Jane the Virgin Recap: Oh, Baby

Jane the Virgin

Affiliate Twenty-2

Season one Episode 22

Editor's Rating 4 stars

Jane the Virgin

Affiliate Twenty-Ii

Season one Episode 22

Editor's Rating 4 stars

Jane the Virgin. Photograph: Patrick Wymore/CW

There has always been a primal conflict working abroad at the heart of Jane the Virgin, and it'due south not the tension between Rafael and Michael. It has nada 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 forbid, somebody wins, is that between soap opera and realism.

What'south made Jane such a lovely surprise throughout its beginning season has been its ability to marry soap-opera elements with grounded beats of realistic human drama, an intoxicating if volatile abracadabra that, when it works, cements Jane as i of the best shows on TV. Even so, when miscalibrated, the two combine to jarring effect, taking something emotionally pure and distorting it in such a mode that what'southward intended to be twisty ends up likewise horrifying to truly contemplate.

"Chapter Twenty-Ii," the final episode of Jane the Virgin'southward first season, contains all of the high highs the evidence is capable of when at the acme of its game while simultaneously going completely off the runway in the last five minutes. Just before its descent into madness, the episode is modulated remarkably well and opens with a beautiful scene between Xiomara and Alba in the moments immediately preceding giving birth, in which Xo weeps to her mother that she's too tired to keep and Alba assures her that it'due south simply five more minutes of pain for a lifetime of happiness. And that she needs to button or Alba volition pull the kid out. It's touching and funny and everything glorious about the show. It'south even ameliorate when this precise moment, likely one that has been lovingly retold in Villanueva lore for years, repeats itself upon Xo's last-infinitesimal arrival at Jane's bedside and she is able to reassure her weary, bawling daughter simply as she had been reassured 24 years earlier. The women are together, and they are stronger than they've always been, and they are resolute in their conclusion to brand information technology through whatever trials they may have to face so long as they're together.

That moment and the birthing afterglow that follows is, without question, one of the nearly glorious moments the TV season volition produce this twelvemonth, full of pure, beautiful 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 tv and launched the side by side great love story of the show: that of Jane and her son Mateo.

The aching humanity of this scene is precisely what makes the last scene of "Chapter Twenty-Two" so monstrous. A few hours later on giving birth, solitary in her room with her son, a nurse enters to take Mateo away for a hearing test, 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 down 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'southward not the but shocking catastrophe of the finale — at that place's the fact that Xo and Rogelio got drunkenly married in Las Vegas, and Petra came into possession of some other viable vial of Rafael's sperm, and the fact that Nadine is on the loose again and probable making her style back to Sin Rostro. But all of those things pale in the face of the kidnapping of baby Mateo. Lather operas are known for their shocking and over-the-top 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. Even a kidnapping isn't so shocking on a run-of-the manufactory soap opera. I'd wager that half of the individuals that populated Days of Our Lives were kidnapped at 1 point or another.

But Mateo isn't just a child, he'southward a catalyst. He's the reason the entire show exists. He is the true love and entire world of a character who we, equally an audience, love more than life itself. Jane Villanueva isn't simply a television grapheme; she'south a role model. She's the best of what humanity is capable of while still remaining flawed and interesting and complicated. Or, if we're talking in terms of biblical allusions here, if Jane is our lovely virgin female parent, that makes Mateo Jane the Virgin's Jesus. They literally kidnapped Jesus. Which is to say that information technology'due south nigh incommunicable to look at Mateo existence taken from Jane, mere hours after his birth, and encounter it every bit just fodder for future stories as opposed to a horrifically scarring event that leaves a person non anxious for the second flavor to begin, merely sick at the thought of what's to come.

Still, all of that tin can't negate what was a tremendous get-go flavor for a show that no i could have anticipated. Summertime will be long without the antics of the Jane the Virgin crew, and at present that Jane's babe has been born, there'due south no telling where season two will lead. We can merely hope that whatever it holds volition allow for the residue that the evidence so desperately needs to thrive.

House Villanueva
Xiomara is reluctant to leave Jane to go to Las Vegas for her show with Rogelio, but Jane insists upon it, assuring her that she'll call if annihilation changes. Jane is supposed to take hold of dinner with Michael but has to take a pelting check considering she'south trying to deal with graduate-school issues. He surprises her with takeout and is there when she starts having contractions. After taking Jane to the hospital, where she finds out it was simulated labor, Michael and Rafael fence in the waiting room. Jane catches them and is upset, returning home on her own. Later, Rafael stops by and finally admits his true feelings for Jane, telling her that he was in a dark identify and that he lied to her considering he thought that'due south what she needed to hear, and that he wasn't any good for her. Jane (rightfully) isn't having it. Michael, also, stops past subsequently on and apologizes for his actions 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 also interested in more. Jane lets it slip that she's having feelings for him, likewise, but makes information technology sound like he'south her condom school and Rafael her first choice. This isn't exactly flattering, and Michael leaves.

Jane visits with the grad-school admissions officer to plead her instance and try to become an extension, having found out that she missed the application deadline. While in the process, she starts actual labor and, figuring she still had enough of time/was in false labor, took the autobus dwelling house. Her labor starts speeding upwards, and the rest of the passengers on the bus (and Xo on the phone) exhort the bus commuter to take Jane to the hospital, which he does. Jane makes information technology to the hospital, as exercise Alba and Rafael, and labor slows after she's given her epidural. In the meantime, Xo and Ro fight over Xo assuming that Rogelio wouldn't want to skip his show to be with Jane every bit she delivered, but they make up just in time to go drinking with a group of his fans. The next morning, they awaken hung-over and blitz to take hold of their flying habitation.

Jane's labor starts in earnest, and she'south distraught that Xo will not brand information technology in time. She begins pushing, and merely at the point where she feels all promise is lost, Xiomara and Rogelio make it in time to witness the birth of their grandson Mateo, named after Alba's hubby. Presently afterward giving birth, Rafael tries to talk to Jane over again about reconciling, but Jane tells him it's not the right time. Michael later stops by to meet the baby and tells Jane not to worry virtually what they talked about earlier, that she should be focusing only on Mateo right now, a statement that earned him glowy hearts from both Jane and Mateo alike.

Subsequently, when going through his baggage looking for his concealer, Rogelio comes across a DVD entitled "Xo and Ro," which neither he nor Xiomara think receiving. They decide to watch information technology and see that it'south a recording of their drunken (and completely forgotten) Vegas wedding, as witnessed past Rogelio'south fans and performed by a Cher impersonator. They are shocked. Shortly thereafter, Mateo is taken by the rogue nurse and delivered into the waiting artillery of Sin Rostro.

House Solano
With the sale of his father'south hotel group complete, Rafael decides this is the perfect fourth dimension to try to buy out Petra'south share of the Marbella, freeing his life from her grasp for once and for all. To do then, he tries to manipulate her but keeps getting interrupted by Jane's labor pains. At the aforementioned time, a hospital keeps trying to reach him but 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 upshot over to Petra to deal with. Which is how Petra finds out that Rafael'due south original sperm sample had been carve up into 2 and the second canister of a sudden recovered. She intends to tell Rafael about this discovery just instead overhears him telling his sister how he wants Petra out of his life for skilful. In the wake of this revelation, Petra claims the sperm herself past posing as the once (and futurity?) Mrs. Solano.

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

Burning Questions (and Some Answers)

  • Was that RuPaul'southward Drag Race All-Stars winner Chad Michaels as the Cher impersonator marrying Ro and Xo?! (Yes. Yeah, it was.)
  • What other songs should be on Michael's labor playlist to go on with "Push button It," "Born This Way," and "Everybody Hurts"?
  • What was the line of the night? (Just kidding, information technology was plain Alba'southward response to Jane asking if she should have an epidural if Alba didn't: "Why do you call up your mother is an simply child?")
Jane the Virgin Epitomize: Oh, Baby