{"id":7641,"date":"2020-08-28T13:00:48","date_gmt":"2020-08-28T20:00:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/?p=7641"},"modified":"2020-08-24T07:05:39","modified_gmt":"2020-08-24T14:05:39","slug":"mark-watches-jane-the-virgin-s03e08-chapter-fifty-two","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/2020\/08\/mark-watches-jane-the-virgin-s03e08-chapter-fifty-two\/","title":{"rendered":"Mark Watches ‘Jane the Virgin’: S03E08 – Chapter Fifty-Two"},"content":{"rendered":"

In the eighth episode of the third season of Jane the Virgin<\/i>, what do I even SAY about this??? If you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re intrigued, then it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s time for Mark to watch Jane the Virgin<\/i>.<\/p>\n

Trigger Warning: For discussion of trauma, consent, gaslighting<\/b><\/p>\n

THIS WAS A LOT.<\/p>\n

Catalina<\/b><\/p>\n

I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve made this comment before, but because of the nature of Jane the Virgin<\/i>, I am prone to being suspicious about any<\/i> new character on the show. What if they have a secret??? What if there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s an ulterior motive??? What if the writers are toying with a telenovela trope??? I AM TRYING TO PREPARE MYSELF. So it doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t help that Catalina behaves suspiciously, but within this perfect sense of plausible deniability. Like… technically<\/i>, she might be telling the truth here! Arnaud could be her soon-to-be-ex-husband, who she once married in an impulsive night out. The money and jewels? For the Venezuelan family back home, mixed in with some gifts from Arnaud. And maybe she did just give Arnaud a friendly kiss, and they really are breaking up!<\/p>\n

AND YET.<\/p>\n

AND YET<\/i>.<\/p>\n

I am watching Jane the Virgin<\/i>, and rarely are things with secondary and tertiary characters this straightforward. But I still don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t get what possible endgame she could have! Why even pursue Rafael? I suppose it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s possible that there is no ulterior motive with Rafael, that maybe she genuinely enjoys him and is pursuing that passion. BUT I AM STILL KEEPING MY EYES ON CATALINA. Like… what about her family back home? Why doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t she seem to talk about them or repairing things with Alba anymore? What\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s actually happening here?<\/p>\n

New Career<\/b><\/p>\n

Well, in a way, I got my wish. If Michael truly doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t go back to the force, I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll breathe a sigh of relief, as I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve not been very thrilled that there was so much of a police presence on this show. But who is<\/i> Michael if he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not a cop? What else is he good at? What excites him? \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Chapter Fifty-Two\u00e2\u20ac\u009d explores only one of those possible threads in detail. We\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve seen Michael\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s corny but well-meaning humor before, and it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s part of what makes him a charming character. But as soon as he suggested being a stand-up comedian, I figured that this would be a disaster. He\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not that<\/i> kind of funny! And watching him act out these bits that were largely ill-conceived (if well-executed) impressions was… oh god. IT WAS SO BAD. So bad!!!\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

At the same time, I knew that he had six months severance. I also knew that he had to fail. He really did! He needed to find out first-hand that this was not<\/i> the career for him. This plot was so damn sweet because Jane is honestly giving him the space to find a new passion. I was reminded of Xo\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s journey earlier this season, and it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s easy to see that when you give people the freedom to explore their options, they generally land somewhere better. Michael has the luxury of time, and he has the support of his family. Maybe being a lawyer isn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t in his cards, but at least he knows he can try it out.<\/p>\n

Baby-Making Contracts<\/b><\/p>\n

I get that this is strange and uncomfortable. I really do! It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s so sudden and intensely practical? But the more I think about this, the more I want to disagree with something I said on video. It seemed so odd to me to approach parenthood with a contract like the one that Darci and Rogelio had. But you know what? Who cares? Why can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t the origins or formation of a family be different? I say that because of what Alba said to Xiomara in this very episode: Babies have come to the Villanueva family in far stranger means than a contractual agreement. So why can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t<\/i> they do things different? Why is my assumption here so negative?\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Individually, Darci and Rogelio seem like they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll be good parents. They definitely have some weird plans for their child\u00e2\u20ac\u201dlike all the planned photoshoots\u00e2\u20ac\u201dbut what I care about is whether or not they harm their child. And I can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t imagine that happening! So, again, who cares<\/i> if this is how they form a family? It might make everyone uncomfortable, but that in and of itself is not enough of a reason to object to people getting together.\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Which makes the end result of all of this so complicated. I am assuming that Darci does not<\/i> have any feelings for Rogelio. Indeed, she doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t seem to want to ever pursue something romantic with him. I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m guessing that after spending so much time discovering how compatible she would be as a parent, Rogelio has realized she might also be compatible as a romantic interest. But… they can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t? That was the whole point of this arrangement? Darci seems to think that Rogelio should just get over these emotions, but lord, that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s easier said than done. So… what the hell now<\/i>?\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Bruce<\/b><\/p>\n

Well, now I feel like the absence of Bruce in the last episode was<\/i> intentional! It works so well to have this<\/i> be our introduction to the New Bruce, especially since there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s this dual storyline unfolding. We see most of this through Jane\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s eyes, in the sense that we know there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a painful history here involving Bruce, one Jane is loathe to revisit. Yet it isn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t until the introduction of Tess that we are forced to reckon with what this experience was like for Bruce\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s daughter. His marriage fell apart because of the affair that he had with Xiomara. And it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a fascinating glimpse at the full portrait. It was indeed easier to see things from Jane\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s perspective, but once the show widened the lens, there was so much more here. And I loved that Tess and Jane didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t have an instant connection either. That would have been easy<\/i>. They could have bonded over their parents\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 messiness. But that messiness was so different for Tess! To her, Xiomara was the woman who willingly took her father away from their family.\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

This required a readjustment from everyone<\/i>. Tess sees Xo in a very specific context, as a homewrecker who ruined her family. When you compare that to Jane\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s view of Bruce, it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s easy to see why this was so hard. Both daughters have a deeply complicated and often times hostile view of the each other\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s parent. How would Jane have reacted if Tess had come to the Marbella to ask her to put aside her dislike of Bruce?<\/p>\n

But she tries. She really does. Not just for her mother, but for Tess, who is young and has a very real reason to dislike Xiomara. It involved sacrifice and compromise, but Jane does it because… well, people can<\/i> change. And I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d be remiss in not pointing out that Xiomara has<\/i> changed sine the beginning of the show! She is pursuing this relationship with so much heart and maturity, and I AM JUST SO HAPPY WITH HER GROWTH. So, maybe it was time for Jane to do some growing on her own. Will this last? I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t know. What little I saw of Bruce in this episode was genuine and charming. Mostly, I saw Xiomara\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s joy. And that<\/i> makes me feel better about pretty much anything.\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Petra and Rafael<\/b><\/p>\n

Wow. I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m… lord. This was a very painful thing to watch, and while I am sympathetic to what Rafael is going through\u00e2\u20ac\u201dit\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s deeply upsetting to know that his entire legacy might be ripped away from him because his father likely knew who he was\u00e2\u20ac\u201dI still gotta feel the most for Petra. Because look, as shitty as much of this situation is, Rafael fucked up real<\/i> bad here. In short, he gaslighted Petra. He tried to tell her that she was paranoid, that her recent traumatic incident was causing her to be too sensitive to the world around her. I was satisfied that even the narrator called that moment what it was: a low blow. Because even if he hadn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t been gaslighting her about what had happened, it still would have been a deeply inappropriate thing to say. Just callous and thoughtless and so harmful, y\u00e2\u20ac\u2122all!<\/p>\n

These two have such a complicated history. I recognize that. I know that they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve both fucked one another over countless times. They\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve tried to get back together, they had a shaky but existing partnership and then… and then Anezka. Anezka did something deeply, deeply awful to her sister, and this episode does<\/i> feel like a reckoning in some way. It finally feels like the show is having the characters grapple with the longterm ramifications of what happened. In part, it helped that Petra was able to vocalize to both<\/i> Anezka and Rafael why this was all so upsetting to her. She\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s traumatized! She can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t calm down, she is relentlessly paranoid, and she\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll have trust issues for ages<\/i>, if not for the rest of her life. And then Rafael threw it all in her face in order to hide the fact that he was lying to her, that he had<\/i> used Scott to manipulate her further! So, in many ways, Petra has gone back to the behaviors that kept her alive years earlier. She plots. She plans. She is prepared to do anything to protect herself, even if that means taking out Rafael in the process. Between the crimes he covered up and the addendum on his father\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s will, I feel like everything is about to come crashing down.\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t want<\/i> these two fighting, and truthfully, I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d like them both to escape the toxicity of their lives. I want Petra free of her mother; I want Raul free of the Solanos. But at what cost is that going to come?<\/p>\n

The video for \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Chapter Fifty-Two\u00e2\u20ac\u009d can be downloaded here for $0.99<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Mark Links Stuff<\/b><\/p>\n

– You can now pre-order my second YA novel, Each of Us a Desert<\/i>, which will be released on September 15, 2020 from Tor Teen!<\/a>
\n– Not only that, but my very first pre-order campaign is now live for North American readers! If you submit proof of pre-order, you can get a limited edition print that comes with the book<\/a>.
\n<\/strong>– If you’d like to stay up-to-date on all announcements regarding my books, sign up for my newsletter<\/a>! DO IT.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"