Jane the Virgin - S3E20 - Chapter Sixty-Four

Previously on Jane the Virgin, “Chapter Sixty-Three”

Xiomara and Rafael get married. Predictably, their elaborate wedding plans went awry. Predictably, they overcame their predictable stumbling block. Predictably, Jane received last minute inspiration and wrote a touching ceremony. Predictably, the wedding was a backdrop for romance to re-bloom for other characters. There wasn’t much here we haven’t seen. Even so, the hurricane backdrop did a great job in adding to the frenzy and hijinks. Alba shout-speech to Xo was funny and sweet. The theme of love being a choice worked reasonably well. For a troupe-y television wedding, it was done fairly well.

Michael’s Letter

It was lovely seeing Brett Dier back on this show. It reminded us of how much he loved Jane and how great they were as a couple. Jane found Michael’s letter late enough in the episode to pull at our emotional heartstrings before they left us for the summer. At least, this is what the writers were going for. However, they tried to accomplish too much by squashing this in with the set up for next season. The result was emotionally unsatisfying.

Jane realizes she still had feelings for Raf (more on that, later) and is off to tell him how she feels. She is stopped by a woman bearing the letter… but first, we cut away to wrap the sisters’ duplicity plots (more on that, later). We cut back to the reading of the letter. It’s moving and misty as expected…but Jane barely finishes sighing over it when her first love (aptly named Adam) steps awkwardly into frame. We end the episode and the season. Huh?

Same Ol’ Song

So. Jane has feelings for Rafael. Not surprising. They have given us a few clues in this last half of the season this might be the case. What has not been conveyed well are Rafael’s feelings for Jane. Do they want us to believe he would choose Jane over Petra? For shame, Rafael. And for shame, writers. We’ve seen this trope many a time… in fact we saw it with Xiomara and Bruce earlier this season. We have the appearance of Adam, but it feels like this is just another Minka Kelly-shaped plot contrivance to keep Jane and Rafeal apart. I hope they take this in a different direction, next season.

Sister Twisters

They could have taken it in a different direction, this season. Petra receives loving texts on her phone and runs to meet… her sister. I guess karma came a-calling but in the most boring way. We leave Petra with Anezka pointing a gun at her head (thanks to Luisa). In an equally boring way, Luisa gets her revenge on Rafael (thanks to Anezka). We knew something like this would happen when these annoying characters shared that cab, but do we really care? Let’s just hope this gets resolved in a way that takes the sister profile down by 79.5%.

Bright Side

The left us on an unsatisfying trajectory in many regards, but these writers are more than capable of surprising us. And I am very much looking forward to having more Justina Machado on my screen. Darci’s scenes with all our characters added spice and her mama drama is a good way of keeping her interacting (explosively) with Rogelio.