What I’m Watching: Jane the Virgin

Jane the Virgin: Season 2, Episode 8 “Chapter Thirty” (B+)

Plenty is happening on this show, and even our narrator is having trouble keeping up, as evidenced by his expression of hope and subsequent relief that Michael would explain what he was thinking so that he wouldn’t have to put everything together on his own. It’s becoming more and more apparent that Luisa’s mom definitely faked her suicide and is the drug lord known as Mutter, and Luisa is pretty much just thinking about how much she wants to get with a freaked-out Susanna as a way of coping with the stress and uncertainty of it all. Rafael was actually present in almost all the plotlines in this hour, helping Petra to come to a good place before she got turned in to the police by her duplicitous mother, dealing with his own lying mother, funding a shelter, and trying to appeal to Jane’s forgiving side while she had smoke coming out of her ears. I love the “C - A - L - M” strategy that the original Mateo taught his wife and that she passed down to Jane, and I highly enjoyed Rogelio’s version of it that involved avocado and lavender beauty products. There was so much sweetness here to balance out the fury and the sensational developments, capped by Rogelio’s reaction to Jane revealing that she knew he had invented her scholarship. Jonathan tricking Jane into writing outside of her comfort zone was fun, and the science fiction story was definitely my favorite. Michael sending back the fixed tree topper was immensely caring, and he just scored some major points that make it look more and more like Jane isn’t ever going to be able to truly get over him, regardless of the strides she made in couples’ therapy with Rafael.