Jane the Virgin “Chapter Sixty-Two” was written by the team of Jessica O’Toole, Amy Rardin, and David S Rosenthal and was directed by Fernando Sariñana, whose other credits include
El Torito,
Amar te duele,
'Til Death, and
Dark Cities. This was a good episode that moves us closer to the end of the season. With only two more episodes, we also have two potential mysteries on our hands – who will end the season in peril this year?
The episode opens with the usual flashback. This time the focus is on a recurring dream that Jane (Jenna Ortega) had growing up – of her crushed flower growing teeth! It’s the vagina dentata – the trope that sees sex as dangerous for the man – possibility resulting in castration or emasculation for the man. It provides a nice link to later in the episode when Jane (Gina Rodriguez) insists that Fabian (Francisco San Martin) has been seeing her as another trope – the Madonna/whore paradigm! Kind of appropriate for Jane when you think about it.
For Jane the flower really symbolizes the fears she has about relationships. Xo (Andrea Naveda) can’t believe that Jane is actually being so casual about her relationship with Fabian when Jane usually has raised expectations about relationships. Maybe Fabian wasn’t so far off in assuming she only wanted a serious relationship! However, as we learn later in the episode, Jane doesn’t regret waiting until marriage to have sex, but it has definitely colored how she views sex. The episode marks a milestone in Jane’s development as she manages to have sex with Fabian and is able to just enjoy it as sex.
Jeremy (Evan Todd) calls Jane to give her the good news that
Cosmopolitan Online wants her to write a column a la
Sex in the City – but with the focus on a widow getting back into the dating scene. She becomes
Jane the Virgin Columnist! Her sexy alter ego is back and we get a few Sex in the City shoutouts – the best being Jane, Xo, Alba (Ivonne Coll), and Rogelio (Jaime Camil) playing Carrie, Samantha, Miranda and Charlotte!
Of course Jane’s dating life is complicated. Fabian wants Jane to provide him with a reading list and only wants to talk books – but Jane isn’t looking to be his English teacher or join a book club! I loved that it turned out that he was using the books to distract himself from wanting to have sex with Jane!
Naturally, as soon as Fabian is ready, Jane has second thoughts – it’s those damn teeth! She goes to the washroom, and of course she no sooner thinks about Alba then she calls! Mateo (Joseph Sanders) has had a bad dream and needs Jane. It’s hilarious when she comes out of the bathroom to find Fabian naked! And then all the ways they disguise his bits and pieces! Fabian is completely sympathetic with her having to leave – motherhood is a sacred duty…
Mateo has had a bad dream because a kid at school called him artificial. Then Mateo wants to know how babies are made. Jane goes with the tried and true eggs and swimmers and special hugs. Luckily, like all four year olds, Mateo’s attention span shifts to ants before things get too intense. But it’s clear that Jane and Rafael (Justin Baldoni) are going to have to have a serious conversation with Mateo, especially after Mateo starts giving all the girls at school special hugs to have his baby!
Later in the episode, Rafael and Jane put Mateo to bed and tell him the bedtime story of their family. They tell him that usually the mom and dad meet, fall in love, and then have a baby, but in their case Mateo came first! Mateo says, “like a miracle?” And really, he is! As the two are waiting for Mateo to fall asleep between them, they text back and forth. Rafael is going to have to miss the Telenovela blessing because he’s having dinner with Petra (Yael Grobglas) and the girls. It’s nice to see the two of them finally finding a good place with each other.
Fabian invites Jane over, and she dresses for a sex-filled evening, only to be greeted at the door by Fabian’s Abuela (Silvia Curiel)! Fabian is a lot more serious than Jane is and he wanted her to meet his Abuela. When he’s interviewed by the press, he pulls a total Tom Cruise and jumps all over the couch! I loved all the Cruise references – Risky Business, Eyes Wide Shut, and Faraway! Jane is more than a bit freaked out by it – who does that?! It’s over the top for Jane, but Fabian insists it’s just that he’s passionate and exciting!
Jane decides that she’s going to break it off because they are on different pages, but then the couch jumping interview goes viral, and Fabian asks Jane to pretend that they are still together when the press shows up for the Telenovela blessing.
In the end, Fabian apologizes to Jane and tells her that he thought she only wanted a serious relationship, and she insists she just wanted sex. Fabian is up for it and tells her to meet him at his place in half an hour. Jane has one more bout of cold feet and calls Xo to talk her into it. Perfect choice! Xo tells her that there’s nothing to feel guilty about – and Xo is the master of that! In the end, Jane goes for it! She calls Rafael to tell him that she’s had casual sex and doesn’t feel guilty!
Meanwhile, Rafael’s own love life is having some bumps. Petra and Chuck (Johnny Messner) are missing, and of course, the show makes us think that Chuck is a danger to Petra. Rafael finally gets through to Petra and tells her to make a run for it, but Chuck catches her and tells her that he did lie. He did know Scott, but he was only paying him for information on the Fairwick so he could buy it. He was on the beach that night but he bought the bracelet that Petra found in his bag from a mysterious woman on the beach the night of Scott’s death.
Petra pretends that she never heard the messages that Rafael left for her – he suggested that they should sign the girls up for karate and the other was Rafael confessing that he still had feelings for Petra. When Petra suddenly blurts out that they should sign the girls up for karate, Rafael knows she heard the other message too. Rafael insists that they can make it work this time because the two of them are different and their relationship will be different.
Dennis (Christopher Allen) and Dana (Sheila Carrasco) show up and interrupt. Chuck had promised to describe the woman he saw on the beach if he got a deal, and they’ve come to show Rafael and Petra! They recognize whoever it is – but we don’t get to see!!!
Jane is thrilled to Finally, in a surprise move, it turns out the Rogelio and Xo are planning a small wedding, despite the fact that they’ve both always wanted a huge one.
It seems that Alba’s relationship with Jorge (Alfonso DiLuca) is going very well. He doesn’t really understand the attraction of Telenovelas but comes to the blessing with Alba anyway. She explains to him that Telenovelas were a way for her to feel close to Xo. They’ve always been very different and the Telenovelas were something they shared and had in common. Jorge blurts out that he loves her, and Alba tells him that she loves him too!
The two are interrupted by Jane who’s hiding from Fabian. She laments that she wanted Rogelio and Xo to have a big celebration. As it turns out, Rogelio and Xo do want a big wedding, but they don’t want to remind Jane of hers. Once they know Jane wants it too, they are back on track for something big!
I think my favorite scenes might have been the Sex in the City scene, and when Rogelio was asking Jane not to throw Fabian off his game because they had a big scene coming up, and he didn’t want Fabian distracted as Fabian wasn’t very good with continuity at the best of times – and audiences hate when the continuity is off – and Rogelio is wearing a bunch of different shirts and holding different dogs each time the camera comes back to him!
In the final sequence, we see that someone is watching Rogelio from the shadows! Is his stalker back? And who is in the sketch? What do you think? What did you think of the episode? Let me know your thoughts in the comments below!
