{"id":7698,"date":"2020-11-25T08:00:53","date_gmt":"2020-11-25T16:00:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/?p=7698"},"modified":"2020-11-16T09:44:18","modified_gmt":"2020-11-16T17:44:18","slug":"mark-watches-jane-the-virgin-s05e05-chapter-eighty-six","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/2020\/11\/mark-watches-jane-the-virgin-s05e05-chapter-eighty-six\/","title":{"rendered":"Mark Watches ‘Jane the Virgin’: S05E05 – Chapter Eighty-Six"},"content":{"rendered":"

In the fifth episode of the fifth season of Jane the Virgin<\/i>, this somehow hurts even more than the last episode. Intrigued? Then it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s time for Mark to watch Jane the Virgin<\/i>.\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Trigger Warning: For discussion of grief, trauma, drug use, abuse\/manipulation.<\/b><\/p>\n

Oh, lord, I am in pain??? This was all so stressful?<\/p>\n

The Lie<\/b><\/p>\n

Let me start with this story since it doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t end at quite such an upsetting place. But it still is upsetting! Because I spent most of this plot thinking, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Could people just leave Petra alone???\u00e2\u20ac\u009d She just<\/i> got rid of her mother (at least temporarily) and managed to begin a reconciliation with JR. Fantastic! Wonderful! Show-stopping! And then\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 someone else is setting Petra up for failure. I did<\/i> wonder for a moment if it was the unnamed temp assistant that Petra has. After Krishna pulled off that whole blackmail thing, I was kinda hoping that, at the very least, Petra would have learned to treat the people she works for a lot better? Unfortunately, it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s the one glaring flaw in her character that the show seems uninterested in addressing, which feels very strange to me. Why are all the other parts of Petra\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s character game for growth and constructive criticism, but that one isn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t?\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

So, maybe it was the temp. And look, I would be very pleased if Petra was more introspective about her behavior as a boss. But I also have to admit that this wasn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t the focus of her plot in \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Chapter Eighty-Six.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d After JR finds the email, Petra spurs herself into action, determined to prove that she didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t try to make a shady deal with Milos, who at the very least is in jail. (Perhaps he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll eventually lose ownership over the hotel? I hate that he still has control over aspects of Petra\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s life, like when he cancelled the shrimp order. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s such a classic abuser tactic, I HATE HIM.) It was clear that Petra really wanted to show JR that she meant what she said, that she wasn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t going to lie to her again. While it was important for her to prove that this email was a set up, there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a greater issue at stake. Trust in any relationship\u00e2\u20ac\u201dromantic, platonic, business, what have you\u00e2\u20ac\u201dis one of the most vital components to making it work. Understandably, it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s hard for JR to regain that trust after what happened. Petra\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s lying did not just run deep; it lasted over months<\/i> worth of time. Rebuilding that trust? It is incredibly difficult, and it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s hard work.<\/p>\n

That seems to be what the writers are trying to demonstrate here: Petra is ready to do the work. Even after she admits that she can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t run around town seeking out proof for everything she says, I thought it was important that she still told JR that she would work harder to make JR feel safe. That kind of dedication to the work? That<\/i> is what will make this relationship more of a success, and it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a sign of just how much Petra has grown as a person.<\/p>\n

Disharmony at Home<\/b><\/p>\n

Oh, all of this hurt. ALL OF IT. At this point, it just feels like hurt people hurting one another? I know I described this situation as a nightmare in the last episode\u00e2\u20ac\u201dwhich was the whole motif of \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Chapter Eighty-Five\u00e2\u20ac\u009d\u00e2\u20ac\u201dbut I had no idea just how much worse<\/i> it would get. We discussed this in the past in regards to Mateo, but this episode serves as a a reminder that children often taken their emotional cues from their parents. What makes this so damn difficult is that there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s no easy solution in sight. Like, obviously, if Jane could just not<\/i> have feelings for Jason, that would be great, but that isn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t how any of this works. Jane can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t ignore the complicated things she feels for her previous husband, and Rafael can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t just wait around for Jane to figure herself out because he already went through that!<\/p>\n

Thus, Mateo started taking cues from his father. Rafael couldn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t hide that he was upset at Jane, and so Mateo lashed out at his mother. God, it was so hard to watch!!! That kid was so clearly confused and sad and frightened. He resented his mom because he believed that she was the cause of everything, and it definitely didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t help that Rafael undermined Jane when Mateo misbehaved. There was an important learning experience in all this, though, for everyone! About co-parenting during emotionally volatile times, sure. But I actually was struck most by how dedicated Mateo was to his anger until<\/i> he saw his mother crying. In that moment, I believe he realized that Jane was hurting, too, that this situation wasn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t something where she was deliberately trying to harm anyone, you know? Mateo was able to sympathize with her. Perhaps even empathize! And that felt like a huge moment in his relationship with his mom.<\/p>\n

Of course, this moment of relief was immediately followed by a dark, dark suggestion about Rafael\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s future. I continue to feel so awful about him because he literally didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t do anything wrong with Jason. In fact, he did the opposite! He brought Jason into Jane\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s life, knowing full well it was possible that this might be the outcome. Yet Rafael\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s life is falling apart before his eyes and<\/i> very quickly. The way this episode frames that dinner with the events in the present time? Four weeks ago, Rafael was planning how he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d propose to Jane, and now\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 lord. The two are broken up, Rafael is using prescription drugs to numb himself, and everything is a huge fucking mess. How much worse can this get for these people? DON\u00e2\u20ac\u2122T ANSWER THAT. Oh god. I still feel like Jane and Rafael should be together, and it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Petra\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s advice that sticks with me most: Jason is Jane\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s past. Rafael is her future. I know that she\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not ready to hear that, and I also agree with Rafael that Jane is gonna have to feel all this shit out. But oh my god, this stressed me out so much, and I already know future episodes will also stress me out. THIS SHOW, Y\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ALL.<\/p>\n

Baby<\/b><\/p>\n

I was surprised by two different things within Rogelio\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s plot. First of all: I was so glad that Rogelio was immediately and forcefully called out for what he did to Esteban in this episode. Because seriously, I know Rogelio is egotistical and self-centered, but getting his agent to get Esteban a job in another country???<\/i> So that Rogelio could be the one to \u00e2\u20ac\u0153bond\u00e2\u20ac\u009d with Baby? SHE IS A LITERAL BABY. She is not someone who exists to boost your ego, dude! So yeah, good on Jane for very<\/i> loudly telling her father what an absolutely awful move this was. YOU. SENT. HIM. TO. ANOTHER. COUNTRY. Also, the reason that Baby bonded with Esteban was for two INCREDIBLY important reasons!!! They had to protect Xiomara\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s immune system while she was getting chemo, and Esteban was having a rough time after the failure of his telenovela, so he was with Baby full-time.\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

As ridiculous as Esteban often is, I did appreciate that this episode pulled the curtain back as a means of showing the audience (however briefly) why Esteban turned out the way he did. I can see the logic he used in his break-up with Darci, too: His childhood was toxic and chaotic, and thus, taking the job in Mexico, while heartbreaking, would guarantee that Baby wouldn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t have the same type of upbringing he did. It is a much more complicated solution than having Esteban and Rogelio just be\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 better? Like seriously, BOTH OF YOU NEED TO BE BETTER. But I get it. In its own warped way, this was Esteban doing what he thought was best for Baby; it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s just that it also<\/i> hurt Darci a great deal.\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Jane\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Writing<\/b><\/p>\n

So, one last thing I wanted to discuss. I always get excited seeing Marlene Donaldson. She\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s grown on me so much throughout the show, and here, she recommended something to Jane that a writer friend of mine recommended to me last year when I was dealing with the immense trauma of grief. This writer told me to sit down each night and just write brief descriptions of what I went through that day. It was, as Donaldson put it, a dispassionate way to keep track of things. It was a means of using the mental muscle for writing in some form of another. The actual thing I appreciate most about that recommendation? It helped me remember. Sometimes, when we go through prolonged traumatic events, our minds forget things. They smooth over details. And if it hadn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t been for that odd, stilted, and mechanical journal of sorts that I keep during the month of December last year, I know I would have forgotten some of the things that happened forever. I say that with certainty because sometimes, I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d scroll up on the document to something that occurred a week earlier, and I could not actually remember it unless I sat there and deliberately thought about it.<\/p>\n

I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t know what this writing is going to do for Jane, and I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m also glad that Professor Donaldson didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t pressure her to feel like she had<\/i> to write every day. But I think that act is going to help Jane in the long run. And is she going to write another book about her experiences? I wouldn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t be surprised if that was the case.<\/p>\n

The video for \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Chapter Eighty-Six\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>
\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":"