In the first episode of the fourth season of Jane the Virgin<\/i>, EVERYTHING IS A LOT. Intrigued? Then it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s time for Mark to watch Jane the Virgin<\/i>.<\/p>\n
Trigger Warning: For discussion of trauma\/PTSD<\/b><\/p>\n
Ah, it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s time for a new season! That means predictions are folded into this review of the fourth season premiere. I am writing this part before I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve started said episode to preserve my unspoiled guess of what season four will be about. I know this is also completely futile on my part, so let\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s first go over last season\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s predictions.<\/p>\n
1) Michael survives the shooting. This one… is almost laughably awful if it wasn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t so damn sad.<\/b><\/p>\n
2) Luisa is kidnapped by Sin Rostro\/Rose. Kidnapped is a… word.<\/b><\/p>\n
3) We\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll find out that Mutter was instrumental in all this happening, too, and she allowed herself to get arrested as part of some bigger plan. So much happened in just one season of this show that I barely remember Mutter.<\/b><\/p>\n
4) Rafael will not figure out that Anezka is masquerading as Petra until episode four. Episode 5! I was close!<\/b><\/p>\n
5) I think Anezka will also go to prison with her mother because of what she did. Well… nope. Not at all.<\/b><\/p>\n
6) Magda\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s sentence will be extended. Unfortunately not, but at least she\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s still not around!<\/b><\/p>\n
7) After Michael recovers, Jane and Michael will finally have sex! LOOK I GOT SOMETHING RIGHT<\/b>.<\/p>\n
8) Rafael will begin to date someone else other than Petra or Jane in this season. And another!<\/b><\/p>\n
9) He will finally be \u00e2\u20ac\u0153over\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Jane by the end of the season. Only to be hit by this truck.<\/b><\/p>\n
10) I think Xiomara is going to get an abortion. Wow, this also happened! On a mainstream television show!<\/b><\/p>\n
11) Rose will ACTUALLY die this season. Nope, still alive!<\/b><\/p>\n
12) So will Mutter. But she\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not!<\/b><\/p>\n
13) Rafael and Jane\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s custody situation with Mateo will change drastically this season at some point. I actually think this counts, but not for any reason I actually anticipated.<\/b><\/p>\n
14) Donaldson will warm up to Jane over the course of season 3. SHE GENUINELY DID.<\/b><\/p>\n
15) Jane will finish her new novel by the end of the season! oh my god SHE DID but it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s so SAD<\/b><\/p>\n
16) Jane and Michael will finally go on their honeymoon by the end of the season. This just… hurts.<\/b><\/p>\n
17) This is wishful thinking, but Rogelio and Xiomara will get back together by the end of the season. WISHFUL THINKING WORKED OH MY GOD.<\/b><\/p>\n
18) Rafael will find Derek. Technically?<\/b><\/p>\n
19) Derek will get arrested for what he tried to do to Rafael. Well, he tried.<\/b><\/p>\n
20) Petra will fall in love with someone other than Rafael by the end of the season. This actually happened, too!<\/b><\/p>\n
So… mostly not great? But I got a few good ones in there. Thus, it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s time for me to talk about season four, and probably perform just as terribly.<\/p>\n
1) Jane\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s book will get published this season!<\/p>\n
2) Adam will be around for an eight episode arc.<\/p>\n
3) Luisa will be running the Marbella for half the season.<\/p>\n
4) Rafael will have to find a new job and a new source of income!<\/p>\n
5) Mateo will start public school!<\/p>\n
6) Jane will start working on another project.<\/p>\n
7) Petra will move on from Chuck definitively.<\/p>\n
8) Xiomara\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s dance studio will unexpectedly take off and she\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll have to expand.\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n 9) Which will also happen when Rogelio can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t find a new telenovela to work on after his has ended.\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n 10) We will also see Fabian twice more.<\/p>\n 11) And Bruce once.<\/p>\n 12) Jorge and Alba will get married!\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n 13) Jane will be dating someone new by the end of the season.<\/p>\n 14) So will Petra.<\/p>\n 15) Speaking of, I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t believe Anezka shot Petra in the finale. And that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s because…<\/p>\n 16) Anezka will die. (Hey, someone big has to go, right? THIS SHOW DOESN\u00e2\u20ac\u2122T CARE.)<\/p>\n 17) Rogelio and Darcy will have to spend most of the season learning to co-parent their child.<\/p>\n 18) I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122M STILL NOT READY.\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s genuinely hard to predict this show!!! But now that I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve got that down, I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m off to watch the season four premiere.<\/p>\n *<\/p>\n Oh. Oh, that was a LOT.<\/p>\n Reconnecting<\/b><\/p>\n In a lot of ways, this was a stressful episode to watch. There was so much conflict? An arguing? It was like every plot collided with one another in a terrible pile-up on the Jane the Virgin<\/i> highway. This isn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t the first time this has happened, of course, but I wanted to start out with some joy. Because one of the very best things about \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Chapter Sixty-Five\u00e2\u20ac\u009d was the introduction of Adam. There\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s so much delight<\/i> around him! He seems like a genuinely interesting person, first of all, and when he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s paired with Jane, there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s an electricity there that felt very, very new. He\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s utterly unlike any of the guys that she has dated in the past, and I love what he brings out in her. Part of that is because both of them are creative types, and there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s an understanding there between them. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s something I want to see more of, especially since we got that incredible moment where both of them talked about storytelling from their respective mediums! Adam uses visual images to dig into character; Jane uses words!<\/p>\n That combination then appears in a meta-textual way in the new narrator, the one who follows Adam. I can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t really explain why, but I love the idea that Adam\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s had his own narration outside of Jane\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s for 428 issues prior to this. THIS IS VERY PLEASING TO ME. And his narration has visual cues from the comic book\/graphic novel world!!! IT\u00e2\u20ac\u2122S SO FUCKING COOL. What this does for me is show me potential<\/i>. I think there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s something interesting to be explored in this relationship! From a creative standpoint, from a romantic one, from a storytelling angle… oh, there are so many ways for this to go! I am hoping, then, that after the tense and somewhat disastrous events between Jane and Rafael (more on that later), there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s space for Jane and Adam to reconnect. How have they changed in the last nine years? How will Adam\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s penchant for seeing signs in the universe affect them? Do they still have lots in common? I WANT MORE, OKAY.\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Petra and Luisa<\/b><\/p>\n I feel like there have been so many plots on this show that I could summarize by saying, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Wow, this was a mess.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Yet here we are, with a new type of mess! Look, it was bad enough that Luisa was making this move to sell off the Marbella and Petra had to pretend to be her twin sister in order to get it back. Wrapped up in all of that, though, were her complicated feelings towards Rafael. Despite them, though, she still worked with Raf in order to try to get the hotel back, which wasn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t easy for her! Rafael didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t believe her and called her delusional when she rightly pointed out that Jane still had feelings for him. Ugh, it was a disaster, y\u00e2\u20ac\u2122all! I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t know if the scene in the stairwell was enough, either. For their relationship, I mean! I do believe that Jane and Rafael have truly realized they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re not going to work as a couple, but are Petra and Rafael going to be able to work out their own issues even without that one to worry about?<\/p>\n I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t know. I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t have the same excitement over Petra\/Rafael as I do for Jane\/Adam. Part of me agrees with Petra\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s assessment early in the episode: The two of them just don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t work well together. Maybe I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll be proven wrong, and maybe Petra\/Rafael is endgame.\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m more concerned, however, with Luisa. I misinterpreted this because I thought Luisa was making this power play as a form of reclamation. After her conversation with Anezka in the car, I mistakenly did not see that the two were working tother. My assumption was that Anezka merely inspired Luisa to take back her life, and this was how she was going to do it. She was going to stay the owner of the Marbella as a way of getting some stability in her life! However, not only did I find out that she plotted with Anezka to kidnap Petra, but she actually wanted to sell the Marbella to…. help Rose escape.\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Oh, lord. I got excited for a story that wasn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t ever going to happen. This wasn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t about Luisa dramatically attempting a new life free of Rose at all. It was about her trying to get Rose back<\/i>. I feel like a broken record because I have frequently said that I want Luisa to have a story that doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t revolve around her toxic relationship with Rose, and yet! We\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re back to it again. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not even that I necessarily agree with her decision to throw Rafael under the bus to get the Marbella; I simply thought it was an interesting story for the writers to tell. What if Luisa tried to be a hotel owner? How would she fare on her own, especially if Rafael and Petra weren\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t on her side? I would like to see that! Instead, Luisa remains the only character who can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t seem to move on from something toxic and negative, and it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s frustrating to watch. After three full seasons with this narrative, I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d just like something new. ALSO WHAT A FUCKED UP PLAN TO GET MONEY. Like!!! Holy shit, maybe Luisa forgot or didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t know, but Petra has a LOT of trauma around being kidnapped? And being replaced by Anezka??? THIS WAS VERY BAD.\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Darci<\/b><\/p>\n Oh, lord. This was also a lot? At times, this was hard to watch, as it was so blatantly clear that Darci and Rogelio couldn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t stand one another. Props to these actors for portraying this so well! I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t know what the fate of them is, since I have to accept that the telenovela influence on the show can pull characters in literally ANY direction. It was clear, though, that Xiomara was right: No matter what these two felt for one another, they couldn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t co-parent with such a combative nature at the heart of their interactions. Plus, Rogelio did<\/i> have to be the one to try to make peace first. Look, I also get why Darci is so furious, especially since Rogelio is never going to make a romantic relationship with her work. So why not do what she can to make sure she succeeds and thrives as a single mom? I do look forward to seeing what sort of compromises the two of them make moving on from this moment. Will that peace last now that their daughter has arrived? WHAT\u00e2\u20ac\u2122S HER NAME, I NEED TO KNOW<\/i>.\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Yet I must confess that who I am most concerned about is Xiomara. Y\u00e2\u20ac\u2122all, she\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s barely been married a few days, and her entire marriage has been focused on someone else. There\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s been no honeymoon, and Rogelio has paid more attention to Darci than her! It is<\/i> a sad situation because I want Xiomara to be happy, and I want her to be centered in this relationship. I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m sure there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a part of her that also feels insecure because she didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t want to have a kid with Rogelio, and now, even after she\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s married to the man she loves, she still has to deal with all of this. I hope the attention shifts and that she and Rogelio can start building their<\/i> future, you know?<\/p>\n The Future of Mateo<\/b><\/p>\n First of all, welcome to Elias Janssen, who is now playing Mateo! Y\u00e2\u20ac\u2122all know how much I completely adored Joseph Sanders, so this is going to be an adjustment. But even in just one episode, I was impressed that Janssen was able to channel the beautiful chaos of Mateo. So, wanted to state that and say that I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m excited to see what he does with this character moving forward!<\/p>\n And this is also where I get to talk about how Rafael REALLY went too far. I know that I sympathize with Jane because I grew up poor, I spent most of my twenties barely scraping by and living paycheck-to-paycheck, and I know exactly what it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s like to be looked down upon for not coming from wealth and for not currently having it. Earlier this year, I actually cut off contact with an author friend who was so insensitive about money and money issues. They were privileged enough to have sold multiple projects for high-six-figures and had sold so many foreign rights\/translations deals that they couldn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t understand what a struggle it was for all us \u00e2\u20ac\u0153regular\u00e2\u20ac\u009d authors who don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t get that kind of financial support. Still! I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m thirty-six, and I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m still dealing with people like this! (Well, not anymore, obviously LMAO GOOD RIDDANCE.) After that interaction at Mateo\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s school\u00e2\u20ac\u201dwhich was absolutely rude and insensitive\u00e2\u20ac\u201dI get why Jane was ready to plan for Mateo to attend another school instead of paying tuition again. I also understand her anger at Rafael for dipping into Mateo\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s trust fund to pay for tuition AND the Marbella deal. (Christ, HOW BIG IS MATEO\u00e2\u20ac\u2122S TRUST FUND.)\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n But then Rafael revealed how he truly felt about money, and y\u00e2\u20ac\u2122all… it doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t matter how nice and charming he is. Which he is! But unfortunately, when it comes down to it, a whole lot of rich people have a core anxiety at work within them: They are terrified to not<\/i> have money. I say this while fully acknowledging that it was scary that Luisa had swept in and ACTUALLY taken away Rafael\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s access to money, so I know this situation was complicated. And I also know that Rafael is coming from a place of concern. There\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not necessarily anything wrong with wanting the best for your child! But the way he threw money issues in Jane\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s face during that argument? Oooh, I did not<\/i> like that. I didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t like that he reduced the situation to such an extreme! There is a whole middle ground that he can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t see because he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s so used to being at the top.\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n I think that there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a way for Jane and Rafael to work through this… but as co-parents. Not romantically. If this is ever going to be a real thing\u00e2\u20ac\u201dand something tells me that at least for now, Jane\/Rafael is over\u00e2\u20ac\u201dthen Rafael has<\/i> to work on his behavior surrounding money.<\/p>\n The video for \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Chapter Sixty-Five\u00e2\u20ac\u009d can be downloaded here for $0.99<\/a>.<\/p>\n Mark Links Stuff<\/b><\/p>\n – My second novel, EACH OF US A DESERT, is now out in the world!<\/a> In the first episode of the fourth season of Jane the Virgin, EVERYTHING IS A LOT. Intrigued? Then it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s time for Mark to watch Jane the Virgin.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[705],"tags":[706],"class_list":["post-7662","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-jane-the-virgin","tag-mark-watches-jane-the-virgin"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7662","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7662"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7662\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7662"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7662"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7662"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\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":"