In many Latin households, Spanish telenovelas are common on our television screens. I don’t fully understand Spanish, but whenever I’m at my grandmother’s house I get sucked into the crazy lives of the characters. Telenovelas are so bad at times that you can’t help but watch. Jane the Virgin is a refreshing take and based on the Venezuelan telenovela (Juana la Virgen) of the same concept. The show stars Gina Rodriguez as Jane Villanueva, whom some of you might remember as the lead in Filly Brown. Jane the Virgin is a narrated story about, you guessed it, a virgin whose life changes after becoming pregnant in an nontraditional way. Think of it as Mary, Jesus, and Joseph in modern times. So much drama.
The episode begins with a prologue taking us back thirteen and a half years ago, where we meet a ten year old Jane. It is here that we learn about her love for God, her family, and grilled cheese sandwiches. The scene opens with Jane holding a pretty white flower in hand and her grandmother, Alba (Ivonne Coll) standing over her, explaining how pure and perfect the flower is. Alba then tells Jane to crumple the flower. Confused, Jane does as her grandmother tells her. When she opens her hand, the flower is bruised and crushed. Alba tells Jane to try to make it look new again. Jane desperately tries and realizes it’s impossible. Alba then tells Jane, in Spanish, “You can never go back. And that’s what happens when you lose your VIRGINITY.” Jane’s young mother, Xiomara Villanueva (Andrea Navedo), watches from the bed where she if filing her nails and scoffing at what her mother is telling Jane.
You might be thinking it’s a hilarious and messed up way to teach a child about sex. But, as a Latina I can tell you that sex is never really discussed in a Latin household. You’re basically told that if you have sex you’ll get pregnant. And if you get pregnant at a young age, or before marriage, it’s the worst thing you can do to the family.
Flash forward thirteen and a half years later, where we briefly meet Jane’s boyfriend, Michael (Brett Dier). She and Michael are in a heavy make-out session on her bed. The crushed flower from years before is conveniently framed above the bed. She catches a glimpse of the flower and puts a stop to the heavy petting session. Since there is nothing else for them to do, Michael heads back to work. Jane hands him his detective badge and kisses him goodbye. She then joins her grandmother and mother on the couch to watch their favorite telenovela, The Passions of Santos. Alba has a grilled cheese sandwich already prepared for Jane, as all Latin grandmothers have a desire to constantly feed their loved ones. It’s a blessing and a curse.
In true telenovela fashion, there is a rich handsome man who owns some sort of land and/or corporation, and a money hungry wife who pretends to love her husband but is really cheating on him with someone he knows. Cue hotel owner, Rafael Solano (Justin Baldoni), and his money hungry wife Petra Solano (Yael Grobglas). Petra plays the card of loving and caring wife, but in those eyes are dollar signs.
During the pool party at the hotel, which Jane is working as a server, we are introduced to Rafael’s sister Dr. Luisa Alver (Yara Martinez). Rafael is confiding in Luisa that he wants to divorce Petra but is unsure of it. Luisa reassures him that if he does get a divorce, it won’t make him like their father. Meanwhile, Petra is secretly seated behind them where she has heard everything. Afterwards, Rafael decides he needs a drink. Someone points him out to Jane, who is dressed like a mermaid in the pool and serving champagne for everyone. Jane sees him coming her way. She remembers Rafael from an encounter a few years ago and swims away a true mermaid would.
Meanwhile, Luisa gets home to find her wife, Allison, doing the nasty with someone else. Why can’t we have a lesbian married couple where cheating isn’t involved? Anyway, the next day Luisa is at work trying to put herself together. She at least stops the crying and tries to carry on. Another doctor is out for the day and Luisa is covering those patients; an insemination in one room and Pap smear in the other. Just before she is about to go into one of the rooms, she gets a phone call from Allison who crying and begging Luisa for forgiveness. Luisa hangs up and goes into the room where Jane is asleep, exhausted from only sleeping for three after working the party, and all prepped for her pap smear. Luisa asks Jane if she’s ready for her insemination and shuts the door, which wakes Jane. Jane hears nothing about insemination and assumes it’s a routine Pap smear she is being given. Luisa inseminates Jane, tells her she’ll get her results in a couple weeks and walks over to the next room where she finds Petra. Surprised to see her there, Petra tells Luisa she had the last vile of Rafael’s sperm unfrozen so she can surprise him with a pregnancy. Luisa looks at Petra with a blank stare and realizes that she has royally screwed up this time. And just as the narrator states, “Jane’s life was now the stuff of telenovelas.”
Not sure what to do, Luisa calls her ex-friend (and ex-lover). Luisa tells her what she did and asks for legal advice. The hot ex-lover asks if Luisa’s been drinking, which she hasn’t, and then tells her to not say anything or she could lose her license especially since she’s already on probation. Probation? For what? I want to know!
Fifteen days later Jane and her mother, Xiomara, are on the bus together. Jane is drinking water and not looking so well. Her mother asks if she’s okay and Jane says she feels a little nauseous. Two nuns get on the bus, and being the good Christian girl that she is, Jane makes her mother get up to make room for the nuns to sit. As soon as she does so, she faints. Nausea and fainting spells? What could be wrong with Jane? “You’re pregnant,” says the emergency room nurse. Jane and Xiomara burst into laughter and Jane reassures them she is not pregnant because she is a virgin. Xiomara, in true Latina fashion, tells the nurse he’s wrong and needs to do another test. This time he does the urine test right in front of them. “Pink means pregnant,” he says and pulls the pregnancy stick which clearly shows a bright pink stick. Xiomara gets on her knees and begins praying to Jane, as she now believes Jane to be the Immaculata. Jane immediately calls her doctor’s office to speak with Luisa.
Cut to Luisa seated before Rafael and Petra explaining that she inseminated another woman with Rafael’s sperm. She then has to go and explain this to Jane and Xiomara. In shock, Rogelio, the male telenovela star from Jane’s favorite telenovela, appears to Jane and tells her to relax and breath in and out. She does as he says. He then explains to her, “When I found out that the deepest and truest love of my life was really my half-sister born as a result of my father’s secret double life, I was devastated. But I got through that, Jane. And you will get through this.” With the information being too much, Jane runs out of the doctor’s office and over to Michael’s house. Before she can even take off her jacket, Michael is on bended knee with an engagement ring in hand. Jane expresses that an engagement is not yet in their timeline. Michael’s reason for wanting to get married now, after two years of being together, is sooner rather than later? “I’m proposing because I want to spend my life with you. And raise children with you. And have sex with you.” She stops him mid-proposal exclaiming she’s pregnant. Simultaneously, Michael’s smile fades and the closing of the engagement ring box can be heard.
The doorbell rings. Michael has invited both their families over for an engagement party, since he was sure Jane would say yes. He asks Jane to pretend that she answered yes, for the sake of their family. It’s here that we meet Michael’s uninvited brother, who threatens to reveal who Michael really is, since everyone believes him to be “such a good guy.”
A distraught Rafael sits by the pool, drinking with Roman Zazo (Alano Miller), the hotel manager. Rafael nonchalantly states that Luisa is dead to him for what she did. He tells Roman he wants the baby. We, also, learn that Rafael has cancer, which is the reason he froze his sperm to begin with.
Later that night, Xiomara tells Jane that she knows how she feels, especially after having Jane when she was sixteen years old. Jane tells her she doesn’t want to talk. Xiomara leaves a prescription on Jane’s dresser to take if she chooses to not have the baby. As Xiomara is about to leave, Jane asks her, “Would you have had me? If grandma hadn’t made you?” Xiomara’s heartfelt response, “I’m glad I had you.”
Luisa calls Rafael to tell him that the mother of his baby-to-be is one of his employees at the hotel. Immediately he asks to meet with her. At their meeting, unable to hold it in any longer, Jane recalls the story of how she and Rafael know each other. Years ago, Jane worked at Golden Harbor yacht club. Rafael went to the yacht club, after tennis, when the restaurant was closed. They locked eyes between the glass of the entrance door and Jane let Rafael in anyway. Cooking the only thing she seems to know how to cook, Jane makes him a “killer grilled cheese sandwich.” And then, after a bit of talking, they share a passionate kiss. You know, because that’s how everyone has a first encounter.
Jane ruins the reconnection by letting Rafael know that she isn’t going through with the pregnancy. She doesn’t want to end up like her mother. Rafael understands and says nothing more. He calls Petra, where she is in bed with Roman, to tell her that Jane isn’t going to keep the baby. Petra is upset by this and asks why Rafael didn’t drop the cancer card. Roman, mimes to Petra to remember that in her prenup she is getting ten million big ones if she goes through five years of marriage with Rafael. She then changes her tone of voice into the loving wife she plays so well.
Back at home, Jane walks into her room where she find her grandmother sitting on her bed holding the prescription Xiomara left for her. Alba is heartbroken to find out that her pure granddaughter has betrayed her. Jane, not sure how to say the words in Spanish, explains to Alba that “the doctor accidently put a sample of a man into me.” Alba, somewhat relieved, explains to Jane that when Xiomara came home pregnant at sixteen, she told her to have an abortion. Xiomara said no. Jane is surprised by this because she was told that Alba made Xiomara keep the baby. Alba tells Jane that she is glad Xiomara didn’t listen to her because “you have become the best part of my life. And this will be the best part of your life too.” Conviently, Michael visits Jane, shortly after, telling her to not have the baby so that they can start a life together.
Meanwhile, Petra calls Luisa telling her that she’ll convince Rafael not to report her to the medical board is she does a favor for her. She is a sneaky little devil, that one. So, Luisa calls Jane explaining that Rafael has cancer, and this is his last chance at having a child. Cut to Michael and a few other detectives spying on Roman in his room at the hotel. Something fishy is going on there, but that’s all that we know.
After a successful pop song performance at a night club, Xiomara is told there is someone there to see her. She turns around to see that it is Jane’s father, who is also the telenovela star of The Passions of Santos. He asks her, “How can you keep my daughter a secret after all these years?”
We are then taken to Michael’s police station where Jane shows up in a bright yellow dress and white flower in her hair. In front of everyone, she reveals to him that she is keeping the baby so that she can give it to Rafael and Petra. Nervous, she tells Michael that she loves him because he is her best friend. She wants to grow old with him. And, that she’s confused about everything in her life except for him. They embrace in a long, passionate kiss.
This ending leaves so many unanswered questions:
– Does this mean they are officially engaged?
– Why was Michael spying on the hotel?
– Will Jane’s father now be a part of her life?
– Will Xiomara and Jane’s father ever get back together?
– Will Xiomara ever become a pop star?
– Will Jane want to eventually keep the baby?
– Will we get to see Jane at school?
– Will Luisa lose her license to practice medicine?
– Will we ever get to see Allison, Luisa’s cheating wife?
– Will Jane finally have sex?
These and so many more questions are left to be explored. Like every other telenovela I’ve seen, Jane the Virgin has me hooked. And, I’m already looking forward to the next episode.
