in the bridal store and tells her exactly what we all wanted him to say. That she is the most important thing and that the baby may be half Rafael’s but it’s also half hers. The scariest scenario would be losing Jane. Michael does manage to clear Petra (Yael Grobglas) of the murder in this episode, but by the end of the episode, Rafael has finally told Petra it’s over – so it’s unclear what whether Jane will give up the baby.
We learn a lot more about Petra’s history in this episode. For instance, she met Rafael when she was engaged to Lachlan (Michael Rady) who is Rafael’s rival and Mr Solano’s (Carlo Rota) Vice President. Rafael’s father wants Lachlan to oversee the hotel because he’s too busy and has lost faith in Rafael. I really hope this doesn’t mean we aren’t going to be seeing much of Rota going forward. So far he hasn’t had a lot to do, and I’d love to see him do more. In the end, Petra and Rafael actually work together to make Lachlan look bad and show that Rafael can make a success of the hotel. Rafael tells Petra that it’s a great strategy, “to make someone think that you’re allies to get what you want.” He’s figured her out, and he’s done. We also learn that her big secret is that she’s not Petra – she’s Natalie and apparently mixed up with the Czechoslovakian mob! Grobglas is really great in the episode – and it’s often impossible to tell who she’s trying to deceive!
We also learn that Xo’s reluctance to tell Jane about her father is because she is terrified that Jane will hate her for not telling her before. Alba (Ivonne Coll) has been pressing her to tell Jane, but it’s not until Rogelio shows up at the wedding store that Xo finally lets him tell her. Her fantasy with Rogelio has already been burst – for the opposite reason as Jane’s really! – for Rogelio what’s between them is really just sex – excellent sex! – but still just sex, nothing more. Camil is outstanding that he can be both such an arrogant, self-centered jerk, and still completely endearing, such as when he repeats that he’s Jane’s father after she says what and then he explains he thought she didn’t hear.
Unfortunately, Xo’s worst fears are realized and Jane is hurt and angry that Xo had known all along and not told her who her father was. Navedo is wonderful in this scene – as she was in the scene with Coll when she confessed her fear. The narrator once again tells us you can never see a broken heart coming, but it’s hard to tell at the end of the episode if it is Xo’s heart or Jane’s. The final shot of Jane alone, crying in her wedding dress is a powerful one. I suspect that their bond is strong enough to get past this. We also don’t know that Xo knew where Rogelio was the whole time, right?
I thought this was another great episode. The show may play with clichés and tropes, but it still seems fresh and charming. What did you think of the episode? Are you rooting for either Michael or Rafael? Do you think that Xo and Rogelio have a chance? What do you think Petra is really up to? Do you think she’s actually in trouble? Let me know your thoughts in the comments below!
