Jane the Virgin “Chapter Forty-Two” was written by the team of Micah Schraft and Paul Sciarrotta and was directed by Zetna Fuentes. This is the mother’s day “special” edition, so mothers and celebrations figure prominently throughout – though that theme isn’t exactly unusual for the show either!
The opening flashback establishes the Villanueva women’s traditional mother’s day – started by a 16 year old Xo (Catherine Toribio) of spending Mother’s Day in their pajamas eating ice cream and watching telenovelas – what else! We’re also told that twins are a well-worn trope in telenovelas – in case we’ve already forgotten about Roman/Aaron from season one!
Of course, the Jane’s (Gina Rodriguez) first Mother’s Day as a mother has to end up complicated. Petra (Yael Grobglas) is planning a brunch to celebrate. I loved that Petra, in typical Petra fashion can’t just deliver the invitations – and admit that it’s important to her! Jane catches her slipping the invitation under her door, and ignores Xo (Andrea Navedo) and Alba’s (Ivonne Coll) frantic gestures telling her to say no, and accepts for all of them.
Naturally, Petra has planned the party without any consideration to the babies. Rafael (Justin Baldoni) points out that the brunch will interfere with the twins (more twins!!!) nap time. Petra changes the time to lunch. When Petra shows the menu to Jane, Jane points out that Mateo is unlikely to sit through so many courses and then asks about food that the babies can eat – which naturally pisses Petra off!
Meanwhile, Jane finds out about the ad that was placed in the newspaper. Donaldson (Melanie Mayron) and Blake (Oliver Vaquer) call Jane in. Jane anticipates trouble from her supervisor and support from Blake, but it turns out just the other way around! Donaldson supports her and the fact that Jane isn’t stupid enough to place the ad in the paper even if she were unethical enough to do it! Blake maintains that drama follows Jane around – and we get the flashbacks to prove it! He says that she can’t be a TA the next semester even if she can prove she didn’t do it.
Anezka gives herself away when Jane recognize the same syntax from the ad in the way Anezka speaks. It’s always the evil twin! Jane confronts Petra – and I loved the narrator (Anthony Mendez) fast-forwarding for us! Jane tells Petra that she needs to prove Anezka did it so that she can get her TA position back.
When Petra asks Anezka, she readily admits it and says Petra is welcome! She explains that she thought Petra wanted her to do something to Jane. When Petra is clearly not happy, Anezka tells Petra that Jane said she was a bad mother. Does she tell her this to deflect Petra’s displeasure? Has she honestly misunderstood what Jane said?
Petra immediately calls Jane and demands to know if Jane thinks she is a bad mother. Jane explains that Anezka took what she said out of context, but Petra is angry and lies and says that Anezka said she didn’t place the ad and she believes her.
Jane confronts Anezka at work and ends up making her cry. Anezka tells Petra that Jane is an ogre – clearly trying to turn Petra against Jane. However, it seems like Petra is feeling at least a little badly for Jane and tells Anezka to give Jane space.
Meanwhile, Rogelio (Jaime Camil) is really falling for Dina (Judy Reyes), but she’s determined they should keep it casual – and Rogelio finds out that she isn’t inviting him to her birthday party. She tells him that she doesn’t think he’ll get along with her friends, but he insists that he can hang with nerds – and then he calls Jane for help in a panic when Dina says he can come. He wants Jane to coach him and give him an intellectual side! I loved that Jane compared it to
Pygmalion and Rogelio says, no –
My Fair Lady!
My Fair Lady the movie musical is based on the George Bernard Shaw play!
Jane checks in with Xo to see how she’s doing, and she insists that she’s fine and that Jane should help her father. In fact, she’s happy to know that Rogelio and Dina will both be out of the studio while she’s recording her song for the show. As it turns out, Xo has a little trouble recording the song and Esteban (Keller Wortham) steps in with some unexpected help. In fact, he starts out by flirting with Xo – to get under Rogelio’s skin – but Xo tells him that she and Rogelio have broken up.
Xo being Xo gives in to temptation and ends up sleeping with Esteban! I love how Esteban also has a signature color – he uses green the way that Rogelio uses lavender! Green is a better color for Esteban, however, as he inspires the green-eyed monster in Rogelio – jealousy!
When Rogelio finds out that Dina’s birthday is a sit down dinner and not a party, he calls Jane in a panic and insists that she come to help him. She ends up at the far end of the table and keeps feeding him clever things to say via text. This works really well until Rogelio mistakes NAFTA for the “Nazi Alliance” and he’s outed! Dina is angry at first. Not surprisingly, she says it’s a
Cyrano thing – ie the play
Cyrano de Bergerac – Rogelio says, no it’s more
Roxanne – the Steve Martin comedy based on the play… She decides that while it was stupid, it was also kinda sweet.
While Jane watches the two, she sees that they do mean something to each other. Rogelio realizes that something is wrong and asks Jane what it is. She tells him that she realized as she watched he and Dina together that it’s not about Xo, it’s about her. She wants her dad to be happy, but it makes her sad that she has to let go of the fairytale of her parents finally being together.
Michael (Brett Dier) is working as security for Rogelio as Rogelio is working on a crossover between Tiago and King Ferdinand – Esteban’s show. Rogelio is showing off to Esteban, bragging about Michael, and of course, Esteban has to one up him by dragging out his own head of security, Donny (Peter Cornell) who is a former champ of the MMA – Loved how they shot this with Donny’s head disappearing off screen because he’s too big to fit on camera – and then he picks Esteban up and carries him off – just like the Mountain with Cersei in
Game of Thrones!
Jane tips off Rogelio that while Michael is extremely grateful for the job, he’s not completely happy. It’s not hard to see why, when we see Michael holding Rogelio’s snack for him for between takes. However, when Michael gives Rogelio some tips on how to actually disarm Esteban in a fight scene, Rogelio is instantly inspired to make Michael a technical advisor!
Michael is thrilled and excited, especially when he finds out that technical advisors make good money! He tells Jane and then researched until he’s exhausted – 35 minutes!
However, the next day, Michael gets a little over zealous and keeps calling cut to nit pick every little bit of the fight. Rogelio gently explains that Michael can’t call cut and that telenovelas don’t need to be completely believable. I loved that they then gave us a list of all the things on Jane that aren’t believable! It’s a long list!
Finally, Rafael is completely blind-sided by Derek (Mat Vairo) demanding that Rafael sell him the Fairwick for $1. If he doesn’t, Derek will turn him over to the Feds for Insider Trading based on his shady – and let’s not forget drunken – stock buy from Derek’s friend! We also learn that Derek has been working with their mother (Fabiana Udenio) all along. The Fairwick is his Mother’s Day present for her!
Naturally, Petra’s Mother’s Day lunch is the most awkward affair ever! I adored the narrator making a drinking game out of it – and getting himself drunk! The series of unfortunate comments is hilarious. However, Rafael also tells Jane about Derek – and she tells Michael. Hopefully, this will be a way for Michael to get back to doing the work her really loves.
Rogelio has a beautiful surprise for Jane – a lovely video with everyone saying what they love about her as a mother. However, this is awkward too because Petra is a mom too! Anezka jumps in and toasts Petra.
The entire thing falls apart as Jane finally can’t stand it on the way out the door and starts a fight with Petra – I loved Mateo punctuating the conversation by hitting the animal noises! Of course the noise adds to the stress that ultimately leads to Anezka having a seizure.
At the hospital, Petra reminds us that her sister has epilepsy. She’s going to be fine, but Jane feels terrible. Anezka however is not completely ok because she feels that she ruined the special lunch. She admits that she placed the ad. Jane is angry all over again because Petra knew Anezka did it and lied to cover it up. Jane demands an email to get her TA position back. Even with the proof, Jane loses the position. Petra is clearly upset to lose Jane as a friend again.
The Villanueva women finally end up in the pajamas with their ice cream to watch telenovelas. Xo wants to stop talking about evil twins – Petra and Anezka – and start watching them! Michael also learns something from a telenovela.
After apologizing to Rogelio for coming on so strong with the tech advising, Michael is watching them film a scene in which Columbus is supposed to be on a boat bound for the new world and isn’t and it gives Michael and idea. He calls Susanna and tells her that Derek is dirty and that he knows the GPS on the boat gives Derek an alibi, but he doesn’t think that Derek was actually on the boat.
We see that Anezka can do a perfect imitation of Petra! When did that happen?!
Petra goes to Rafael and chews him out for not coming to her with the news that Derek was blackmailing him – after all, Jane is a good source for book club or deals on diapers, but when it comes to blackmail and financial crimes Petra is the expert! Petra is sure that they can come up with a plan to out smart Derek!
Lots of developments in this episode! What will the cliffhanger be this season? Will we get to the wedding? Is Anezka an evil twin or just misunderstood? Will Rogelio and Xo get back together? What did you think of the episode? 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.
