What I’m Watching: Jane the Virgin

Jane the Virgin: Season 2, Episode 17 “Chapter Thirty-Nine” (B)

This show tries to do a lot, and I think that sometimes it pushes the envelope just a bit too much and ends up feeling forced. Jane is a very regimented and by-the-book person, and it’s strictly because of her tendencies that Lina and Xiomara should have known that an all-out rager was not the type of bachelorette party that she wanted, even if they felt that she needed to relax. Rogelio gets pardoned somewhat for being generally self-involved and not realizing that Michael wasn’t actually into a multi-course tasting meal and massages while wearing a t-shirt with his face on it. All in all, things didn’t go so poorly, and Jane was able to bribe her bratty ex-stepsisters into getting the phone back and deleting that message following the horribly embarrassing and totally inappropriate visit from the stripper that she received at school, something that was never a good idea in the first place. The only unfortunate casualty of the evening was Xiomara, who should have been forgiven just like always by Jane but in this case bore the brunt of her extended anger for not growing up after so many years and making the same mistakes over and over again. I’m glad that Michael didn’t compromise his integrity to illegally search Derek’s boat, but it seems that Rafael did. This episode pulled off a spectacular fakeout as it seemed that Petra’s postpartum depression was getting the best of her, only to surprise us with the news that there are two Petras! As the narrator would say, “Oh, boy, let’s find out what’s going on!”