{"id":7573,"date":"2020-05-25T13:00:07","date_gmt":"2020-05-25T20:00:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/?p=7573"},"modified":"2020-05-20T08:43:49","modified_gmt":"2020-05-20T15:43:49","slug":"mark-watches-jane-the-virgin-s01e11-chapter-eleven","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/2020\/05\/mark-watches-jane-the-virgin-s01e11-chapter-eleven\/","title":{"rendered":"Mark Watches ‘Jane the Virgin’: S01E11 – Chapter Eleven"},"content":{"rendered":"

In the eleventh episode of the first season of Jane the Virgin<\/i>, Jane is torn between three choices. Intrigued? Then it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s time for Mark to watch Jane the Virgin<\/i>.\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Trigger Warning: For brief discussion of domestic abuse<\/b><\/p>\n

Once again, this show is a lot, and I am perpetually not ready for it.\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Lachlan<\/b><\/p>\n

Oh, I knew not to trust him. Ugh, this is\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 so, so gross? Look, it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not like I ever enjoyed Lachlan, and he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s absolutely written as an unlikable character. But after this, I really don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t see him ever coming back from what he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s done. I still feel like this subplot involving Petra and Magda is odd, mostly in that the show\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s tone seems to jump all over the place when it comes to Petra. Here, it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s much easier to see her as a sympathetic figure who is trying to hide from her horribly abusive ex. We don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t see anything else but<\/i>this part of her, yet this is also precisely what Lachlan takes advantage of. Again: ridiculously deplorable! He\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s keeping Petra close to him by making her more<\/i> afraid that Milos has found her. Which makes me worried for the eventual day when he does<\/i> show up, because that is still a very real possibility now that Ivan has escaped.\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Ugh, LACHLAN IS SO GROSS.<\/p>\n

Michael\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Decisions \/ The Case<\/b><\/p>\n

I KNEW THIS WOULD ALL COME BACK TO BITE MICHAEL IN THE ASS. The show does a fine job of showing us why<\/i> he is behaving as he is: He\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s still waiting. His heart is still yearning and craving and desiring Jane, despite that Jane has, in every respect, moved on. This is something I wouldn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t have understood years ago, but I do now. And trust, if you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve not been through something similar to this, it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s awful. It feels all-encompassing. Even though Michael has been trying to focus on other things\u00e2\u20ac\u201dhis Sin Rostro case, Nadine\u00e2\u20ac\u201done thing haunts over all of it.\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

It is absolutely why he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s making such horrible<\/i> decisions. He is<\/i> doing this because of Jane, even if it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s in a roundabout way. He\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s trying to prove himself, isn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t he? On top of that, if Rafael really is Sin Rostro (or has been involved in this enterprise), then he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s vindicated. All the negative feelings he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s had against Rafael are given credence, and I imagine that he sees Jane coming back to him after this is all over.\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m not saying that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s an impossible outcome because\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 look, I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve only seen eleven episodes of this show. Jane the Virgin<\/i> is already a lot, and if there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a path to Michael and Jane getting back together, this show can figure it out. But right now, I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t think Jane would rush to Michael even if he was<\/i> right. And he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not! \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Chapter Eleven\u00e2\u20ac\u009d solidly confirms that Rafael has no idea what his father has been doing. (Unless, for some odd reason, Rafael was acting ignorant the whole time? Which seems like a stretch even for a show like this.) So, what\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s going to happen when the identity of Sin Rostro is revealed and it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not<\/i> Rafael? What is Michael going to do? (Wow, I really hope I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m not wrong about this.) (I feel like I am going to be wrong about EVERYTHING from here on out.)<\/p>\n

And now, Nadine has ratted him out. The house of cards is going to collapse, y\u00e2\u20ac\u2122all. IT\u00e2\u20ac\u2122S GOING TO GET EVEN MESSIER.<\/p>\n

Xiomara<\/b><\/p>\n

My heart just cannot handle this character, y\u00e2\u20ac\u2122all. I just care about Xiomara so much??? Part of what\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s so endearing to me is that she is honestly trying so<\/i> hard. In the wake of the promise she made to God as Alba lay unconscious in a hospital bed, she\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s feels compelled to remain celibate, despite that she\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s been given the green light to pursue Rogelio from Jane. So what\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s practical for Xiomara? What\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s realistic? And how does her guilt play into all of this? I know it might seem strange that I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m so into a religious plot-line, given that I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m an atheist ex-Catholic, but I truly loved how real<\/i> this struggle felt. Xiomara is an adult, and she\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not being forced to have any of these feelings. Her belief in God is genuine and it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s her own, and I am a fan of the portrayal of how<\/i> people deal with their faith.<\/p>\n

Here, Xiomara wants to make good on her pact. She trusts that God had her back, and this is how she is returning her love and admiration. At the same time, knowing that she made a promise to God doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t make this easier<\/i> for her. Her desire for love, companionship, and affection are ill-timed. She\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s never wanted them more, and she\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s actually in a space where she has someone who is caring and loving and who wants to treat her right! Plus, she\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s never had a problem with sex before, so it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s entirely understandable why she\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s so anxious about telling Rogelio the truth.\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

I wonder how much of this affected how she treated Rafael in this episode. Was she hard on Rafael because she\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s also<\/i> being so hard on herself? Just a thought. I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t think that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s the main motivation at all; she obviously wants the best for Jane, and she knew Michael still loved her. UGH, THIS IS ALL SO MUCH. You know, if I had watched this show back when I first started Mark Watches, I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t know that I would have been into the love triangle component. (Well\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 also, the show didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t exist then, LMAO.) I was so over the over-saturation of romance and specifically of love triangles at that time. That\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not the case anymore. But it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s also that this feels so real. As dramatic as Jane the Virgin<\/i> is, it still feels so deeply human.<\/p>\n

Butterflies<\/b><\/p>\n

AH, THERE WAS SO MUCH THAT I LOVED HERE, Y\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ALL. I know that the whole \u00e2\u20ac\u0153butterflies in the stomach\u00e2\u20ac\u009d thing was meant as a way of foreshadowing that Jane\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s baby was kicking. But there really is<\/i> a sense of magic that I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve felt when I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m writing and something just works<\/i>. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s happened with every project: this magical spark when certain elements come together in the way that I wanted them to. One of the most challenging parts of being a writer is getting the thing in your head down on the page. There are days when it feels like an impossible task, too, and I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t want to glamorize it too much. So I loved that little portrayal, and I am deeply<\/i> interested in this show developing this part of Jane. I want her to succeed as a writer, but I am also not sure that working in telenovelas is for her. Look, some of us are just\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 not as good at certain mediums or genres. I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t think I could ever do really hard sci-fi. Or military science fiction. I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m not familiar with those worlds, and I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t think I possess the skills to write them.<\/p>\n

So, look, I understand why Rogelio did what he did here. Again, he is used to this world, and so his language of love is related to it. Getting Jane into the writers\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 room was an act of love, even if Jane didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t quite see it that way. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s related to why Jane was irked by Rafael in this episode. She wants to work for the things she has; she\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not interested in being given<\/i> things. That means she truly wanted to know if she was cut out for the work. And yes, feedback STINGS. Trust me, I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m now years into a professional fiction career, and sometimes, this shit hurts<\/i>. You can put your all into something, and it just doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t work. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a very strange, subjective thing a lot of the time, and I wouldn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t say that this is an easy industry to crack into either.\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Which is gonna make me publicly wonder: What if Jane does<\/i> have the talent for writing, but she\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s writing the wrong thing<\/i>? Episodic or serialized televised is a whole nightmare to write on its own; I personally don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t know if I would be cut out for something like that! I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve come to love the long, drawn-out process of writing short and long fiction, where I get multiple developmental passes before we even get to line edits. Granted, I came from the journalism world prior to this, where deadlines were often cutthroat, and you certainly did not get multiple rounds of high-level edits. What if it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not the medium, but the genre? It sounds like Jane\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s writing is best-suited for like\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 romantic comedies. Up-market women\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s fiction. Contemporary drama. Like, maybe she needs a collection of short stories or a novel, rather than trying to fit her skill into the framework of a telenovela.<\/p>\n

I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t know. I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m glad that Rogelio was honest with her, but also made sure to do so in a way that didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t crush her desire to create. That\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a hard line not to cross for some people, and even as an editor myself, I try to toe that line, too. You need<\/i> to be honest about why something isn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t working, but you also don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t want to give a criticism that makes a person never want to write again, you know?<\/p>\n

So, for the time being, it seems Jane is going to\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 continue to do everything? I wasn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t sure which of the three (3!!!) jobs she had ended up on, but it seems like she accepted the permanent teaching position, but also is still going to intern? And what about her job at the hotel? I mean, if the school is going to offer insurance\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6<\/p>\n

OKAY, ANYWAY. Jane, I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m getting tired just thinking about everything you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re doing, and you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re pregnant on top of all that! I get why this is difficult for her, but surely she can quit one<\/i> of these positions, right?<\/p>\n

The video for \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Chapter Eleven\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":"