Jane the Virgin Recap: Oh, Babe

Jane the Virgin

Affiliate Twenty-Two

Season one Episode 22

Editor'due south Rating iv stars

Jane the Virgin

Affiliate Twenty-Two

Season 1 Episode 22

Editor's Rating 4 stars

Jane the Virgin. Photo: Patrick Wymore/CW

There has e'er been a central conflict working abroad at the middle of Jane the Virgin, and it's not the tension between Rafael and Michael. It has nothing to do with the Jane's faith versus her relationships or the struggle between balancing impending maternity with pursuing her dreams. The war that will forever be waged on Jane the Virgin until, God prevent, somebody wins, is that between soap opera and realism.

What's fabricated Jane such a lovely surprise throughout its first flavour has been its ability to marry soap-opera elements with grounded beats of realistic human drama, an intoxicating if volatile alchemy that, when it works, cements Jane as one of the best shows on Telly. Yet, when miscalibrated, the two combine to jarring effect, taking something emotionally pure and distorting it in such a way that what'southward intended to be twisty ends up besides horrifying to truly contemplate.

"Chapter 20-Two," the final episode of Jane the Virgin'due south first flavor, contains all of the loftier highs the bear witness is capable of when at the top of its game while simultaneously going completely off the runway in the final five minutes. But before its descent into madness, the episode is modulated remarkably well and opens with a cute scene between Xiomara and Alba in the moments immediately preceding giving birth, in which Xo weeps to her female parent that she's too tired to continue and Alba assures her that it's simply 5 more minutes of pain for a lifetime of happiness. And that she needs to push or Alba will pull the child out. It'southward touching and funny and everything glorious about the show. It'southward fifty-fifty meliorate when this precise moment, probable one that has been lovingly retold in Villanueva lore for years, repeats itself upon Xo's terminal-minute arrival at Jane'due south bedside and she is able to reassure her weary, tearful daughter just equally she had been reassured 24 years earlier. The women are together, and they are stronger than they've ever been, and they are resolute in their determination to make it through whatever trials they may take to confront so long as they're together.

That moment and the birthing afterglow that follows is, without question, 1 of the well-nigh glorious moments the TV flavor will produce this year, total of pure, cute emotion, and the closest thing to joy that fiction is able to provide. It served equally the perfect punctuation mark on a remarkable episode of television and launched the adjacent great love story of the evidence: that of Jane and her son Mateo.

The aching humanity of this scene is precisely what makes the final scene of "Chapter Twenty-Two" and so monstrous. A few hours after giving birth, lonely in her room with her son, a nurse enters to take Mateo abroad for a hearing examination, assuring Jane that she'll return with him in a matter of minutes, and she should grab a quick nap while she tin. The nurse leaves the room and carries baby Mateo downwards a hallway before clipping off his hospital ID, smuggling him under her coat, and delivering him into a waiting car and the arms of Sin Rostro.

It'due south not the only shocking ending of the finale — there'southward the fact that Xo and Rogelio got drunkenly married in Las Vegas, and Petra came into possession of another viable vial of Rafael'due south sperm, and the fact that Nadine is on the loose again and likely making her way back to Sin Rostro. But all of those things pale in the face of the kidnapping of baby Mateo. Soap operas are known for their shocking and over-the-summit twists, ones that beggar belief, and all of the other plots are wholly in line with what you'd wait on a big season finale. Fifty-fifty a kidnapping isn't so shocking on a run-of-the mill soap opera. I'd wager that half of the individuals that populated Days of Our Lives were kidnapped at one betoken or another.

Simply Mateo isn't just a child, he's a catalyst. He's the reason the entire testify exists. He is the true love and unabridged world of a grapheme who we, as an audience, dear more than life itself. Jane Villanueva isn't just a television set character; she'due south a role model. She's the best of what humanity is capable of while still remaining flawed and interesting and complicated. Or, if nosotros're talking in terms of biblical allusions hither, if Jane is our lovely virgin female parent, that makes Mateo Jane the Virgin'southward Jesus. They literally kidnapped Jesus. Which is to say that it's almost impossible to wait at Mateo being taken from Jane, mere hours after his nascence, and see it every bit merely fodder for future stories as opposed to a horrifically scarring upshot that leaves a person not anxious for the 2d flavour to brainstorm, but sick at the idea of what's to come.

Still, all of that can't negate what was a tremendous get-go season for a show that no one could have anticipated. Summer will be long without the antics of the Jane the Virgin crew, and now that Jane's baby has been built-in, there's no telling where season two will lead. We can merely hope that whatsoever information technology holds will allow for the residue that the show so badly needs to thrive.

House Villanueva
Xiomara is reluctant to go out Jane to get to Las Vegas for her show with Rogelio, but Jane insists upon it, assuring her that she'll call if anything changes. Jane is supposed to catch dinner with Michael but has to take a pelting check because she's trying to deal with graduate-school bug. He surprises her with takeout and is in that location when she starts having contractions. After taking Jane to the hospital, where she finds out it was imitation labor, Michael and Rafael argue in the waiting room. Jane catches them and is upset, returning home on her ain. Afterwards, Rafael stops past and finally admits his truthful feelings for Jane, telling her that he was in a nighttime place and that he lied to her because he thought that'south what she needed to hear, and that he wasn't any expert for her. Jane (rightfully) isn't having it. Michael, too, stops by after and apologizes for his deportment the previous night, bringing a peace offering of a birthing playlist before telling Jane that while he did want to be friends no matter what, he was too interested in more. Jane lets it sideslip that she's having feelings for him, too, just makes it audio like he's her rubber schoolhouse and Rafael her first choice. This isn't exactly flattering, and Michael leaves.

Jane visits with the grad-school admissions officeholder to plead her example and try to go an extension, having found out that she missed the application deadline. While in the process, she starts actual labor and, figuring she still had plenty of time/was in false labor, took the bus home. Her labor starts speeding up, and the rest of the passengers on the jitney (and Xo on the phone) exhort the bus driver to take Jane to the infirmary, which he does. Jane makes it to the hospital, as do Alba and Rafael, and labor slows afterward she's given her epidural. In the meantime, Xo and Ro fight over Xo bold that Rogelio wouldn't want to skip his show to be with Jane equally she delivered, simply they make up just in time to get drinking with a group of his fans. The next morning time, they awaken hung-over and rush to take hold of their flight dwelling house.

Jane's labor starts in hostage, and she'southward distraught that Xo volition not make it in fourth dimension. She begins pushing, and only at the point where she feels all promise is lost, Xiomara and Rogelio get in in time to witness the birth of their grandson Mateo, named subsequently Alba'south married man. Shortly after giving birth, Rafael tries to talk to Jane over again nigh reconciling, merely Jane tells him information technology'south not the right time. Michael after stops past to see the baby and tells Jane non to worry about what they talked about before, that she should exist focusing only on Mateo right now, a statement that earned him glowy hearts from both Jane and Mateo alike.

Later, when going through his baggage looking for his concealer, Rogelio comes across a DVD entitled "Xo and Ro," which neither he nor Xiomara remember receiving. They decide to scout it and run into that information technology'southward a recording of their drunken (and completely forgotten) Vegas hymeneals, as witnessed by Rogelio's fans and performed by a Cher impersonator. They are shocked. Presently thereafter, Mateo is taken by the rogue nurse and delivered into the waiting arms of Sin Rostro.

House Solano
With the sale of his father's hotel group complete, Rafael decides this is the perfect time to try to buy out Petra'southward share of the Marbella, freeing his life from her grasp for once and for all. To practise so, he tries to manipulate her simply keeps getting interrupted by Jane'due south labor pains. At the same time, a infirmary keeps trying to accomplish him only he keeps fugitive their calls, leaving his assistant to deal with it. Eventually, his assistant gets fed up and, while Rafael is with Jane at the hospital, turns the issue over to Petra to deal with. Which is how Petra finds out that Rafael's original sperm sample had been split up into 2 and the 2nd canister suddenly recovered. She intends to tell Rafael most this discovery but instead overhears him telling his sister how he wants Petra out of his life for skillful. In the wake of this revelation, Petra claims the sperm herself by posing as the once (and future?) Mrs. Solano.

House Policia
Nadine is back and wants to trade information for her family's rubber and leniency for herself. She gives Michael the whereabouts of Sin Rostro's plastic-surgeon accomplice, who supposedly gave her a new face before she disappeared into the night, meaning he was the only person who knew what she at present looked like. Michael kept Nadine locked up while he checked out her lead, just past the time he reached the surgeon, he'd been killed. Upon returning to Nadine to tell her he couldn't use her info, she begged him to brand it work earlier he left her once more to escort Xiomara and Rogelio to Jane's bedside. In his haste, he leaves his keys and Nadine escapes, though information technology'southward later revealed that it's a setup and that her telephone has a tracker, which will hopefully pb the constabulary directly to Sin Rostro's people.

Called-for Questions (and Some Answers)

  • Was that RuPaul's Drag Race All-Stars winner Chad Michaels as the Cher impersonator marrying Ro and Xo?! (Yes. Aye, it was.)
  • What other songs should exist on Michael's labor playlist to keep with "Push It," "Born This Way," and "Everybody Hurts"?
  • What was the line of the night? (Just kidding, it was manifestly Alba'southward response to Jane asking if she should have an epidural if Alba didn't: "Why do you remember your mother is an merely child?")
Jane the Virgin Recap: Oh, Infant