Jane the Virgin, “Chapter Thirty-One” was all about tough love. The episode was written by the team of Emmylou Diaz, Jessica O’Toole, and Amy Rardin and was directed by the wonderful Joanna Kerns, who has really impressed me as a director, especially on Jane. I really liked the magic realism effect this week of equating the sleep training with a sportscast – that was hilarious!
This week the opening flashback told us that Jane (Lillianna Valenzuela) loved school – except maybe for gym when Tommy (Nico Ciccone-Scott) was pummeling her with a ball! Alma (Ivonne Coll) has explained to her that this is how boys show they like girls sometimes – a rather aggressive tough love! But Tommy clears up that mistake, telling her that he’s mad because she wouldn’t let him cheat off her paper in math! It’s not love at all!
Throughout the episode Jane (Gina Rodriguez) is dealing with Mateo’s sleep regression. Like every mother, she refuses to take her own grandmother’s advice. Alba keeps telling Jane that the new methods just won’t work – and they don’t! As I’ve already mentioned, I loved the play-by-plays from the Basketball commentators and “Hoops Tonight” morphing into “Sleep Tonight.” I also loved the scene when Jane had Mateo’s lovey stuffed in her bra. Thank you Alba for asking what it was and why it was there because those were exactly the questions that I wanted to ask!
Rita Moreno returns as “Glamma” – Rogelio’s (Jaime Camil) mother, Liliana. She is wonderful as always moving from over the top Diva – one could expect no less from Rogelio’s mother – to manipulative to vulnerable. When she arrives, Rogelio is at a loss to determine what seems to be wrong. Glamma almost immediately confides in Jane that Grandpa (Castulo Guerra) is gay and is leaving her – after 47 years of marriage – for another man. She makes Jane swear to tell no one else!
I was pretty impressed that Jane managed to keep the secret for as long as she did. Inevitably, Xo (Andrea Navedo) guesses that Jane is hiding something, and Jane tells her. Xo then tells Alba. One of the funniest scenes in the episode is when Rogelio finds out. He is convinced that his father is dying, so he’s decided to help him achieve everything on his bucket list before he dies. Rogelio refuses to believe his father could be gay and there wasn’t one sign – except as soon as he thinks about it, the bucket list itself is a dead giveaway: Bette Midler concert, Wicked on Broadway, Mykonos, Provincetown…
Rogelio is shocked his mother didn’t tell him – after all, everyone knows how gay-friendly he is! To prove it, he throws a dinner party and invites Alba’s gay friend from church, Byron (Armando Molina), and Jane’s friend Luca (Brian Dare). Ricky Martin promises – via text – to try to make dessert! Rogelio completely lets the cat out of the bag as he says grace. As it turns out, Liliana is embarrassed and feels like a fool. Most importantly, however, she is worried because she’s never been alone. Yep. I can totally relate to that one. Moreno is fantastic in this scene and it’s the one that we see the real Liliana in. Rogelio tells her that she isn’t alone, and proves it by hugging her.
In the end, we do get to meet Grandpa as he shows up at Jane’s door after receiving Rogelio’s supportive e-mail. It turns out that he and Glamma were supposed to tell Rogelio together. More importantly, however, is that Liliana has known the truth for 40 years and the two had a long-standing arrangement! Of course, that still doesn’t negate her worries about being alone… But I’m interested in knowing exactly what their arrangement actually was!
Meanwhile, Jane is dealing with her first teaching assignment. She’s been assigned Great Books 105, which is known as “books for ballers” – an easy course for jocks to get a credit without a lot of work taking them away from their sports. It’s hilarious to watch as an entire class of basketball players walk in, towering over diminutive Rodriguez! Jane starts Pride and Prejudice with great enthusiasm with the famous first line: “It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife.” When nobody takes her up on answering, she asks Matt – McBaskets (Chad James Buchanan). He tries to save face by saying he hasn’t gotten that far yet… but um… first line! His teammate (Jason Woods) wants to know how to drop the class if she actually expects them to do work!
Just a quick aside here to comment on the beauty of picking Pride and Prejudice – and that first line. I am a huge Jane Austen fan, so I was ‘WooHoo’ when that was the first book Jane got to teach. But more than that how perfect is that line in relation to Rafael (Justin Baldoni) – a single man in possession of a good fortune? And of course, Jane as the outspoken – but righteous (mostly) – Elizabeth Bennett? Thank you for always being so clever show! And there were a lot of frank conversations and tough love in the pages of Austen’s novel too.
Matt tries to blow off the assignment and then plagiarizes, so Jane in a fit of tough love gives him an “F.” This is followed by a call from Professor Blake (Oliver Vaquer) essentially telling her to pass him. Jane is not happy but is faced with the reality of University politics that value alumni relations (and support of the sports teams) over academic rigor!
Jane has already done her homework and made the real effort to reach her students on their level. I loved her comparing the novel to a famous basketball game! I also loved her reaching out to Matt. One of my favorite lines of the entire episode – maybe the season – is when Jane tells Matt that she’s not going to give him the “F” but he has to rewrite the paper by the end of the day. His response is “for an English teacher, you don’t understand nuance!”
Matt challenges Jane to make just one basket off of him. She agrees that if she gets one basket, he writes the paper. She’s absolutely terrible – and I loved that that didn’t change with her slow motion breakaway attempt at the end! Matt is impressed by her tenacity, however. He’s not a bad guy, but he definitely has no confidence in his ability as a student. Seeing Jane put herself out there, however, he decides there’s no way his paper will suck as much as she does at basketball, and he writes the paper anyway. Jane is impressed with what he turns in – a solid C-!
Meanwhile, Jane also experiences some tough love with Michael (Brett Dier). As the episode opens, she dreams about him coming to the door and her thanking him for the tree topper and them seemingly giving it another try. What happens in reality is that Xo sees Michael at the Cubano truck with a girl – Natalie Turner (Erin Westbrook) – whom the narrator says “Don’t look at me! I have no idea who she is either!” I loved that – of course we can’t look at you! Then Mateo hits “friend request” on Facebook while they are looking at Natalie’s page.
Michael does come to the door. Jane had hoped she’d cancelled the request quickly enough, but she hadn’t. She tries to thank Michael for the tree topper, but he explains that he knew it was important to their whole family. It wasn’t about them and that’s why he didn’t knock. He tells her that Natalie is his girlfriend, so in the spirit of tough love, Jane unfriends Michael too. However, are we forgetting that Michael is Mateo’s godfather?!?! Shouldn’t he play some part in the baby’s life?
Michael is still busy tracking Mutter with Susanna (Megan Ketch). Susanna is able to track a lead through Luisa (Yara Martinez), and Susanna and Michael track Mia to Longbourne Lagoon. They discover that Mia has been dead for eight years. Susanna goes to break the news to Luisa. I loved Michael teasing Susanna about Luisa being her girlfriend, and then Luisa and Susanna end up kissing by the end of the episode! It was also nice to get a little background on Susanna in this episode and see Ketch get a little more to do.
Rafael tries to help Petra (Yael Grobglas) deliver a little tough love to her mother, Magda (Priscilla Barnes). There’s a beautiful shot of Grobglas as Petra and Rafael confer with the lawyer (Mercedes Colon), when you see just how devastated and worried Petra is as everything simply becomes white noise around her. I love that we are really getting to see Grobglas do more this season. It’s also clear that she’s no longer being cast as the villain.
Naturally, Magda out tough loves Petra by dodging Petra’s attempt to record her confessing. I liked the softer side of Rafael and Petra’s relationship. She is ready to give up and accept a plea – even for something she didn’t do because she’s afraid of getting a longer sentence. As Rafael makes her something to eat, they discover that the murder weapon that Magda gave the police couldn’t possibly have killed Ivan because it belongs to a set that was bought after he was killed! Petra gets the last laugh when Magda is arrested – though she chillingly warns Petra that she’s made the wrong choice and she’ll regret it!
Inspired by Petra, who told Rafael that under certain circumstances, she might have taken the money like Elena (Fabiana Udenio) did, Rafael finally answers his mother’s calls. Meanwhile, of course, Michael has already determined that if Mia couldn’t be Mutter, Elena also entered Emilio’s life in 1983! When Rafael goes to get some letters sent to his mother, he finds them tied by the signature blue silk ties of Mutter! He instantly recognizes them, but it’s too late! Elena shoots Rafael in the neck with some knock out drug (we hope!!!) and wants to know where the flash drive is that he traded for Mateo. Rafael says Rose has it but Elena says she doesn’t! What does that mean?!? Has Elena eliminated Rose??? I really, really hope not! I want Bridget Regan back as Rose!
Wow! What a great cliffhanger! Now Michael will be right back in the middle of their lives – especially if Elena has kidnapped Rafael! Were you surprised to find out that soft spoken Elena was Mutter? Did you see it coming? Did you enjoy the theme of tough love? Eleana, I think, wins the prize as toughest! Let me know your thoughts in the comments below!
About the Author - Lisa Macklem
I do interviews and write articles for the site in addition to reviewing a number of shows, including Supernatural, Arrow, Agents of Shield, Agent Carter, The Walking Dead, Game of Thrones, The X-Files, Defiance, Bitten, Killjoys, and a few others! I'm active on the Con scene when I have the time. When I'm not writing about television shows, I'm often writing about entertainment and media law in my capacity as a legal scholar. I also work in theatre when the opportunity arises. I'm an avid runner and rider, currently training in dressage.
